About Scottish Fiddle Music
A
brief overview
Scotland
has a long and noble musical tradition. In order of antiquity, the three
most important Scottish instruments are the harp, bagpipe, and fiddle. In
the days of Mary Queen of Scots the “rebec” was in vogue, a bowed instrument. When
the Italian violin developed, it took immediate hold in Scotland. As the
new fiddle was beckoning the Scots to dance, a newly reformed Church (now
Presbyterian) was condemning the instrument as a vehicle of licentiousness.The
gentry would not give up their dance, and rich and poor alike side-stepped
the clergy’s protestations. All over the land, from Duke’s ballroom to
shepherd’s fields, the power of the fiddler’s “up driven bow” made the
success of the gathering.
Bowed string instruments have been called fiddles in Northern Europe since at least the 12th century. The word in Old English had various spellings from fithele to fiddlel. In Gaelic it’s fidhle, and in Yiddish, fidl. As for 'violin,' it is a 16th century adaptation of the Italian word violino.
Classical music is a composer’s medium. Fiddling is a performer’s medium. Great fiddling demands spontaneous inventiveness on the part of the player, bringing alive exciting variations of tunes. Where classical music might focus on tonal purity, fiddling technique projects the beat. Since fiddle music is dance music, fiddlers set a high value on rhythmic drive.
Fiddle tunes are often referred to by the meters in which they're written, which in turn are associated with particular dances.
|
Jig |
6/8 |
|
Slip Jig |
9/8 |
|
Pipe March |
6/8 |
|
March |
2/4 |
|
Reel |
4/4 |
|
Hornpipe |
4/4, occasionally 3/2 |
|
Waltz |
3/4 |
|
Strathspey* |
4/4 |
|
Air |
freely |
*The strathspey, which is indigenous to Scotland, is named for the area in which it originated, the strath (valley) of the river Spey.
SFSF tunes-of-the-month from 1986 to the present are available from Music Librarian Jan Pelmulder; an essential reference for those who read music. There is a charge of approximately $15 to cover photocopying, plus the postage fee.
There are dozens of compilations of Scottish tunes. The following are a just a few of the better known collections.
|
Carlin, Richard |
The Gow Collection of Scottish Dance Music |
|
Fraser, Simon |
The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles |
|
Hardie, Alastair |
The Caledonian Companion |
|
MacDonald, Keith Norman |
The Skye Collection |
|
Taigh na Teud |
Ceol na Fidhle, Vols 1 -? |
A good mail order source for these and many other collections is Fiddler's Crossing. Email Jan Tappan for a catalog, or fax an order or a question to her at (626) 792-6323.
Click here for a good starting point on the web, with lots of information and references.
This site has a bibliography for Scottish Country Dance and music.
Here are some references for further reading about Scottish traditional music.
|
Alburger, Mary Anne |
Scottish Fiddlers and their Music (London, 1983) |
|
Elliot, Kenneth & Rimmer, Frederick |
A History of Scottish Music (British Broadcasting Corporation, 1973) |
|
Emmerson, George |
Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String: A History of Scottish Dance Music (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1971) |
|
Farmer, Henry George |
A History of Music in Scotland (London 1947) |
|
Johnson, David |
Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 1972) |
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