SFSF TUNES OF THE MONTH FOR 2004 by Cherry Clark (Jan - May ) and Kim Hughes ( June - Dec) JANUARY At this time of year, people who live very far north often have celebrations to welcome the lengthening of the day and return of the sun. One of several Viking fire festivals takes place in Lerwick, Shetland, the festival of Up Helly Aa. Initiated in the 19 th century, the celebration culminates in a torchlight parade with Guizers wearing costumes/disguises towing a Viking galley, which is then ceremoniously burned. Gideon Stove (1874-1954) was a Shetland fiddler and composer who wrote The Guizer s March and Galley March with reference to this tradition. Stove taught Willie Hunter, whom some of you may remember from Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School. The other tune for January comes from another group of islands off the north coast of Scotland, Orkney. The Heroes of Longhope, composed by Orcadian Ronnie Aim, commemorates a lifeboat crew from Hoy. In March, 1969, during an effort to rescue the crew of a freighter in the Pentland Firth, all members of the lifeboat crew died. This air was recorded by the Wrigley sisters, also from Orkney, on their album Watchstone. FEBRUARY Here are three tunes with an Irish connection that you can work on to celebrate St. Patrick s Day. The Highlander s Farewell to Ireland is a good strong strathspey. You can hear it on Buddy Mac Master s CD, Cape Breton Tradition. Hanneke Cassel has also recorded it on her CD My Joy. Both of these versions have some additional parts that might explore to see how you can take a tune into new territory. Irish Lamentation is a simple and very lovely air from Peter Barnes English Country Dance Tunes collection. Alasdair played this tune a couple of years ago in our spring concerts. Crossing to Ireland is 12/8 tune, found in the Simon Fraser Collection, that was adapted by Winston Fitzgerald as a waltz. Originally the tune was in F Dorian; you will no doubt be happy to learn that Fitzgerald changed it to E Dorian, thereby going from 4 flats to two sharps. MARCH Here are four tunes that are on the spring concert list. Two of them, the Silk Waltz and the Sleng Polska, were taught by Ellika Frisell at the 2003 Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School. The transcriptions here are from Shelley Phillips, who included all the double stops and the harmony for the waltz. Thank you, Shelley. Ellika plays the waltz with lots of twiddles and grace notes. If you listen to her play it on the SFSF practice CD, you will hear all of this, plus the way she varies the tunes with each repetition. We will also be playing a beautiful slow air composed by Scottish pianist Muriel Johnstone. Entitled Eyemouth Harbour, it should reflect the mood of a calm early morning sea, according to Muriel s notes. The final tune is a very old one, Sean truibhas Uilleachain, or Willie s Old Trousers. Much lovelier to hear than its name suggests, it was recorded by Alasdair Fraser and Paul Machlis on Legacy of the Scottish Fiddle, Vol. 1. Paul uses rather jazzy chords on this ancient tune, which give it a contemporary feel. Alasdair will play the tune in the spring concert, and there will be a dance performed with the music. APRIL Here are the last two tunes from the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School concert of 2003. Both were taught byellika Frisell, and both are played with the G string of the fiddle tuned up to A. This gives the A drones that are an important part of both tunes. Here s a tip from Bruce Molsky to help prevent string breakage when you are tuning strings to a higher than normal pitch. Loosen the string and rub the point of a #2 pencil in the groove in the nut that holds the string. This lubricates the groove and keeps the string from catching a major cause of breakage. The haling is a Norwegian tune, played for a traditional extemporaneous dance for men. A fair maid stands on a chair, holding a pole out in front of her, with a hat on the end of it. Each man in turn dances all the fancy steps he knows, building to a leap in which the object is to kick the hat off the pole. If he succeeds, the contest ends, and he has won the company of the fair maid for the evening. The polska is great fun, and a little hypnotic, with its syncopated rhythm and modulation from D minor to D major. At VOM, these tunes were played without accompaniment, but the music here includes some suggestions for chords for those non-fiddle players who don t want to be left out of the fun. MAY We are celebrating the month of May with two tunes by SFSF members. If you have been hanging out with the club, you probably have heard both. Wandering Balloon was composed by Kim Hughes. Kim s story behind the name is as follows: "I wrote "The Wandering Balloon" at Valley of the Moon last year. The tune was nameless for several days until, in the middle of a high-energy percussion class, with a dozen people whaling away on all kinds of drums, a white balloon floated slowly and serenely in over our
heads and bounced gracefully to a halt in the middle of the tent. That surreal moment filled in the missing name." The rhythms are a bit tricky, but you can go to the SFSF web site and hear how the syncopations works out, using the Sibelius Scorch software (free download). Changing Lights is a jig by David Newitt, which has been a favorite of Lorna Woelfel and friends. David says, The tune was written, originally as a 40 bar jig, for a Scottish country dance I wrote called "Visit to the Redwoods", which was devised for the 1st Scottish country dance camp at the Mendocino Woodlands Camp. It is now played more commonly as a supporting tune for various dances at the Berkeley Scottish dance classes. Thanks to Diane Heise for suggesting the tune.