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October 18, 2006
The Cape Breton Fiddle: Glenn Graham releases a
musician’s
view on music in the Cape Breton culture
by Frank Macdonald, Inverness Oran
Cape
Breton fiddler Glenn Graham has waded into the ongoing
discussion concerning the role and influence of the Gaelic
language on Cape Breton fiddling with the release of The
Cape Breton Fiddle: Making and Maintaining Tradition (Cape
Breton University Press). While Graham’s book reaches far
beyond that single theme to explore the history of the Cape
Breton fiddle, its origins, migration, perseverance and
modern evolution, the author challenges what can be
described as an academic assumption that the waning of the
Gaelic language in Cape Breton does or will affect how
fiddlers without the language or exposure to the language
will play the tunes.
“Although
there are a number of observers who see a danger in the
fiddle style being lost because of the rapid decline of the
Gaelic language, their fears could be premature. It is not
the ability to speak the language, but the ability to
interpret rhythm, intonation, bowing, accents and
ornamentations — most often heard from earlier fiddlers —
that give a style sound; much of that sound is found in the
nuances of the language and its authentic purveyors...A
player does not have to be a Gaelic speaker to have a
Gaelic/older sound and rhythm, accent, bowing and
fingering-hand embellishments project the older sound
(combined with living the culture), not necessarily an aged
Gaelic-speaking player.”
One of the
influences leading to the publication of The Cape Breton
Fiddle, which was originally developed as Graham’s Masters
thesis in Atlantic Studies, the musician acknowledges, is
that despite the broad discussion about the fiddle and the
Gaelic language, that discussion was taking place primarily
among academics with minimal input from the musicians
themselves. In this publication, Graham surveys several Cape
Breton fiddlers from age 16 to 85, and researches volumes of
earlier interviews with fiddler by people such as Joey
Beaton of Mabou.
What
Graham concludes from this research is that the academic
conclusions about the language and music is more
“‘conservative than that of most musicians, however,
especially about the degree of familiarity with Gaelic song
and speech needed for fiddle playing.”
That
debate is unlikely to be resolved by a single publication
and Graham admits that his hope for the book is that it will
stir controversy and further discussion.
More
important to Graham is presenting the role of family in
passing on the tradition of Cape Breton fiddling where
linages reach back beyond a century. In introducing Glenn
Graham at Saturday’s book launch at the Music Interpretive
Centre in Judique, fellow Judiquer, Bob MacEachern noted
that there are more than 60 “notable” contributors to the
Celtic arts in Graham’s pedigree. It has been this careful
fostering of each generation by families such as the
Beatons, MacMasters and others that have been the tradition
bearers for the fiddle music. The author notes, however,
that not all Cape Breton fiddling or fiddlers come out of
family traditions but are fine musicians.
Graham,
while not critical of the commericalization of Cape Breton
fiddling does point out that the commercial success has been
more apparent than real, and that very few Cape Breton
musicians have been able to make a living from their talent
and tradition.
The thread
running throughout The Cape Breton Fiddle is Graham’s
emphasis that the music reflects a “living” tradition, not
just the celebration of things past but the contributions
that are being made today to the tradition by Cape Breton
fiddlers of all ages.
For people
interested in Cape Breton fiddling, and the history and
stories that have accompanied it through the generations,
The Cape Breton Fiddle contains volumes valuable information
through the book’s sections dealing with A Social History of
the Cape Breton Fiddle Tradition; Cape Breton Fiddling and
Recent Decades of Change; Cape Breton Fiddlers and Their
Influence; and The Economics of Cape Breton Fiddling and the
State of the Art Form.
The Cape
Breton Fiddle also contains a valuable aid for those readers
who want to see the theory of various styles and techniques
of Cape Breton fiddling taken off the page and played for
their listening pleasure and education. Cape Breton
University Press has included with each copy of the book a
CD featuring kitchen recordings that demonstrate aspects of
Cape Breton fiddling. With Graham’s words to guide the
reader/listener the recording features clips from such
giants Little Mary MacDonald, Angus Chisholm, Winston
“Scotty” Fitzgerald, Donald Angus Beaton and Buddy
MacMaster.
Mike
Hunter, Editor-in-Chief of Cape Breton University Press,
said, “We are pleased to bring out an important book on an
important subject by an author who is of no small importance
himself.
Bob MacEachern described The Cape Breton Fiddle as “another
notch in the library of who we are.”
The launch
of The Cape Breton Fiddle: Making and Maintaining Tradition
was a significant enough literary, musical and cultural
event that Wendy Berkfeldt, host of the CBC Saturday night
show, Island Echoes, broadcast the event live from Judique,
the first ever live airing of the 40-year-old radio show.
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