Re: [scots-l] What makes a style "Scottish?"

[Kate Dunlay or David Greenberg]

>simply out of tune

[temporarily emerging from real life to comment]

Although I have great respect for Alexander MacDonald's considerable
knowledge of Scottish/Cape Breton fiddle music and physics of sound
production, I think that "out of tune" tones have their place in music.  I
sometimes witness my husband making use of notes which are slightly "off"
to produce an emotional impact.  (I use David for an example because he is
recognized as a good musician, whereas I often could be justly accused of
playing out of tune, I'm sure.)  Alexander must be right in concluding that
the absence of beats and the presence of resonating harmonics are pleasing
to the ear, however, other more strident sounds also touch us by piquing
our interest and emotions.  Surely this is one reason why traditional
musicians don't always "correct" their intonation.

Nevertheless, Alexander makes a good point about the particular notes which
tend to be played out of tune on the fiddle.  Whereas I always looked at
thirds and sevenths etc., Alexander noticed that the "offending" notes
sometimes have more to do with the fingering on the fiddle and how
difficult it is to play them.  Therefore, it is not necessarily the same
intervals which offend in each key.  This I can see because for instance, I
have a terrible time playing in tune in E major.  It drives me crazy.

Another point to think about is David Greenberg's idea of a hierarchy of
importance for each musical tradition.  In classical music, it may be
considered by many to be more important to play in tune than to play with
feeling (you can disagree with this, but most people won't pay money to go
hear out-of-tune classical music and they'll flinch over any deviation from
what's accepted).  In Cape Breton fiddle music, playing with drive and good
timing is more important than playing in tune.  A fiddler could be so good
that a few off notes don't really matter.

In conclusion, although Alexander would like to see the issue of tuning as
a purely scientific one, I believe that much about it comes down to a
matter of opinion.

- Kate D.

--
Kate Dunlay & David Greenberg
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
http://www.total.net/~dungreen


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