Re many e-mails of the subject of "Birlin", here's my take on the
subject. The birls are called "cuts" [translation from Gaelic] in Cape
Breton. They are written in the Scottish books as three repeated notes,
two sixteenth and one eight, [in my Irish books they are written as
triplets] but in Cape Breton they are not played as written but more
like two thirty-second notes followed by a dotted eight or followed by
an eight and a sixteenth rest. [Someone mentioned that a classically
trained player plays them differently than a fiddler; in my experience
what the Classical player is doing is playing the tune exactly as
written not as traditionally played.] As to execution, the arm, wrist
and fingers are involved with the largest movement in the wrist with no
tension present. Cape Breton fiddlers play the birls in the upper half
of the bow. The specific placement of the bow on the string is a
function of the bow hold. Fiddlers who grip the bow above the frog with
the index finger and thumb tend to play at the tip whereas fiddlers who
use a classical grip [all five digits, or at least four leaving out the
pinkie, at the frog] place the bow anywhere from the middle to the tip
depending on what effect they want. The desired effect is different not
only from reel to reel but from strathspey to reel. The classical grip
player has more control over bow weight and can lighten the natural bow
pressure which exists at the middle of the bow due to bow weight but
retain the more percussive sound obtainable there. On the other hand
the thumb and index finger bow grip player must place the bow where the
natural weight of the bow is suitable. Also because the birl occurs in
strathspeys as well as reels, bow placement and accompanying effect are
different for each.
Almost all Cape Breton players play birls with a down-up-down bow.
Up-down-up players are rare and players with both birls even rarer. The
latter have distinct advantages. For example the inevitable slurring of
notes which necessarily accompanies birls can be moved around or in some
cases eliminated if desired, resulting in a variety of options in the
playing of the tune. This is especially desirable in playing repeats;
alternate bowing of the same notes making the tune sound "different"
and have a pleasing effect on the ear.
Some writers describe the birl as not being distinctive notes to the
listener but as a sort of ripple resembling the grace notes on the
pipes. I hear distinctive notes and the better the player the more
distinctive they are.
I am curious about the use of the birl in Scotland. Skinner in "A Guide
to Bowing" describes the birl as "a feature of the best reels." David
Johnson describe them as "still going strong at the present day" and yet
in recordings I own they are missing, for example Ron Gonella. Also I
have hand-written music notated by the leader of one of Scotland's best
known Strathspey and Reel groups which included tunes composed by Dan
R. Mac Donald in which the birls were eliminated. Astonishingly, one
tune in particular "Trip to Windsor" had to have been copied from a
commercial recording of Winston Fitzgerald because Winston's version
differed from all published versions [parts of Winston's version are
Mixolodian], did of course include birls, but in the notated version
they were eliminated. Perhaps someone from Scotland would comment.
Alexander
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