FREE Volume 2 Number 3 May/June 2002 A BI-MONTHLY NEWSPAPER ABOUT THE HAPPENINGS IN & AROUND THE GREATER LOS ANGELES FOLK COMMUNITY “Don’t you know that Folk Music is illegal in Los Angeles?” –Warren Casey of the Wicked Tinkers RIDDLE OF THE FIDDLE BY SHARON GOLDWASSER When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, top of the fiddle is built from a soft coniferous wood Appalachia. When the bow flies across the strings, and Folk dance like a wave of the sea… such as spruce or occasionally pine. The tailpiece, fin- a cloud of rosin dust rises like smoke, feet seem -William Butler Yeats, The Fiddler of Dooney gerboard and pegs may be of ebony. Rosewood or box- impelled to lift and step across the floor. wood are sometimes used in tailpieces or chinrests. So many different styles of music incorporate the love to lift my fiddle up to a group of chil- The strings of early fiddles were made of sheep gut fiddle that it’s hard to compare them. Social dances in dren and ask, "Is this is a fiddle or a violin?" (not cat gut!). Gut strings are often chosen by classical England, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Canada and It’s a trick question of course, because there violinists because of their warm tone, but fiddlers may the U.S. all make use of the fiddle. Within each of these is no difference at all between the instru- prefer steel strings for their greater volume, or perlon regional traditions there are subtle variations in style as ments. Either way, it’s a wooden box with a (synthetic) cored strings, which are less temperamental well. slender waist, featuring a In the U.S., much of the early I carved scroll-shaped head fiddling repertoire came from attached to a narrow neck. England, Scotland and Ireland. The strings stretch from the tailpiece The English settlers in the 1600’s to the peg box, where each winds might have been familiar with around a wooden peg. A carefully country dances, such as those pub- shaped bridge lifts them above the lished in the first collection by body of the instrument. Scraping Playford around1650. From colo- horsehair rubbed with a bit of rosin nial times through the early 1900’s, across the strings draws out the music. fiddlers played a variety of tunes And what do I tell the children? "It’s such as jigs, reels, schottisches, just the way you play it" that makes it clogs and hornpipes for communi- a fiddle. ty dances. Some of the earliest Conceptually, the fiddle is sim- tunes, like Haste to the Wedding or ple in structure - the notes on each of Soldier’s Joy, are still played today. its four strings can be easily fingered "Northern" and New England with the left hand while drawing the fiddle styles tend to be similar to bow with the right to produce the their origins, but are less orna- sound. Yet it is capable of a remark- mented than their modern Irish or ably complex range of expression, Scottish fiddling counterparts. perhaps because its range and tone Many New England dance tunes so closely resemble the human overlap with the Celtic repertoires voice. The violin can blend with any as well. In some ways, fiddling in style of music, from the formal art New England might be considered music of Western Europe, to the the least regimented of styles. Co- quarter-tones of Arabic and Indian NAHMAN-STOUFFER BY JUDY PHOTO evolving with the region’s contra music to the lively dance tunes of dances, it features structured tunes Scotland, Ireland and North America. The sounds can than gut. Violin strings are normally tuned to the notes that are especially good for dancing. The piano is a range from short and separate (staccato) notes to sus- GDAE, but some traditions of fiddling incorporate a favored instrument for accompanying the fiddle, espe- tained, full-length (legato) strokes, plus dozens of variety of alternate tunings. cially at contra dances. effects in between. The bow gradually evolved from its original arc In the southern regions of the U.S., a new dialect of Fiddles go back a long time. The violin’s predeces- shape to a longer stick of wood with a slightly recurved fiddling developed. Perhaps due to more encounters sors include bowed instruments such as rebecs and shape. Pernambuco or brazilwood are often listed as with the syncopated rhythms of African music on fidils, which appear in illustrations in medieval manu- the materials of choice for bows, though carbon fiber southern plantations, fiddlers in Appalachia incorpo- scripts. Simple bowed folk instruments like these are bows are starting to win fans due to their near inde- rated more syncopation into their bowing styles. The structibility. Pernambuco actually refers to several found throughout the world. These early versions may FIDDLE page 18 differ from their modern counterparts in the number of varieties of tropical trees, while brazilwood describes strings, design of body and placement of pegs. The the less desirable heartwood of the tree, rather than a family of viols, which were closely related to the vio- separate species. When it comes to bows, the most lin and were popular in Renaissance and Baroque highly prized horsehair comes from tails of horses IN THIS ISSUE times, differ in having frets along the neck. raised in regions that endure cold winters. The hair of male horses is preferred to that of mares because it has EEDITORIAL .......................................................... 