Kate wrote: In Irish music, I have either played notes with an up or down bow, or slurred several notes on a single bow stroke, but I've never heard of a 'straight slur' where you briefly stop then continue in the same bow direction. It's supposed to sound very staccato. But it doesn't mention in the book if it is acceptable to lift the bow off the strings! I don't know if it's ever acceptable to lift the bow off the strings, so I wanted to write and see if any of you knew whether or not it's okay. It's much easier to bow the 'straight slur' this way, instead of remaining on the strings for the pause. Pardon my ignorance, but I'm completely self taught, there are no fiddle teachers in my area. < I must be getting better though--my dog doesn't leave the room when I practice anymore!!
My comment. You might be interested in the straight slur/up-driven bow comments in the introduction to the following collections: Richard Carlin's "The Gow Collection of Scottish Dance Music" J. Murdoch Henderson's "Flowers of Scottish Melody" and James Hunter's "The Fiddle Music of Scotland". Carlin's description of Niel Gow's "up-driven bow" is of particular interest. He uses a typical strathspey four note cluster consisting of a sixteenth note followed by a dottted eight, another dotted eight and then a sixteenth to illustrate his point. In his description of Gow's up-driven bow style the first note is taken with a down bow and the next three played staccato with one up bow. Both Henderson and Hunter state that to achieve this "the bow must be lifted smartly of the strings with a peculiar jerk of the wrist". In the music with which I am familiar, Cape Breton fiddle, this type of bowing was quite common in reels. In fact it was frequently used where the written music had notes of equal value. In that style the first note was played with a down bow, the bow then lifted of the string and the next three notes played with an up bow bounced for all three notes to achieve the "staccato" effect. The result, I believe, if used sparingly, is more rhythmic drive to the music. I have used the word "was" deliberately. This style is now almost extinct in Cape Breton. Alexander Mac Donald Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
