Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?

Subject: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 08:36 PM

Hey, there, you all have inspired me to pick up my violin, again, only not to play classical so much as to elarn a few good Irish and Scottish tunes. I learned a few good songs from my dad and can play them by ear, but I really would like to learn more.

I would appreciate it if any of you would recommend a good music book I can start with. I prefer the slow, love-type songs, but wouldn't mind a mix.

What made me think of this is our local NPR is playing, right now as we read, a cd entitled "Celtic Lovers" by Maire (accent over the "a") Breatnach. It's a beautiful bunch of music with a good mix of fast and slow lyrical.

Thanks,

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 08:57 PM

My first thought is that there is so much Celtic music on the Web (for free) that this is the first place I would recommend.

Tunes at Ceolas is an excellent site with more tunes than you could poke a bow at. There are lots that you can simply print out as GIF's, others in Acrobat format that you can print if you have Acrobat Viewer software (downloadable for free) and thousands of tunes in MIDI or ABC formats that can be played on free software, or printed using inexpensive Shareware. Sorry but I don't have the URL, but it is very easy to find.

Regards
John

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: A Celtic Harper
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 09:08 PM

Try "The Fiddler's FakeBook" by David Broady about $25.oo or so. Tunes are in alphabetical order, and ID'd by type, i.e. Air, Breakdown, Jig, Hornpipe, etc., as well as genre - England, Scotland, Ireland, etc. Intro includes comments on styles, bowing and ornamentation. Enjoy!

Music Sales Corporation 257 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10010 USA

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 09:53 PM

There are lots of beautiful tunes (Irish, Scottish and many other types) in The Waltz Book and The Waltz Book II for $15 per book from:
Bill Matthiesen (collector and editor)
33 Stormview Road
Lanesboro, MA 01237
[phone]

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: j0_77
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 07:16 PM

Irish Trad O Niells 1001 Traditional Irish Dance Tunes Scottish Kerr's Merrie Melodies English EFDS All these sorces are acessible at Elderly Instruments of Lancing MI

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: bet
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 07:34 PM

Hey sis, I have two new boks that I bought this fall with Celtc music. If you'd come visit I'd share. They are Cletic Circles --Bonnie Rideout and Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player --Peter Cooper. I bought them sight unseen but they seem to be prety good. I also bought the CD's to go with them so I have company when I play. The cat runs and the dog howls but not in Irish. bet

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 07:38 PM

Oh, no! I'm in for it now! everything I write here now will have to be true or my sis will tell on me!

Thanks to everyone, including you, "Bet". I will take you up on that sharing offer, plus, hopefully bring along some great scores off the net, too! kat

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 08:30 PM

Jan Tappan at www.fiddlerscrossing.com specializes in 18th and early 19 century Scots music, most of which is fiddle music. House of Musical Traditions also has a reasonably good selection of fiddle music of this period, and the man in charge of their book department is a fiddler, specializing in Irish music.

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 08:33 PM

Kat:

If "Bet" is in Connecticut and you don't give us a call when you come visiting, I'm gonna be peeved.

I got the book on the seer, just starting to read it. Did you get the one by Murray on the God of the Witches?

Sandy

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 08:54 PM

Opinion is still divided with no middle ground: Magaret Murray's works on witchcraft are (1) good or (2) wild speculation.
The website of the Folklore Society (London) isn't working well today. About two weeks ago I saw there the title of an article which I think was in an issue of 'Folklore', c 1995, entitled:
Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?". I'd like to see that someday.

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 09:14 PM

Sandy,

Sandy, rest easy...Bet is in the land of her birth and our ancestors, Colorado! However, if I can get out there for the twin grandsons' first birthday, you can bet I will be knocking on your door!

Don't know if I'll be able to swing it or not, but I'd love to visit at the same time everybody will be at the Mystic Seaport Museum, as the "boyz" just live across from there in Groton and my son-in-law just started a job in Mystic.

No, I haven't gotten the book, yet. It's still been a little hectic, and, except for the 'Cat, I've been a little reclusive for the past month or so. I shall get it, soon, though. I will also be looking for that article, Bruce.

Thanks, again, everyone. I look forward to exploring all of these sites and books.

kat

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 11:14 PM

Bruce:

Whenever I suggest that someone read Murray's God of the Witches, I add that they should also read Razor for a Goat to balance it out. I enjoyed both, but kind of prefer the fun of the unproven conjectures of the former. Me? I'm just an old sun worshipper cheering on the Green Man every spring.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 11:29 PM

I forgot to note the reference for a pithy criticism of Margaret Murray's work that I saw recently, so the following probably isn't exact, but it's pretty close: "Margaret Murray showed that people believed in witchs, but failed to show there were any."

