Topic: let's talk double stops

[lzaikoski]

Hmmm, Irish Waltzes:

I know "Star of the County Down" (can be played as a waltz)
"Genevieve's Waltz" by Manus McGuire is really nice.
"Blue Bonnets over the Border" (Scottish?)
"Crested Hens" (I love this song)

Theres a ton of them listed on thesession.org: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/index.php/search?name=&type_id=7&mode_id=

[Mark Cordova]

Hiya Izaikoski. You proved the point . Crested hens is a french tune. Star of the county down is an aire that you had to modify, Blue Bonnets is Scottish. I don't know about Genevieves - I'll have to take a look at it. Thanks for the list.

Mark

[beeswing]

You might call Black Velvet Band a ballad, but I've waltzed to it...

[kesh]

Dale, a Mazurka is an Eastern European dance  in 3/4 time - adopted (and probably corrupted as well ), by Irish session players to break up the continual jigs & reels.

It generally is played a bit faster than a waltz, and often has a strong 2nd & 3rd beat emphasis.  The last bar of a part is nearly always one long note.

Someone else could probably describe it better than me!

[woody]

Sounds good to me Kesh.
I used to play mazurkas as waltzes untill I heard them played with the strong 2nd and 3rd beat.

[dalebygod]

ok . i think i've got it. {maybe} I would love to see you all at fiddle hell for some good fiddle tune sharing. wow.

[swarbrules]

I'm sad and read the sleeve notes on CDs even when they're almost indecipherable.

The fiddle in Wales fell out of favour, not because of any religious disapproval but, more because of  rapid urbanisation and probably a wish to leave the old fashioned behind. It was, apparently kept going by a couple of gypsy families. This might account for the lack of any Welsh style. Listening to Ffidel, the double stop seems to be an either or technique. Some use it a lot, others hardly at all. There does seem to be a fair amount of use of double stopping, drone playing by the second fiddle in duos.

[lzaikoski]

Hiya Izaikoski. You proved the point . Crested hens is a french tune. Star of the county down is an aire that you had to modify, Blue Bonnets is Scottish. I don't know about Genevieves - I'll have to take a look at it. Thanks for the list.

Mark

Yeah, of all the ones I posted, the only one I'm *sure* is Irish is Genevieve's because Manus McGuire (who's from Sligo) wrote it for his wife!  

[Martin]

Quote from the notes from the (English/Scottish)Border Fiddle Workshop

"Tom Hughes – Tom Hughes was born on a farm by the name of Butchercote in the Nertoun estate near St. Boswells in 1907 and died in 1986.  His father and grandfather played the fiddle, melodeon, tin whistle and tambourine.  He played principally for dances (harvest kirns) which took place all around the Borders after the farms harvest was taken in.  At that time there was no amplification to enable the musicians to play loudly; they had to use other methods to make sure the dancers could hear the beats of their tunes.  One of these methods was to use;

Double stringing (chording or double string work) – This is achieved by playing 2 strings at once.

“I play allot o double string work – which is considered a fault wi some people.  I’ve heard twa or three say they dinna ken how I got the double string action.  It juist comes natural.  That’s the way ma faither an ma grandfaither din it.”  Tom Hughes.

Tom played a fiddle which had a flat bridge this actually enabled him to play 3 strings at a time if he wanted to."

So the technique is certainly old and ingrained in this British style.