> Their > influence permeated the whole musical culture of Scotland as far as the > most remote parts of the Highlands; there's no sharp line between art- > music players and traditional fiddlers. Classically-trained players > like Catriona Macdonald and Alasdair Fraser are not a 20th century > aberration.
As far as I understand it (from talking to Catriona herself) her 'classical training' on the violin consisted of a year or so of unsatisfactory sawing through Eta Cohen's violin method and not seeing the point. After only a couple of weeks with Tom Anderson, she did see the point. Catriona did, however, study music at one of the London colleges, but as an opera singer, not a violinist. This information doesn't negate Jack's basic point though - Scottish fiddlers like Mairi Campbell, Chris Stout and Anna Wendy Stevenson were 'classically trained' to a high level at music college, although I would say that the influence of that training shows itself more in a general facility than in the actual sound they make. Their 'traditional' qualifications are fairly impeccable. Other fiddlers like Paul Anderson and Catriona's Blazin Fiddles colleagues weren't classically trained as such, but had a thorough-going technical training from the likes of Douglas Lawrence and Donald Riddell, which again agrees with Jack's point about there 'being no sharp line' . David Francis Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
