Dear Francis
I am not against dots per se but rather like pain-killers they have to
be used carefully and with appreciation of their drawbacks/dangers.
* Using dots without lots of prior listening for people with limited
experience and knowledge of the tradition makes it almost
impossible for them to produce a convincing nuance-enriched
rendition of the traditional pieces. This is a bit less critical in
Peacock/Clough type pieces where the inherent intricacy of the
structure/variations makes little space for personal interpretation
in the first place. Interestingly, I recently heard Stewart Hardy
make a similar point re much of the Scott Skinner fiddle material.
* Coming at a tune from the dots makes far more difficult to memorise
the piece. If dots are still needed at the performance stage a
goodly amount of brain capacity goes to responding to the dots
rather than listening to what is happening or controlling the
instrument.
Having said this we'll be dotting in my class at The Sage Gateshead
this evening but as participants will testify I am doing my best to
wean them off.
Regards
Anthony
P.S. If I may make so bold, the Playford type pieces with which you
opened the second half of the NPS concert last month worked beautifully
with the dots as a faithful rendition of what's written fits the smooth
elegance of that style of dance.
--- On Tue, 3/11/09, Francis Wood <oatenp...@googlemail.com> wrote:
From: Francis Wood <oatenp...@googlemail.com>
Subject: [NSP] Re: [BULK] Re: [nsp] file - William Darling
To: "Anthony Robb" <anth...@robbpipes.com>
Cc: "NSP group" <nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 3 November, 2009, 10:15 AM
On 3 Nov 2009, at 10:01, Anthony Robb wrote:
> In my 20+ years playing up north I got to at least a couple of
hundred
> dances, parties, sessions, music evenings & concerts with a fair
few
> established players and never saw a page of dots used once
Perhaps they were saying "Look out, its that Anthony. Quick, hide the
dots, everyone!"
More seriously, Anthony, Margaret & others, I am hugely enjoying this
correspondance which shows this list at its best. Thanks for some great
stuff.
Important that it gets written down, and even if it gets no further
than an email posting, that in itself has some permanence.
Francis
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