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: j0_77
Date: 08 Mar 99 - 11:56 PM

Will some one please xplain what written music has to do with witches???

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 01:56 AM

Well, Jo77, they did say the fiddle was the devil's instrument, didn't they? I jest, of course, and perhaps I should apologize for going off on an unrelated tangent. My initial communication to Kat probably should have been in a personal message. It had to do with an earlier exchange we had. These threads often seem to get a bit sidetracked, and, for me, that's part of the fun of Mudcatting. I'm sorry.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 01:58 AM

We're working our way up to it, just be patient. On www.bookfinder.com you can find for sale used copies of Charles Kilpatrick Sharpe's 'History of Witchcraft in Scotland', and I got the reprint of his 'A Ballad Book' there, which was the first to give us a full version of "Mary Hamilton" and some other Child ballads, and some other odds and ends like "The Sea Crab", and the "Dickie Macphalion" version of "Shule Aroon" He also noted some some ballad tunes that have been reprinted from his manuscripts at Harvard and NLS, a few being given by Child in vol. V. He just collected tunes. The Charles Sharpe of Hoddam that composed tunes, found in Niel Gow's 'Strathspey Reels', was his father. A sister was also a composer of Scots fiddle tunes. All 6 books of Gow's 'Strathspey Reels' and the 4 books of his 'Complete Repository' are available as reprints.

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: j0_77
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 12:51 PM

Sandy thanx :) I thought - witches were hebalists and such like folk who were misunderstood in their time ? Also noticed in history books how cruel Kings/etc would be to anything that challenged their authority - much like corporations now do- or am I wrong??

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 04:51 PM

jo77,

You are not wrong, esp. if those people happened to be of the female sex. (Although there were ruthless queens, too.) For good reference, see Barbara G. Walker's "Encyclopedia of Women's Myths and Secrets"; just look up "church" or "abbess" or "catholic" and you get a good idea of what the patriarchy of Christianity did to women of power, land, and wealth, but even more so if they were healers/herbalists. Today, the AMA (American Medical Assoc.) would love to have that kind of free rein over herbalists.

Another good one is "Great Women Initiates" which can be ordered from the Alexandria Bookstore in San Jose, CA, 1-800-356-2946. Author's last name is Bernard. There is interesting esoteric and historical info in there on Madame Blavatsky, Joan of Arc, and other mystical women.

Also a great novel is, "The White Witch" by Elizabeth Goudge. One of the best books I've ever read. About a woman healer during the time of ***shudder*** Cromwell.

In later times, in America, another good novel is "The Midwife", can't remember the author. It is an excellent, well-researched story about how the up and coming male medical establishment decided it would be better for their pocketbooks if they took over birthing babies before the turn of this century and how they began a terrible campaign to eradicate all midwifery, even when they (the doctors) refused to treat the extremely poor immigrant populations, which midwives never turned down.

Okay, I hereby stand down. The soapbox is someone else's!

Well, almost...submitted for ya'll's pleasure:

"The Mudcat casts its spell on me, A thread is a thread, or two or three... One never knows what one might read; Its charm is wide and well received. Alas, do I really want to be freed?"

Now, I really AM...katlaughing!

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: bet
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 08:57 PM

I laugh at one of my violin students memories. Thought you might enjoy it. The violin this young girl had was just dug out of the attic right before she had her first lesson. When she arrived I got the usual history of the instrument, belonged to some great-----. When I took the violin to tune it inside was a set of rattlesnake rattles. I had no idea what the was about but upon questioning her I found out it was to keep the devil and witches out when her grandfather played fiddle tunes. This really has nothing to do with Irish music but I guess the fiddling made me think of it.bet

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Mar 99 - 09:16 PM

If you look at history, you see that witch trials stopped about the time the fiddle started to became popular in Scotland, but the Devil appears in several 18th century tune titles (and witches in a few. See CNTYDAN2 and SCOTTUNS files on my website). "The Devil on Two Sticks" is a tune and a chapbook tale, and from the chapbook illustration we see that the two sticks are crutches.

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 99 - 12:31 AM

Shake, rattle and roll, eh, "bet"?

love ya'

kat

Subject: RE: Irish & Scottish Fiddle Music Books?
From: j0_77
Date: 10 Mar 99 - 02:14 AM

Re the rattler stuff - I asked an old timer about that and he says the rattlers improve the sound of an instrument. I guess it must be so. Noticed some in a really old 'tater bug' mandoline and it sounds yummmy.