H I L L I N 0 S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007. Number 25 May 1, 1965 UNIVERSITY OF IUINOIS CLAYTON McMICHEN STARS IN SEMESTER'S FINAL CONCERT JUL 22 1965 The last concert of the current Campus Folksong Club series will feature the famed Clayton McMichen of Louisville, Kentucky. McMichen, the great hillbilly fiddler who cut hundreds of 78 rpm sides with Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers back in the 20's and 30's,will be coming out of retirement to stage his first appearance before a University audience. His only other recent performance was at last year's Newport Folk Festival. Fans of old-timey Appalachian music remember McMichen as one of the most original and infestious of the Cumberland virtuosi. He not only played fiddle, but in the Tanner organization participated in the skits with which Gid and the boys often opened their numbers. One of his finest fiddling performances is to be found on the new disc Mountain Fiddle Music (County 501) on which Clayton plays his version of "Old Molly Hare" with the Skillet Lickers. This piece, a fantastically difficult example of old-timey fiddling, will probably stand as one of the benchmarks of McMichen's career. Although the County recording is a dub from one of the Skillet Lickers' old 78's, those who have heard McMichen's more recent performances say that he has lost none of the flashing style and grace which distinguished his art in the earlier days. Of special interest to aspiring fiddlers is his highly original use of the bow,with which he obtained effects to which most other fiddlers did not even aspire. More important than his technical accomplishments, however, are the new standards of taste and discrimination in style which McMichen set for hillbilly fiddlers. His fiddle covers a wide range of emotional effects, and in some pieces, such as "Old Molly Hare", he covers many of these effects in the span of a single 78 rpm recording. McMichen's concert will be held on May 8th at 8:00 p.m. in 112 Gregory Hall. Tickets are priced at $1.50 and are available at the Illini Union box office or may be obtained from members of the executive committee of the Campus Folksong Club. The concert is open to the public. Devotees of genuine old-timey music should not miss this unusual concert--a full two hours of classical old-time music performed by one of its masters. By the same token, our younger memhbers who have not yet decided what "real" traditional music is should come to the concert for a dose of the real thing. pleamo unuamav came I VON18 | II I ril *111111110 5 [I ii A ^IpL4i ^^ ..-b g W _^OB ^jte- 2 M0 gill,; ^ j S? » I~fffnl0 -f g^ t ,,to 13 13 01 ^m gn^3 13 13 Of %Oa sGn 0 ?* N 1% THE BAGPIPE The Greeks were perhaps more known for their philosophy and mathematics than for their bagpiping, but they played a form of bagpipe at least as early as 100 A.D. The Romans used pipes to accompany their legions on the march and in the present day almost all European countries can boast of some form of bagpipe--the Germans, French, Bulgarians, and Russians all play them and the British Isles alone have at least four distinct kinds of Bagpipes--but to English speaking people the word "bagpipe" usually signifies the Scottish Highland pipe, or piob mor. The history of these pipes is still subject to debate; Scottish nationalists claim that they came to Scotland from Rome during Caesar's visit to the British Isles and have been the national instrument ever since. Irish nationalists would have us believe that they were developed in Ireland and spread from there to the hinterlands, and furthermore, that they were introduced to Rome by the Irish before Caesar's conquests. The Romans have made no claims in the matter. What is known is that the bagpipe has replaced the harp as the main ceremonial instru- ment in both Ireland and Scotland by the 16th century and that it received its greatest development in the Scotland of the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period, the bagpipes were primarily ceremonial instruments used at clan functions and in battle. The post of clan piper was hereditary; the piper stood second in the chief's retinue, after the chief himself. In line with the important position of the instrument, the music was serious. The primary form of music was called the pibroch, the piece consisting of a theme and several variations. Elaborate theories of composition were developed and were taught as an integral part of piping in the schools of piping which flourished in this time; the resulting music deserves to be called classical in the same sense as does the music of Bach. Other, lighter music was played but was regarded as little more than finger- exercises for the playing of the more important pibrochs. This period ended with the dispersal of the clans after the rising of 1745. With this change in the social order, the prime reason for the existence of the pipes ended abruptly and the art of piping declined and was almost lost in the next generation. Fortunately, its revival started while some of the clan pipers were still living; so that much of the music was saved and is played to this day. Much of the credit for the continued interest in the pipes since the break- up of the clans has to go to that supporter of culture; the British army have had pipers unofficially since their formation. They were officially recognized about the second quarter of the 19th century; since then the army has been the prime supporter of, and the main influence on, piping. The pibroohs are solo pieces and the army with its emphasis on pipe bands favors the lighter tunes, marches of course, and dance tunes such as strathspeys, reels and jigs. The military influence on the world of piping is evident from the fact that about half the common pipe-tunes are marches, and the fact that most of the best pipers today either are or have been pipers in the British army. From this brief outline, it should be clear that the highland pipes, as we know them, have never been a folk instrument in the sense that the banjo is in America or the fiddle is almost everywhere. In the hands of the hereditary clan pipers it was a classical instrument in the same way that the violin (as opposed to the fiddle) was when Paganini played it, and in the hands of the military it was no more a folk instrument than was the bass drum or the tuba. These are the two primary sources of the present tradition of piping. Of course the pipes were played by those who were neither soldiers nor clan pipers; in their hands they might be classed as a folk instrument, but my point is that these people had a negligible influence on the playing of the present-day instrument. The style of playing a folk instrument varies greatly with the player and with the location. Nobody with an ear for folk-fiddling would mistake an old- timey fiddler for an Irish country fiddler or a Bluegrass fiddler for either. However, the style of playing the highland pipes is substantially the same wherever it is played. This style was developed basically by the clan pipers, notably the MacCrimmons of Skye who rant the most influential school of piping in Scotland from about 1600 to 1770. Actually, a good case can be made for a more ancient origin of this style, in Ireland. It is known that one of the first of the MacCrimmons, Donald M6r, learned his piping in Ireland. Unfortunately, little of the Irish pipe music, or for that matter other Gaelic culture, survived the civilizing influence of His Majesty's soldiers and His Majesty's rifles and cannon, so this remains another question for the Irish and Scottish nationalists to argue about over their Irish and Scotch (respectively) whiskies. Incidentally, bagpipes are played in Ireland now, but since the Irish tradition of piping had been completely lost, it had to be relearned, ironically enough, from the Scots. This style was developed for the playing of pibrochs, and was later adapted to the playing of military marches and other light music, but this adaptation was primarily one of simplification, and I think it is fair to say that the main techniques of playing the pipes haven't changed much since the 18th century. A bigthey reason for this is undoubtedly the standardizing influence of the military, which has trained so many pipers. had i The most evident facet of the style of piping to the casual listener is probably the free use of gracenotes. By the very construction of the pipes, it withis nearly impossible to control the dynamics of the instrument; any attempt to make the pipes louder only succeeds in making them go sharp, and an attempt to soften them causes them to go flat, or stop entirely. With so little dynamic ingrange n at his disposal, the piper has to make free use of embellishments and grace musicnotes in order to get expression into the music. In addition to single grace- notes, each note of the scale has one or more "doublings," a sequence of three or four gracenotes which can be played before it.