[scots-l] RE: A scottish reel
Hi Susan, have you heard of a collection called Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes ed. Patrick Sky -- that's where i think it is Sorry, I thought it was a dance you were looking for rather than a tune. My wife might know a bit more, or you could try the Scottish Music and Culture list [EMAIL PROTECTED] (you need to be a member to post). Cheers, Ian -- Please use [EMAIL PROTECTED] for personal/dance email -- IndigoVision Ltd http://www.indigovision.com/ The Edinburgh Technopole, Bush Loan, Edinburgh, EH26 0PJ Tel: [+44] (0)131 475 7234 Fax: [+44] (0)131 475 7201 Personal: [EMAIL PROTECTED]http://www.scottishdance.net Feed the world: http://www.thehungersite.com/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Tempos
The sad thing is that to be a master harper according to the Scottish Harp Society one must be able to play a March/Strathspey/Reel set and not much else. The repertoire requirement is 40 tunes, 75% of which is MSR's. (one also has to have 10 airs which are broadly defined. For example, Piobaireachd is classified as an air). No jigs? That's really strange.. Jigs are so important though. No waltzes either? Do they even go as far as listing what tunes are required? If so, that organization sounds kind of facist :-) Also surprising is that the requirements for, I guess you call it the master harper certification level, include so few airs.. Airs generally sound really good on the harp, especially on the really bright-sounding wire harps. They're also quite nice on steel-string guitars, for the same reason, that bright edgy tone is sounds good to me. Much better then on the fiddle, mostly because there's too much temptation to make airs on the violin sound so syrupy. Even though airs are not at a fast tempo, I've always found them challenging to do well because you have to really tastefully say something with them, there's no hiding behind a barrage of notes. The temptation to use alot of vibrato is always there. I've fallen into the trap myself plenty of times, at one point a couple of years ago, I followed a suggestion made by Kate Dunlay, and made it exercise to see how many slow airs I could play without using any left-hand vibrato at all. Forcing myself to do all the talking with the bow arm. That helped alot. Still this is interesting and surprising info. on the requirements of your organization. Can you elaborate on how these requirements were developed? Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Tempos
In a message dated 1/17/03 11:50:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Still this is interesting and surprising info. on the requirements of your organization. Can you elaborate on how these requirements were developed? My understanding is we looked at the Fiddle competition and patterned ours on it. I too am sad that there isn't at least a requirement to play, oh, a couple of laments and a lullabye and all those things that do indeed sound so lovely on the harp. The organization on whole doesn't reflect this concentration. I edit our newsletter and we do indeed focus on the "whole picture" (as best as I can, that is...) So, it's mostly just the comps. And that's why I asked, is this just the way competitions are? Can they be more flexible somehow? Remember, we got here in this thread by discussing competition rules dictating metronome markings. Interesting connection. --Cynthia Cathcart http://www.cynthiacathcart.net/
Re: [scots-l] Tempos
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The sad thing is that to be a master harper according to the Scottish Harp Society one must be able to play a March/Strathspey/Reel set and not much else. The repertoire requirement is 40 tunes, 75% of which is MSR's. (one also has to have 10 airs which are broadly defined. For example, Piobaireachd is classified as an air). Very sad indeed, as I'm quite sure the clarsach was not originally used for any of that. Dancing maybe, but not marches - and the strathspey hadn't even been thought of! To be a master harper, you should really have to extemporise an accompaniment for a recitationally sung eulogy, welcome, lament, nuptial, or whatever! And send people to sleep. That's essential... :-) David Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Tempos
In a message dated 1/17/03 11:50:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Still this is interesting and surprising info. on the requirements of your organization. Can you elaborate on how these requirements were developed? My understanding is we looked at the Fiddle competition and patterned ours on it. Uggh... I should have figured.. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] new computer, old question
