1999 Scottish Fiddle Rally

Every meeting, every month, is a big event, with workshops and pot lucks and ceilidhs, but the highlight event of the year is our spring Scottish Fiddle Rally concert. Since 1985 this concert has brought together Scottish and Cape Breton soloists, along with members of the Fiddle Club. Many of the top fiddlers from Scotland and Cape Breton have joined us at one time or another, and four tapes and one CD have highlighted these great players from the first 10 years of this concert series. Listening to those recordings is an education about some great fiddling styles, and a sampling of the contagious spirit of Scottish music.

Since 1992 the Rally has been held at the grand Somerville Theater. All Fiddle Club players who wish to attend the extra rehearsals are welcome to play; rehearsals will start in March. We use music from the current year, so every member who wants to can be involved. We always surround the concert with events: ceilidhs, parties and workshops. It's a weekend not to miss!

For soloists this year, we bring back from Scotland the Highland fiddler Iain MacFarlane, and from Cape Breton the great fiddler Jerry Holland. The Rally this year is Saturday, May 8, at the Somerville Theater. Mark your calendar! We'll have more information available in upcoming mailings.

- Ed Pearlman

Tips on Fiddle Club Jam Sessions

How do you get into a session? What if you don't know very many tunes? What if you're not used to playing without sheet music? How good do you have to be?

Everyone can join in at our sessions. Expect it to be a chance to listen to some good music as well as play it. You can use sheet music, especially to start a few tunes you'd like to play and don't yet know by heart. Sometimes you can find the page for a tune in time to join in, but it would be a shame to be flipping pages while all sorts of music is passing by - so try finding some of the notes you are hearing. The trick is persistence: After you come to the sessions several times, you begin to find that, because many of the same tunes are played each time, you start to know them in your head and in your fingers as well. Bring a tape recorder or dictation machine and tape the tunes that catch your fancy. By listening to them at home, you'll speed up the process.

Sometimes people expect or ask for certain structures at sessions, such as requiring three times through each tune or having tune titles or page numbers announced before playing them, but we have good reasons for not doing this, other than during the afternoon workshop part of our regular meetings. There is a Celtic tradition of playing a tune twice and then moving on to a new one, and we do this at performances, but in sessions we often play tunes more than twice. Yet how would it feel to require a certain number of times on every tune? How would it feel to stop the music before playing each tune to announce a tune title or page number? You should feel free to ask around for this information, but the spirit of the session depends on its momentum and its give-and-take. It can be good fun to find a tune, remember its title or, best of all, discover that your fingers know more of it than you suspected!

If there is any basic guideline you can keep in mind, it is that the person who starts a tune generally has the floor and should be respected for choice of tempo, number of times through and any new tune to follow, within reason (as determined by the patience of the others playing!). Beginners are invited to start tunes at their own pace and can expect to be accommodated for at least a couple of times through a tune at their chosen tempo; they should also expect to sit back and enjoy listening, or join in where they can, on tunes played faster by more experienced players. With practice, players can learn the cues that indicate whether someone wants to play a tune again, or wants to start a new one, or is out of ideas and looking for someone else to pitch in with a tune.

Making rules about tempo and numbers of times through tunes sometimes encourages people to tunnel their own way through a tune predictably and then wait for the next tune, without much regard for other players. Though it's a little more demanding, yielding the floor to whoever starts and tune (and, by the way, not to someone who merely calls out a tune title) requires sensitivity and courtesy to what others want to play, how fast, how many times and even what form they play (e.g., ABAB, AABB). In this way, the session builds participation and a sense of give-and-take. We can play nonstop for hours with no lack of energy and yet manage for the most part to be open to all levels of players without being pedantic or competitive. Sessions vary, of course, with the mix of personalities and instruments, but most Fiddle Club sessions work out pretty well this way. Players new to these sessions might need a few times to get used to them, since there's no one directing who plays what when, but the workings of these sessions become clear in time and can be very rewarding.

So get in there and play, keep your eyes and ears tuned in, don't hesitate to start a tune you know the way you like to play it, and enjoy listening to the great tunes you don't know yet. Be prepared to have a blast!

- Ed Pearlman

October 11: Our 18th Year Begins

Even though Fiddle Club started out this year on the fourth rainy day in a row - and on a holiday weekend at that - we had a really great turnout for the beginning of our 18th year. We were a big, enthusiastic crowd, with lots of new faces.

Members were given a 23-page packet of music for the year. A big "Thanks!" to Laura Scott, who tackled the enormous task of copying out all 42 tunes - and choosing many of them, too. Quite a few of this year's tunes were written out from recordings (for example, "as played by Dougie MacDonald on Cape Breton Times"). Why not try to play like the pros!

No, you're not expected to learn all 42 tunes right away. In fact, in the afternoon workshop, Ed Pearlman issued a "proviso" about written music: Many tunes don't sound the way the sheet music makes them look like they will sound, because sheet music is really "just a code," the "skeleton" of the music. He played a recording of the air/waltz "Kilphedir" to illustrate his point, and it did sound quite different than you might guess from reading the sheet music.

Besides "Kilphedir," we learned "Piper Campbell's Jig"; an air called "Sad is My Fate"; two strathspeys, "Allowa Kirk" and "The Auld Wife Around the Fire"; and "The Dismissal Reel." We heard Natalie MacMaster's recording of the reel, from her soon-to-be-released album, My Roots Are Showing. Ed taught us "The Auld Wife Around the Fire" by ear.

