In another thread Peter Laban was mentioning some books of tunes, among them The Northern Fiddler. He said “The Northern Fiddler is one that was not well received for some of it’s musical content but is worth having for the photographs alone and the stories.” I enjoy the book a lot, mainly, as Peter suggests, for the pictures and stories, particularly the section on John Loughran. But I’m wondering about the musical content. Like any other book, I enjoy some of the tunes and not others. Is there some problem with the transcriptions or is it the tunes or settings of the tunes that is the problem? The lack of a table of contents is an annoyance. I think there’s one online somewhere.
Breandan Breathnach in a review in Ceol [Vol V[II], march 1982 p. 64]
wrote the following about the music in the Northern Fiddler
Around 200 dance tunes are included in the volume. These visual representations of the material treated reveal an unfamiliarity with the music on the part of the authors that one’s doubts are re-enforced about the learned discourse they have raised upon it. One is met with poor and defective setting, duplicates, tunes with parts reversed, unrelated turns, two or three tunes run together as single pieces and commonplace tunes presented ‘untitled’. If this selection constitutes a representative sample of their music one may ask whether the players of these two counties are not losing their ear for traditional music.
FWIW, http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6464/tnf.html is Larry Sanger’s Northern Fiddler page, which has links to a tune index by Bob Borcherding and Ted Hastings, as well as annotations by Paul DeGrae, Philippe Varlet, and others.
While I’m not qualified to evaluate the charges Breathnach and Mac Aoidh and others have levelled at TNF (and though I’ve read the book I don’t have a copy), I’m inclined to take their criticisms with a large pinch of salt.
Surely it was correct of the authors to leave tunes untitled or with “poor or defective settings” (!) if that was how their sources played them. Was Breathnach suggesting they should have called him in, or some other authority, to revise the transcriptions and “correct” the settings? (Makes you wonder about how faithful his own transcriptions were, btw.)
I detect a whiff of petulance in these outbursts, as though the people making them were miffed that Feldman and Doherty, in producing what is a very important document, regardless of its imperfections, had encroached on what they considered their territory.
“I would have done it so much better, therefore you ought not to have done it at all” seems to be the underlying message. Phooey.
I don’t think Breathnach was being territorial, that’s not like the man at all, usually he would encourgare people to take on projects like this. The Northern Fiddler is an interesting, and in a sense a must have, book [as Breathnach als osaid in his review]but the critisism levelled at it is not far off the mark.
Peter, I know these reviews you are quoting are not necessarily your own, so I don’t hold you to them, but I am curious as to why TNF continues to be quoted and referred to, and is still sought after by many, if the music is as incorrect as reported? Surely they must have got something right, or people wouldn’t still be using and recommending TNF, even though it has been out of print for years.
At what points does it fall off, i.e. which tunes are wrong, or are all of them wrong, or maybe that’s how the Northerners really played the tunes?
I suppose the best reason for it to be quoted is that, Caoimhin Mac Aodh’s Between the jigs and reels aside and that books contains no music, it is about the only source available. And as Steve said it is despite it’s flaws a great document.
Hi, I just wanted to push the balance of this a bit the other way. We play a lot of Donegal and Northern music. Viewed as a resource of music, while the Northern Fidder has it problems, it is an absolute treasure trove. There are so many great tunes and great settings. It is such a shame that the book can’t be wholeheartedly recommended to those not already familiar to some extent with the music, although the weblinks given above are excellent and go a good way to improving this.
One of the great joys of Donegal music is the way that a very personal and regional stamp was often put on a tune when it was imported from outside sources. It seems to be tempting for some to view these as deficient settings but the music throbs with life because of this. A well-known tune is made new over and over again (yes, I know this applies to other places and players too but not often enough). It’s a great lesson in how little importance should be attached to the ‘standard version’. I know that this is of little value to the session player but so what!
I love the Northern style for its own flavor. My post above wasn’t meant to suggest that I thought that the settings in TNF were substandard! Sorry for any misunderstanding.
Highlands, yes! And I love strathspeys, too (Mom’s people were Ulster Scots).
Have you heard about Gary Hastings’ new book ‘With fife and drum’? It covers lambeg drumming and fifing and includes 72 fifing tunes. It’s published by Blackstaff Press in Belfast. It’s a good one and beautifully produced with a CD of mostly drumming and reminiscences.