[scots-l] FW: William Goodsir
Hi All, I've just received this. Does anyone have any info? Please include Dayan Goodsir Cullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] on replies. Cheers, Ian -Original Message- From: Dayan Goodsir Cullen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 19 July 2001 11:22 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: William Goodsir Dear Mr Brockbank, Just found your Scottish Dance pages - very comprehensive and interesting. I wonder if you can help me with a little research? Have you heard of a William Willie Goodsir (1772-1848) - a musician (well known locally as a fiddler) from North Berwick? I gather he was quite famous in his day, but I wonder if any of his works survive, or if any information about him remains? There is a reference to him in a local history (written at the end of the 19th century) that compares Goodsir to Neil Gow, but apart from that I have not found much. Mind you I am on the other side of the world! Anything you know will be of interest to me, even if you can suggest where I might look for further information. May I thank you in anticipation for your help? I should be very grateful for any suggestions you might have. Yours Sincerely, Dayan Goodsir-Cullen Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] What makes a style Scottish?
To Kate Dunley; Hi. Kate, Glad to read your contribution. Re your comment: In Cape Breton fiddle music, playing with drive and good timing is more important than playing in tune. My comment: Agree. However you're implying that the choices are mutually exclusive. They need not be .In fact the very best CB fiddlers play with drive, good timing AND play in tune. Kate's comment: In conclusion, although Alexander would like to see the issue of tuning as a purely scientific one, I believe that much about it comes down to a matter of opinion My comment: With great emphasis I must say no. The great contribution made by Herman von Helmholtz was precisely that he rejected the purely scientific explanation in favour of one which combined the scientific with the art of music. All of Llewelyn Lloyd's essays repeatedly reject the purely scientific approach and it is the latter's material which I have been quoting. Anyone interested should read Intervals, Scales, and Temperment and The Musical Ear both by Llewelyn Lloyd. They are a very tough read but fascinating and well worth the effort. Alexander . Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] What makes a style Scottish?
Toby writes: | I know about piper's being opinionated, however I still think | alot of fidder's are even *more* opinionated. This is especially ironic considering the tuning situation within the classical crowd. Standard classical teaching brings out the fact that tempered tuning really arose as a compromise for handling the limitations of keyboard instruments and orchestras. Groups of all strings regularly switch to just intonation, which makes them sound better in tune. This is totally accepted in classical circles, and a string player who doesn't cooperate (or can't hear the difference) is considered to be playing out of tune. Any competent violinist should be able to adjust his/her intonation to match the rest of the group. (All the while looking down at those other instruments because of their limitations, of course. ;-) So you'd think that fiddlers with a classical background would know and understand that different musical groups use different intonation rules. Traditional Scottish music shouldn't be anything other than yet another sort of intonation, to be mastered if you want to pass as a Scottish fiddler. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] What makes a style Scottish?
On Thu, 19 Jul 2001, John Chambers wrote: So you'd think that fiddlers with a classical background would know and understand that different musical groups use different intonation rules. Traditional Scottish music shouldn't be anything other than yet another sort of intonation, to be mastered if you want to pass as a Scottish fiddler. You would think that this would be the case. However it so often isn't the case, that I forever swore off playing in an group with more then two other fiddles. Toby Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] What makes a style Scottish?
On Thu, 19 Jul 2001, Jack Campin wrote: the offending notes sometimes have more to do with the fingering on the fiddle and how difficult it is to play them. Therefore, it is not necessarily the same intervals which offend in each key. This I can see because for instance, I have a terrible time playing in tune in E major. It drives me crazy. I wonder whether this is the point of using that key? By far the most popular E major tune round here is Calliope House. Wimp fiddlers play it in D and it never sounds as good that way - maybe the variations in intonation produced by the technical difficulties Kate describes could be part of what gives it its distinctive character? Yeah, I never understood why anyone would play that one in D, unless they had a flute player that was playing along with them, or some situation like that. Lack of ability is no excuse :-) That's what practice is for. Very often when people start messing with the keys on tunes, they detract from quality of the tune. Sometimes they add something to the tune, but I think it's less common that the tune is improved. Toby Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
