>Re Stuart Eydmann's recent e-mail on the subject: > >I am very interested in the work you refer to which was done by Dr. >Peter Cooke..........." to explain the internal rhythmic variation in >traditional players which gives the music its particular lift, lit and >drive." Is it available?
Alexander, we have the Peter Cooke book here and you could borrow it. Stuart Eydmann wrote: >The grace note has echoes of the birl discussion of some months ago. Non >traditional players are often thrown by the presence of grace notes on the >written page and I think that is what is being referred to here. In most >circumstances in fast music a fiddle grace note is fitted in without any >real or apparent robbing of time from the melody note which follows - if it >is overdone then it just does not sound right. > >I think it was CPE Bach who wrote on the "true" way to perform gracenotes >(presumably in keyboard music) which classical musicians often drag up to >defend their case. Classical musicians see the grace note and immediately >strive to give it an emphasis and value which it does not deserve or >require. I have to disagree here because in Cape Breton fiddling there is much use of emphasized grace notes with real note value. Or, I should say that one hears this type of grace note often anyway. David and I notate them as grace notes with no slashes when we transcribe from someone's playing. I'm not sure how many Cape Breton fiddlers actually *read* grace notes this way though -- this would have to be investigated. I suspect that when reading music, Cape Breton fiddlers usually ignore most of the extra stuff and substitute their own expressions. However, I bet that if a written grace note fits the Cape Breton style and is placed in the type of situation in which these long grace notes are used, then a Cape Breton fiddler might well interprete it that way. Some Cape Breton fiddlers play even the quick type of double grace notes more slowly than others, almost in a triplet rhythm. - Kate D. -- Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
