Quoting Francis Wood <[email protected]>:
Hello Richard,
I think we pretty much agree.
Who, for example, would want to play Rothbury Hills in a staccato manner?
Detached playing is not necessarily staccato. When the notes are long,
the spaces seem even shorter.
(Who, indeed would want to play RH in any manner whatsoever, some
might interject.)
The Rothbury hill-billies, I guess
However it was composed by a significant piper who happened to be
the official piper to the Duke of somewhere or other.
Joe Hutton seemed a bit lukewarm about that. (Jack lived in Wideopen
and I understand he wasn't always flavour of the month with the
Powburn Lads.
So like it or not,
it's part of the tradition.
Often improved, if you get the chance to hear it, by Inky-Adrian's
farmyard impressions.
That harpsichord comparison is mightily good, since that and the NSP
have some principles remarkably in common.
However, I think we differ over the harpsichord's ability to play
'long-sustained'.
That famous Northumbrian tune "Jocky's long sustained in the organ loft"
That has as much to do with what the contemporary
listener actually heard, knowing the style and nature of the music,
rather than the acoustic output of the instrument.
While we're usefully on this topic, here's an opportunity to quote
one of the greatest of harpsichordists in one of the bitchiest-ever
remarks about taste:
"Well, you play Bach your way and I'll play him his way".
Ah. harpsichord duets. The sound of skeletons copulating on a
corrugated tin roof.
(Boult? Arnorld? cant remember!)
oops should have been "can't" (Henri l'apostrophe)
That's enuff
B.
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