Notes and Tunes from Our European Correspondent

Maria McCullough, a charter member of the Chicago chapter of the Fiddle Club of the World, represented the Fiddle Department on an exchange program that sent five Old Town School teachers and two administrators to Newcastle, England and Helsinki, Finland this past spring. Armed with a video camera and sound recorder, Maria digitally captured some fabulous folk music moments.

You can visit the Old Town School Connect blog to read Maria’s comments and peruse some of the footage. I highly recommend the videos of the Rapper Sword Dance, performed in a pub in Newcastle, and the demonstration of the Jouhikko, an archaic bowed lyre now being taught to students at the in the Folk Music Department of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

The Sibelius Academy parallels the Old Town School in many ways, including offering ensemble classes dedicated to traditional folk music. Maria got to participate in one such class taught by Olli Varis. A mandolinist and guitarist, Olli is a veteran of some of Finland’s best known professional folk music groups, including Koinurit, Värttinä and the Helsinki Mandoliners.

Olli Varis
Olli Varis

Here’s a three-part tune taught by Olli.

Suden Rita

And here’s the ensemble class wailing away at the tune. The Old Town School’s Steve Levitt joins in on guitar on the right. What is the one major difference between this class in Helsinki and Old Time Ensemble at the Old Town School (I mean besides the fact that the students are reading music off the stands in front of them)? These Finnish students are receiving college credit for learning their old time music!

Sibelius Ensemble Class
(click to enlarge)

For more of the flavor of folk music in Finland and England, peruse Maria’s comments on the On the Road blog. For a taste of fiddling in northern England, try her recording of a lesson with fiddler Ruth Ball. The tune is the “Dunstanburgh Rant.” Here’s a shorter clip of the full tune at a moderate tempo. (Rants are like reels. They should played pretty fast.)

Dunstanburgh Rant

Keep fiddling.

Paul Tyler

Filed under: Interesting Tunes,Musings,Tunes by Paul | June 18, 2008 | Comments (1)

More Announcements

From the Department of Redundancy Department:

Let’s play our tunes together!
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Sunday, June 15, 6:30-9:30
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Leadway Bar and Gallery 5233 N. Damen, Chicago
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It’s free. Just let me know you’re coming. (ptyler@oldtownschool.org)

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Also, check out the Fiddler’s Picnic this Sunday, June 8th. It’s hosted by the Folklore Society at the University of Chicago. The whole event runs from 12 noon till 6 in the Hutchinson Commons Courtyard. Here’s a map. Jam sessions are open to all players. The featured guest is fiddler and banjoist extraordinaire, Dan Gellert. No time posted for his concert, but the best guess is sometime around 3 pm.

The small stuff (not to be sweated).

The 6th Annual Midwest Fiddle Championship is fast approaching, and the online entry form has not yet been linked. IT promises me it will be there by this Friday (June 6). Paper registration forms can also be found at the Old Town School of Folk Music or at Seman Violins. Register by July 1st.

And IT is also promising to set a link on Fiddle Club website that will enable you to subscribe to an RSS feed. I’m not yet clear how that works (I’m not even sure if that’ the right acronym), but it will notify you when something new goes up on this blog. Stay posted.

Paul Tyler, convener

Filed under: Fiddle Club,Meeting Schedule by Paul | June 5, 2008 | Comments (0)

Some C Tunes

Click blue link to download or to listen to these .mp3s.
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In fiddle classes at the Old Town School, we seldom get around to teaching tunes in the key of C. That’s a shame. There are so many good ones. Larry Warren, a gentleman I met on FIDDLE-L, posted a private page of sound clips of C tunes contributed from fellow FIDDLE-L subscribers. Here’s my contribution of a few gems (IMHO) that I don’t think made it to Larry’s page.

Blue Buggy Bounce

I learned this nearly 30 years ago from Hector Phillips, of Petersburg, Indiana. I made this recording ten years ago for a FIDDLE-L compilation CD. Rhys Jones is on guitar.

Hector Phillips can be seen and heard in “Tough, Pretty, or Smart: A Portrait of the Patoka Valley Boys,” a film by Dillon Bustin and Richard Kane.

Postuns Jig

Even longer ago, I learned this one from Paul Gifford, who was then living in Ferndale, Michigan. He learned it from Merritt Olsen, from the nearby Detroit suburb of Birmingham. I heard Merritt play once–he also played a button box accordion–and greatly regret that I never went to visit him. Of course, at that time I could barely scratch out an identifiable tune.

Walter Harmon’s Hornpipe in C

And this one I learned in 1979 from Donald Duff of Lizton, Indiana. He learned it from Mr. Harmon, an older local fiddler who helped Mr. Duff get started when he was a kid. Jimmie Campbell of Dolan, Indiana played the tune as well, and called it “Old Bob.” Same name, different tune from one Garry Harrison collected.

Just so the record is straight, I am the fiddler on all these recordings. Any clunkers are mine and mine alone. Enjoy the tunes, and maybe we can play one of two of them at the upcoming open session of the Fiddle Club on July 15.

Paul Tyler, convener

Filed under: Interesting Tunes,Musings,Tunes by Paul | June 5, 2008 | Comments (0)