Chiff and Fipple Forums

benhall.1 wrote:]Eh? What "sympathetic string thing"? The Shetland fiddling I know uses standard fiddles. Am I missing something?

Your source is referring to an Aly Bain/Ale Möller duet album. If anyone's playing sympathetic strings, presumably it's Möller.

s1m0n wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:]Eh? What "sympathetic string thing"? The Shetland fiddling I know uses standard fiddles. Am I missing something?

Your source is referring to an Aly Bain/Ale Möller duet album. If anyone's playing sympathetic strings, presumably it's Möller.

Aly Bain, I think, has played fiddles with sympathetic strings. I may have misread tin tin's post - it looks to me as if I may have accidentally mis-attributed it as well [mis-attribution sorted now] ... and in fact, it also looks to me now as if tin tin has changed his mind about it. I thought his suggestion was that Shetland fiddling in general featured sympathetic strings, as a matter of routine. But, as I say, I may have misinterpreted ...

Never mind.

In that light perhaps the album 'Ringing Strings : fiddle music of Norway-Shetland' by Hauk Buen, Knut Buen, Tom Anderson and Vidar Lande deserves mention, more Scandi than Shetland perhaps but quite lovely. Anderson has a few observations about using the Harding fiddle in combination with Shetland music in the sleeve notes as well.

Mr.Gumby wrote:In that light perhaps the album 'Ringing Strings : fiddle music of Norway-Shetland' by Hauk Buen, Knut Buen, Tom Anderson and Vidar Lande deserves mention, more Scandi than Shetland perhaps but quite lovely. Anderson has a few observations about using the Harding fiddle in combination with Shetland music in the sleeve notes as well.

That does sound intriguing. I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks.

Harding fiddle

Autocorrect fail?

Hardanger fiddle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYSVDG8ZFNw

Nyckelharpa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7qO-cCYZ8

Autocorrect fail?

No, perhaps a bit of early morning multiple lingual muddled/confused thinking. I initially wrote Hardanger fiddle, which is what I usually would think of but then Hardingfele kicked in and I ended up using that. It is also, I see now, the term used on the Topic album I mentioned above, so that probably contributed to it as well.

That does sound intriguing. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Topic 12ts429, from 1983

I already checked Amazon and eBay after your earlier post and found it currently unavailable except as download, but located it (and listened) on Spotify.

Mr.Gumby wrote:

Autocorrect fail?

No, perhaps a bit of early morning multiple lingual muddled/confused thinking. I initially wrote Hardanger fiddle, which is what I usually would think of but then Hardingfele kicked in and I ended up using that. It is also, I see now, the term used on the Topic album I mentioned above, so that probably contributed to it as well.

Ah. OK. Yes, I thought you meant Hardanger fiddle, but Hardingfele works just as well.

Nanohedron wrote: the greater part of any antipathy will really not have had all that much to do with the matter of low whistles themselves.

And I wouldn't expect such.

If a book critic gives a particular new novel a bad review it doesn't mean he doesn't like books.

pancelticpiper wrote:If a book critic gives a particular new novel a bad review it doesn't mean he doesn't like books.

It might do, though.

Sorry, my description was a bit confusing, and "sympathetic" isn't the right term--I don't mean like a Hardanger fiddle. But some Shetland fiddlers let some of the other strings ring out, or maybe they brush them a bit with the bow, so there's more going on harmonically than just one note/string. Here's how others characterize it:

The style makes use of double stops, in some cases leaving one string open so that it rings.

http://biteyourownelbow.com/fidstyle.htm

But Linda Anderson says there are little flourishes that set it apart, like ringing strings. "Ringing strings is a really common feature. So playing more than one note at the same time. And that was largely in Shetland because there were no other instruments playing for a dance. So it was one fiddler in a corner and a roomful of people dancing. So they had to make as much sound as they could and make that rhythm come out."

https://www.npr.org/2014/08/01/33716475 ... aggy-isles

whistle1000 wrote:That's funny lads!! I/We remember the last TSC threads. At least he didn't record it in his car, or did he?

The thing is, tin tin, that letting open strings ring and copious use of double stops is common practice in Irish music and Scottish music apart from Shetland. So what's different about Shetland in this respect? Also, of course, double stops don't require the presence of sympathetic strings.

No agenda here, but how common is scordatura in these other traditions?

(Edit: not even sure it's that common in Shetland, but I remember learning about the 'high bass' AEAE tuning in Peter Cooke's classes 30-something years ago, and some settings for it appear in Tom Anderson's books.)