> David learned a lot of Mary > MacDonald tunes from old tapes, some of which were too slow. Doug > MacPhee has often had to remind him to speed up a bit because she > didn't play things that slow. But it's hard to change your > ingrained impression when you've listened to something over and over.
There is something special about Mary beag's playing in that way. I've listened to her old recordings quite a bit and I am always amazed at how rich her playing is, even though she's really not playing that fast at all, esp. compared to some of the really frenetic players around today like Ashley MacIssac and Cameron Chisholm. The qualities in her playing really stand out on some of the slower pipe tunes. After hearing a recording of Mary beag playing "Donald MacLean's Farewell to Oban", I was so moved by it that I asked the piper to play that tune as we walked down the aisle to leave the church at our wedding. It's much easier to play too fast on the fiddle, then too slow. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
