Steve & Nigel, I can only speak from my very limited knowledge and experience of having taken a lesson from Susie Petrov and having played a sort of rhythm guitar for a number of Scottish Country Dances, here in the non-highlands of the Connecticut River Valley. The dance Strathspey speed does seem to be in the low 60 BPM, and that is the metronome setting for 1/4 notes. It does seem slow, but the dance seems to work at that speed. We usually play with one of Susie's band mates in Local Hero, Norb Spencer on accordion. He is mentioned in her book on page 31. The dancers really enjoy dancing to a live band, rather than recordings, and provide us with a real bounty of homemade breads and cookies. Just my own limited experience. Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nigel Gatherer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 4:04 AM Subject: Re: [scots-l] Tempi
> Steve Wyrick wrote: > > > ...I remember a discussion on the STRATHSPEY mailing list in the last > > couple years to the effect that even within recent memory the tempo > > of the Strathspey has slowed down....Some people said they recalled > > that in the mid-1900s the strathspey tempo was more like what we now > > do "Glasgow Highlanders" at, ie around 60-66 BPM. (regarding > > Hardie's tempo for the Strathspey it seems to be double what I'm used > > to. Do you think he's counting differently?) > > Mmm. This is where I get all mixed up. Let's see. (Whips out a > metronome)... > > (For x/4 tunes, one click of the metronome equals a crotchet, or one > quarter note. Perhaps you're counting it as a minim or half-note?) > > At 66, a Strathspey sounds to me like a slow Strathspey (or solo > Strathspey as Skinner would call it. At 126 it sounds faster but not > blistering. Looking at 'Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape > Breton', there are many speeds given there for Strathspeys from 118 up > to 202 and beyond. > > > I hope this is useful. > > Yes, Steve, very useful, but my head is spinning and I'm lost! I think > the message is that it depends and there's no real answer. I was hoping > that someone with definite opinions would come and say "This is it and > no other thing is right." I suppose I could do worse and set the > metronome on some Jimmy Shand recordings, since he was very particular > about tempi. Thanks Steve, and Kate Dunlay for assisting me. > > -- > Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/ > > Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html > Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
