[NSP] semi-OT wireless mic query
Hello. Sorry, I'm wandering off the smallpipes topics again, but lots of people here have fingers in various musical pies and valuable experience. - and I do plan to be introducing smallpipes into our ceilidh band soon, so it's not entirely off topic! Please has anyone experience of the Accusound wireless voice mic system, for a band caller, for good or ill? (Headset mic ACS-17-1 @ £35.00 + VAT, Miniature wireless system AC-WS-4 @ £160.00 + VAT) Or other sets you might recommend, or avoid? This Accusound set's a lot cheaper than some: someone recommended us a Shure system , PGX1 PGX4, at around twice the cost, but if the Accusound is good I'm happy to have a bargain for our caller. If it's not I don't want us spending good money on poor gear. Any help most gratefully received. Second message, strictly ON topic follows soon! With thanks, Richard. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[NSP] Pipes with continuo?
I was listening recently to a trio playing 17th/18th Cent. divisions on La Folia on the radio, and was struck afresh by how similar are some of the things appearing in the nsp variations. (And yet different.)[Special aside for Round the Horn listeners :) ] Divisions on viols or recorders were normally played with at least a bass, and/or a harpsichord or whatever, and our variations/divisions must come out of the same culture in the first place, whether it's later a parallel or a parent-child type development to get to where Peacock's sets arrived. So, given that pipes are generally thought of as a solo instrument, (correct me if not!) do we know at what stage of development the divorce from the continuo or ground bass instrument actually happened? Assuming it did. Do the smallpipes with their variations repertoire first appear having already made the musical separation, or was there any practice of playing them over a ground? (Please note, this *is* on topic!) Best wishes, Richard. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[NSP] Re: Pipes with continuo?
Richard, not only is it on topic but it's a very live topic (for me at least). I was lecturing yesterday at Glasgow for the 3rd year Piping Degree students (as Highland pipers they are exposed to two hours of Border pipe music in three years...) and the Dixon variations - which predate Peacock, but share the same aesthetic - were my main focus. It's hard to get across to anyone in Scotland that music didn't start with the Gows, but it didn't, and the genius of the Scottish fiddle, John MacLachlan, flourished c. 1700, and his variation sets on Scots tunes set the gold standard. They mainly survive in lute transcriptions and there are a couple of good CDs around which feature them. Meanwhile in England we have the Lancashire hornpipes of Marsden et al, and the divisions of Playford somewhat earlier. It was in the air, the idiom that has been called the 'Native Baroque', and the Dixon-Peacock-Bewick-Clough line is part of this. The aesthetic distinction is that with drones, and tunes based mainly on two chords, you don't need continuo - drones are the ultimate continuo, and the musician who can hear what the tunes are doing hears the regular movement between consonance and dissonance with the drones. What we do now (frequently) is to play with chordal accompaniment, the modern equivalent of continuo, and for this to be worthwhile it has to do something more than state the obvious two-chord pattern without becoming totally irrelevant to it. A refined approach is needed. Back to your point, there is at least one example of the division repertoire directly entering the NSP repertoire - Johnny, Cock Thy Beaver gave rise to Newmarket Races / Fenwick O' Bywell. On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 5:50 PM, Richard York [1]rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk wrote: I was listening recently to a trio playing 17th/18th Cent. divisions on La Folia on the radio, and was struck afresh by how similar are some of the things appearing in the nsp variations. (And yet different.)[Special aside for Round the Horn listeners :) ] Divisions on viols or recorders were normally played with at least a bass, and/or a harpsichord or whatever, and our variations/divisions must come out of the same culture in the first place, whether it's later a parallel or a parent-child type development to get to where Peacock's sets arrived. So, given that pipes are generally thought of as a solo instrument, (correct me if not!) do we know at what stage of development the divorce from the continuo or ground bass instrument actually happened? Assuming it did. Do the smallpipes with their variations repertoire first appear having already made the musical separation, or was there any practice of playing them over a ground? (Please note, this *is* on topic!) Best wishes, Richard. -- To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[NSP] Re: Pipes with continuo?
It's hard to get across to anyone in Scotland that music didn't start with the Gows, but it didn't, and the genius of the Scottish fiddle, John MacLachlan, flourished c. 1700, and his variation sets on Scots tunes set the gold standard. They mainly survive in lute transcriptions and there are a couple of good CDs around which feature them. MacCrimmon? Sorry, OT I know, but I couldn't resist. Still, what a shame that the pipers in that program only get an afternoon of something other than Highland music. Highland piping is, perhaps, misoverstood. The aesthetic distinction is that with drones, and tunes based mainly on two chords, you don't need continuo - drones are the ultimate continuo, and the musician who can hear what the tunes are doing hears the regular movement between consonance and dissonance with the drones. Excellent! That which you put is very well writ. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
