>This reminds me of another probably dumb question I have: Is a snap >considered an optional ornament? What I mean is, can you substitute it for >2 eighths or for a dotted 8th-16 combination for effect, or is it only >played when written?
You might substitute cuts/birls/triplets for a snap made up of two notes of the same pitch. >For that matter, how much ornamentation in Scottish fiddling is improvised? ... > >listening to >recordings of Cape Breton and Shetland fiddle music, styles that I >understand are more similar to the way this music used to be played, I seem >to hear much more improvisation. This makes me wonder if Scottish fiddling >used to be more similar in philosophy to Irish fiddling, and improvisation >is an element that is going away as more classically-trained fiddlers >embrace the music. What do you guys think? I think this is a complex question. Generally the improvisation in Scottish-derived instrumental music takes place on a smaller scale than in Irish music. Traditional Scottish fiddle music has a mixed parentage; there are Gaelic elements, Scots elements, elements of three centuries of European art music....It's not that suddenly more classically-trained fiddlers are embracing the music, because many of the fiddlers who were playing Scottish music throughout the ages were "trained." There was quite a bit of improvisation in Baroque music, less and less in Classical music. Cape Breton fiddlers don't improvise upon/change tunes like Irish musicians because there is a certain idea of what's correct and only in certain circumstances do you go beyond those boundaries. It's also okay to be looser with certain tunes than others (such as certain old tunes passed on mainly by ear). Also, it may be okay to purposefully improve a tune out of a book, and the improved version might become standard. (These are just my observations.) I don't know what's going on in Scotland these days but my impression is that there might be a crowd that tends toward using more classical techniques and tends more toward exactness, and there might be a crowd who look toward the Irish model, and there might be a crowd in the Highlands and Isles with a more Gaelic-oriented philosophy. These different groups probably have slightly different rules about improvisation. Does this sound anything like reality to you people in Scotland? - Kate D. -- Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
