Re: [scots-l] Tempi and other not so dumb questions

[Kate Dunlay or David Greenberg]

>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.
-- 
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Re: [scots-l] Tempi and other not so dumb questions

[SUZANNE MACDONALD]

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?

Re the issue of "traditional characteristics"  or "the Scottish Idiom"
as Hunter describes it ; the following may be of  interest to you and
others. The quote from Hunter in your e-mail "Snap bowing is one of the
most fundamental strokes in strathspey playing", continues  "and mastery
of it is essential if the player is to capture the rhythmic drive
inherent in the music". In my experience not a single Cape Breton
fiddler plays or ever did play strathspeys this way. In fact I believe
that it is virtually impossible to play strathspeys this way at "step
dance" tempo, [176 to 184] but you'd be in for a royal fight if you
concluded that CB fiddlers don't play them with rhythmic drive. It is
also interesting to note that Hunter's description of "the Scots snap"
on the same page and the "up-driven bow" on the following page describe
precisely how CB fiddlers execute this bowing.

Alexander

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