I'm not aware of anything that does that, but there's a lot of freeware/shareware out there to convert ABC to MIDI, as well as sheet music to MIDI -- but that's manual, not automatic input. -- I.A. When I purchase my next 'puter, which will not be an Apple, I wish to be able to take a CD, isolate a tune/track, and convert it to a midi file. What software do I need to do that? -- May neither your strings nor your spirit ever break, May your harp and your soul always be in tune. Rita Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] SHSA Comps
This whole discussion is very distressing, and I will not be drawn into it exceptto say the following, and then I am done. As with many organizations, SHSA (Scottish Harp Society of America) is having some differences of opinion about the comp requirements. I urge anyone interested and concerned to go to the SHSA website www.shsa.org and check it out before forming an opinion. This is not the place where the rules should be discussed, as we have a committee that has been hashing out and updating the rules for the last five years, and I don't appreciate the attempts to gain sympathy from the list. Please believe me that we have looked far beyond the fiddle requirements in our discussions. My main concern as an American harper playing Scottish music is to reflect what is being played in Scotland today, as well as 50 or 100 or 300 years ago. As to the elitism slur, there is that pesky word again. We on the committee are trying to bring the harp comps out of the airy-fairy land that it has been in for 15 years, where one only had to play an air and 1-2-or 3 contrasting tunes, depending on the level. For many that meant three waltzes in 3 different keys. We were not taken seriously, and harpers didn't learn any challenging music, and strathspeys, the distinctive music of Scotland, were pretty rare. I don't know why strathspeys were not played on the harp 200 years ago. They sound great. But they are now, all over Scotland. As to your request for a time line of harping in Scotland, your/our friend Holly Callahan has written a ground-breaking history thesis on exactly that. I suggest that you start there. Sue Richards At 11:12 AM 1/17/03 -0500, you wrote: The sad thing is that to be a master harper according to the Scottish Harp Society one must be able to play a March/Strathspey/Reel set and not much else. (snip) Toby suggested that there is elitism with competitions, and there may be some truth in his observation. (snip) Anyway. Here's a question to start a different thread. I'm working up a Time Line of the harp (snip)
Re: [scots-l] new computer, old question
On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Rita Hamilton wrote: When I purchase my next 'puter, which will not be an Apple, I wish to be able to take a CD, isolate a tune/track, and convert it to a midi file. What software do I need to do that? I would suggest the first thing would be to have software which takes the CD and makes a WAV file of the track. They are usually called CD Rippers. There is mention of a program called Akoff: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=21857#514448 The question has been brought up before at the Mudcat Cafe's Forum. I could not find a more recent thread, but asked about a more recent thread at this older thread: Wave to MIDI http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=20866 There is a consensus that they may be finicky at best. So, stop by at the Mudcat for a visit. Bidh mi 'gad fhaicinn!!! IWK Children's Hospital Telethon - June 1st and 2nd, 2002 $4.1 Million for 2002 - Thanks!!! An ni\ a thig leis a' ghaoith, falbhaidh e leis an uisge. George / Seo\ras Seto e-mail address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] e-mail address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GeoCities address [EMAIL PROTECTED] url: http://www.geocities.com/george_seto.geo | My stuff url: http://www.corvuscorax.org:8080/~gseto/creighton | Helen Creighton Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: electric fiddles (was [scots-l] Tempos)
Toby Rider wrote: My next move is to buy an electric fiddle, either a Zeta or a Yamaha, and start pluging it into all my guitar effects, just to see how much I can tweak the tones out of 4 little strings. Guitarists have been experimenting with this stuff since the 1940's, I think it will be interesting to see just how much I can get my fiddle to not sound like a fiddle. Hi Toby, if you're looking for a solid-body electic you might want to check out Jordan electric violins, made by John Jordan who lives a couple miles from me (website is http://www.jordanmusic.com/violin.htm ). Nice guy and great craftsman. I've never played one of his electrics but have heard good things about them from people who have. Michael Mullen, the former fiddler for Tempest played one; he could definitely get it to not sound like a fiddle! -Steve -- How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 kinds of cheese? -Charles De Gaulle Steve Wyrick -- Concord, California Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
