> It's hard to get across to anyone in Scotland that music didn't start > with the Gows, but it didn't, and the genius of the Scottish fiddle, > John MacLachlan, flourished c. 1700, and his variation sets on Scots > tunes set the gold standard. They mainly survive in lute transcriptions > and there are a couple of good CDs around which feature them.
MacCrimmon? Sorry, OT I know, but I couldn't resist. Still, what a shame that the pipers in that program only get an afternoon of something other than Highland music. Highland piping is, perhaps, misoverstood. > The aesthetic distinction is that with drones, and tunes based mainly > on two chords, you don't need continuo - drones are the ultimate > continuo, and the musician who can hear what the tunes are doing hears > the regular movement between consonance and dissonance with the drones. Excellent! That which you put is very well writ. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