2 In the late 17th century, Stradivarius and other INTERVIEW............................................................. 3 Italian instrument builders standardized the design into less exposure to urine, which breaks down the fibers. JAKE KRACK The light colored hair has a finer tex- KEYS TO THE HIGHWAY .................................... 4 ture, which is better for tone production What Lies Beneath: A Review of Chord Patterns and Variations than coarser dark hair. THE VOICES IN MY HEAD ................................. 5 The earth keeps some vibration going, Once the design became standard- A FEW OF MY FAVORITES SING CD REVIEWS .......................................................... 6 ized, violins made their way across There in your heart, and that is you. MUSIC MADE VISIBLE .........................................7 And if people find you can fiddle, much of Europe and became popular The Rhythms of Spinning for performing all kinds of music, ON-GOING STORYTELLING EVENTS .............8 Why fiddle you must, for all your life. including both court and country DAVE’S CORNER.....................................................8 Fiddler Jones from The Spoon River Anthology dances. In addition, fiddles and fiddle ON-GOING MUSIC HAPPENINGS ......................9 by Edgar Lee Masters tunes journeyed across the Atlantic with CALENDAR OF EVENTS .................................... 10 colonists bound for North America. ON-GOING DANCE HAPPENINGS ...................12 Gradually, the term "violin" became FANTASTIC FUN FOLK FESTIVALS.................13 more closely associated with more for- ADVENTURES OF A SONGCATCHER IN the elegant, wasp-waisted form of the modern violin. mal ("classical") music and "fiddle" has become asso- SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA .................................14 Just a few subtle variations on this design are found ciated with more popular ("folk") and dance music. FEATURED ORGANIZATON...............................15 To me, as much as anything, the fiddle is the voice Twenty Years with the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles among patterns used by violinmakers today. Nearly all FORWARD WITH SCOTLAND’S PAST ............16 fiddles have a one- or two-piece back of maple, of dancing. Fiddle music is at the heart of traditional Battlefield Band mixes the old with the new sycamore or Lombardy poplar. One of the most beau- dance music of many cultures from around the world, SPECIAL EVENTS .................................................20 tiful woods used today is called fiddleback maple. The from the gypsies of Rumania to the mountain folk of Page 2 FolkWorks May-June 2002 EDITORIAL s you may or may not Here are some ways that you PUBLISHERS & EDITORS realize, FolkWorks is can help: Leda & Steve Shapiro more than this news- • If you know of businesses that in A LAYOUT & PRODUCTION paper. It is a non-profit organ- any way have an interest in folk Alan & Terry Stone ization whose mission is to music, dance and related arts, ask spread the word about folk/tra- the proprietors to advertise in the FEATURE WRITERS ditional music, dance and paper. We can also use donations Joanna Cazden related arts. As an organiza- from businesses. We are a The Voices in my Head tion, we also produce concerts 501(c)(3), so any contributions are Roger Goodman and dances. We are actively tax-deductible. Keys to the Highway trying to reach out beyond our • If you are interested in writing, we Gaili Schoen, Interviews admittedly narrow focus and have lots of ideas for articles or we Dave Soyar, Dave’s Corner discover the variety of tradi- will entertain suggestions from you. Dennis Stone. CD Reviews tional folk cultures that exist in • If you have editing skills, help us Mike Tackett, Zookman our community. We’ve gone to edit. EDITORS meetings where representa- • If you are interested in doing Valerie Cooley tives of these diverse cultures research in folk related venues, we Chuck Galt are abundant. We are reaching need help verifying that our infor- Nicole Galland out to meet and learn about mation is accurate and up-to-date. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS these folks. Hopefully, in • If you have several hours every Mary Ellen Clark future issues of the paper, this couple of months, we need assis- Anne Dinsdale experience will be reflected. tance distributing papers. Sharon Goldwasser BY LEDA & STEVE SHAPIRO Greg Johnson We would like to see more • If you have grant writing experi- Amy Wooley concerts of traditional folk musicians that are as diverse as ence, help us research and write grants.