Janice Lane asked:
> ...Was there ever a Left-Handed Fiddler?
Andrew has answered this already, but I seem to remember Skinner's
father himself became a left-handed fiddler after losing three fingers
on his left hand in an accident.
> ...Was The Acrobat a real person or does the piece suggest his
> actions?
Are you sure this is a Skinner composition? I know that there are at
least two tunes of that name, but I'm not convinced that the one
commonly attributed to Skinner* was in fact his own. And while Andrew
Kuntz says he knows nothing of the acrobat in question, I believe it
was from him that I learned that the tune may be a reworking of a tune
called "The Nightingale" by P.T.Barnum and used as music accompanying
his acrobats and trapeze artistes. In Ryan's Mammoth Collection (USA
1883) "Acrobat's Hornpipe" - the tune in question - is "as performed by
G.L.Tracy".
"Acrobat's Hornpipe" in Kerr's is a different tune.
* = the one that starts: D>C|B,>DG>A B>Ge>d|(3cAF (3cAF f3
More Skinner trivia: at his funeral, "Lochaber No More" was played at
his grave by G S Maclennan, one of Scotland's most innovative and
exciting bagpipe composers (in my opinion).
--
Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/
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