OK, time to get serious. Thanks to everyone who has commented on this subject. I'm now reading J Murdoch Henderson (JMM) [1] on the subject (which is just a little more than my brain can handle!), and I'm trying to get it down.
All the below assumes a metronome beat equals a crotchet or quarter note unless otherwise specified. STRATHSPEYS Jeffrey Friedman says they dance Strathspeys at 60. I'm not a dancer, but musically that seems VERY slow to me [3]. JMM states the limits as between 160 and 188. That upper limit seems fast to me, but nothing compared to the 202 reached in some Cape Breton recordings [2]. Now to Jimmy Shand and his Band; listening to a few Shand Strathspeys gives measurements of 130, 133 139, 139, 141 and 142; this seems right to me as a musician, but I can't speak for a dancer. Alastair Hardie's count of 126-138 seems to concur. REELS (half-note measurements in brackets) The mistake I made when I raised this was not stating/realising that the reels in question would be notated in 2/4, so if we assume all reels to be in 4/4, Hardie's figures become 216-232 (108-116), and JMM's recommendation is 240-252 (120-126). Now you can see why they use minims or half-notes - my metronome doesn't go higher than 250. Playing "The Barrowburn Reel" at 240 (120) seems fine - I think I might take it a touch slower, but I tend to favour playing slower rather than faster. Shand plays reels around 250, while Cape Breton reels are between 192-250 (96-125) [2], which concurs with the other figures.. Anyway, the upshot is that it's all clear to me now. I can put together a table of lower and upper limits which will relate to dance speeds. Thanks again to everyone for helping. [1] Flowers of Scottish Melody, 1935 [2] ...as notated in 'Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton' Kate Dunlay and David Greenberg [3] Jeffrey - are you sure it's not half-note measurements you mean? -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