Ed then pointed out that the Fiddle Club is always in need of volunteers, especially people willing to take on tasks such as lighting (so we can see each other and the music when it gets dark, which is earlier and earlier these days). If you want to help out in some way, please talk to one of the board members.

The group of musicians who gathered after supper for the session apparently inspired three of our younger members - Hannah Grocki, Lilly Pearlman and Sophie Barney - to dance. They had the stage to themselves until someone started "Jack Daniels Reel." That immediately brought stepdancers Laura Scott, Danny Pitts, Debbie Billmers and Lois Grocki out of the woodwork and onto the stage. Apparently Laura thought the tune was too slow, so she coaxed the pianist (Ed) to speed things up a bit, which I think he - and we - did to her satisfaction.

In all, we had a lively, fun meeting from the afternoon through the end of the evening.

- Phyllis Lindsay

November 8th Fiddle Club Meeting

At the afternoon workshop in November, we first ran through all six tunes from October's workshop. After we played "Kilphedir," Ed Pearlman pointed out what many of us were probably thinking - that it sounds oddly like a cowboy song. Ed said some cowboy songs are in fact descended from Scottish melodies. I guess that's one of those situations where the truth is stranger than fiction!

Ed seemed eager to get on to the next order of business, however, which was to teach us a tune by ear. "Don't turn the page," he cautioned, so of course not one of us did. (Well, maybe some of us peeked.) "Pipe Major John Stewart" is a pipe tune with four parts; Ed taught us the first part.

Then he explained some of the logistics of a typical pipe tune: The third and fourth parts are usually variations of the first and second parts, respectively; and the first and third parts usually repeat verbatim while the second and fourth parts often have second endings that are fully written out. Knowing these things, he explained, can help you learn a tune because you notice that the tune isn't just a jumble of notes but rather patterns that echo and repeat. Which I guess is why he asked us not to turn the page.

Ed also talked about the rhythm of pipe tunes: "The only thing that brings a pipe tune alive is the absolutely precise rhythm of it."

The other tunes we learned at the workshop were a march called "The Heights of Cassino" (another four-part tune) and a strathspey and reel set: "Cuttie's Wedding" and "Mo Chuachag Laghach thu" (in more familiar terms, "My Gentle Maiden"). We heard recordings for all four tunes.

After dinner we had a very lively session, with lots of music and dancing. Laura Scott and Rick Nelson got the playing started right after dinner, at about 7 p.m. Within just a few minutes, a large crowd had joined them in a big circle. At one point, after a particularly long string of reels, Ed joked that we should try to play 12 strathspeys in a row - and we did! While we played, Nathan Silva gave Eli Grocki and Neil Pearlman some tips on playing the dombek.

Later, Laura traded her fiddle for her dancing shoes and led a dozen or so dancers in several dances, including the Canadian Barn Dance, the Boston Two-Step, the Reel of the Blackcocks and the Gay Gordons. I got tired just watching them and finally had to go home.

- Phyllis Lindsay

A Week at Pinewoods

Dancing, fiddling, swimming, smiling, laughing. Every summer boasts a wonderful week and/or weekend of Scottish festivities in nearby Plymouth, Mass. The Pinewoods dance camp is a cozy, family-like setting where Scottish dance and music enthusiasts gather for an annual shared vacation and where the worries of school or work evade us. I have been going to Pinewoods for their Folk Arts Center international dancing since I was a young'un, but this past summer was my first year to attend the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society week. Long and Round Ponds are just as inviting, the dance pavillions still as fresh, and the cabins just as cozy. But the food is better, as the Scots are picky.

The atmosphere of the Pinewoods dance camp is rustic, small, fresh with the smell of pine (hence the name), and absolutely beautiful. There are several dance pavillions ranging in size, few enclosed, allowing dancers to breathe the warm summer air. There are guest teachers from Scotland, Canada, and the U.S. for dancers and musicians. Morning dancers can attend daily morning country dance classes for abilities ranging from beginner to teacher-level. After lunch there are many other optional activities, such as Cape Breton Step and Highland dance classes, music workshops taught by Calum McKinnon this past summer, and more. I found the time to take advantage of almost every single class (hey, I'm young), cool off in the lakes, attend the evening balls, jam at the after-parties with Terry Traub, Hanneke Cassel, and Calum, to name a few, and even eat, sleep, and shower. And in the process I made some great friends.

- Debbie Billmers

Thou Gloomy December

Ance mair I hail thee, thou gloomy December!
Ance mair I hail thee wi' sorrow and care!
Sad was the parting thou makes me remember:
Parting wi' Nancy, O, ne'er to meet mair!

Fond lovers' parting is sweet, painful pleasure,
Hope beaming mild on the soft parting hour;
But dire the feeling, O farewell for ever!
Anguish unmingled and agony pure!

Wild as the winter now tearing the forest,
Till the last leaf o' the summer is flown-
Such is the tempest has shaken my bosom,
Till my last hope and last comfort is gone!

Still as I hail thee, thou gloomy December,
Still shall I hail thee wi' sorrow and care;
For sad was the parting thou makes me remember;
Parting wi' Nancy, O, ne'er to meet mair!

- Robert Burns