The New England tradition of music for dancing seems to be a fertile place for piano playing musicians of great skill who are interested both in preservation and passing on of traditional music as well as arranging that material in innovative ways. Bob McQuillan is a one man legend in contra dance music; playing traditional music and composing a dance weekend's worth of splendid tunes.

Two incredible piano players in one band: Peter Barnes & Jacqueline Schwab in Bare Necessities, also from New England. Jackie's playing on Ken Burn's historical series, in particular "The Civil War" is remarkable. Peter is the "Barnes" of a couple volumes of English Country Dance music tunes VERY widely used. He's also done several other books of music for (traditional) dancing and his book, Interview with a Vamper he describes as: a Contra Piano Teaching Book: This book teaches piano accompaniment for Contra dancing. Peter starts with "For the Total Beginner" and progresses through "the works." Some of the items covered are: Bass Runs and Rhythmic Effects, Chording Phrasing, Left Handed Maneuvers, Chord Substitutions. Peter states, "And don't ever hesitate, if you see me at a dance, to come up and ask me about anything that I'm doing or that you yourself are working on."

All three of these are musicians who value tradition, promte it but aren't chained to a SPECIFIC way of making that music live and be a continuing tradition. Our local band is blessed with a young man who grew up going to dances played by Bob McQuillan, and derives much of his style from that in his accordion and piano playing. Part of his education at Oberlin was in music composition. His heart is in the traditional music. Listening to him talk about why this or that chord comes from his education - he knows the historical WHY for the styles of music -and that only enriches what he's absorbed through aural trad.

Joanne in Cleveland (who has had the pleasure of dancing to the playing of the first three and playing with the last)