Re: [scots-l] Re: J. Scott Skinners new CD
Can't you mathematically 'correct for' poor cylinder speed control to get an idea of what speed he was playing at?. Seems that if you know the info about the apparent pitch and the apparent tempo, and one makes a few basics assumptions: such as the tune should be played in the key of ?? and the standard tuning of that was was A= 440? then one could fairly easily calculate that actual tempo he was playing at. Trouble is you'd have to be really far off in the cylinder speed and/or tuning to have much of an effect on the tempo. I've a hunch that Skinner recorded with today's technology would still sound fast. At least that's the sense I get from my reading about him and his playing. John -- From: Kate Dunlay or David Greenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [scots-l] Re: J. Scott Skinners new CD Date: Fri, Nov 22, 2002, 9:35 AM I like the album as a historical document, to hear how Skinner played, what he played, what speed he played at, and so on. I have that old vinyl LP also. You can't actually tell at what speed Skinner played from the LP because, although it may have faithfully reproduced the cylinders are whatever, those didn't play at the right speed either. I mean, he just didn't play as fast as some of those cuts go. I am fairly sure of that because the key of the music is not correct in at least the one case I checked. I don't believe he would have been tuned so extra high or played the pieces in the wrong key PLUS played way too fast. The most sensible explanation is that the cylinder/record just went too fast at playback (or maybe even too slow when recording?). Also, I think they were purposefully trying to fit a lot on one cylinder/record. - Kate -- http://www.DunGreenMusic.com Halifax, Nova Scotia Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html 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] Re: J. Scott Skinners new CD
Can't you mathematically 'correct for' poor cylinder speed control to get an idea of what speed he was playing at?. Seems that if you know the info about the apparent pitch and the apparent tempo, and one makes a few basics assumptions: such as the tune should be played in the key of ?? and the standard tuning of that was was A= 440? then one could fairly easily calculate that actual tempo he was playing at. Absolutely. Easy to do if someone decides that's the correct thing to do and takes responsibility for it and notes the corrections made. Trouble is you'd have to be really far off in the cylinder speed and/or tuning to have much of an effect on the tempo. I've a hunch that Skinner recorded with today's technology would still sound fast. At least that's the sense I get from my reading about him and his playing. I agree he probably played a bit fast anyway because his recordings don't have that drive that comes from hanging back a bit and not pushing the beat. Still, I disagree that the speed of a recording has to be way off to make a significant difference to the tempo. I think we really notice differences in tempo. 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. So the lesson there is to make the effort to correct the recording instead of just tuning to it! But you have to be relatively sure that the musicians on the tape were actually using standard pitch or close to it, because that's not always true. At least with the Cape Breton recordings there is usually piano as well as fiddle (not that pianos can't be way out of tune too!). - Kate D. -- http://www.DunGreenMusic.com Halifax, Nova Scotia Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
