Hi, I just discovered this great web site. I will be traveling in the Donegal & Sligo area. My understanding is that the fiddling style is different from Co. Clare. Could anyone give me some insight? Are there certain tunes for those areas? Thank you for your help!
Welcome! My beginner's impression is that Clare fiddling is lyrical and languid ("long bow"), Donegal fiddling is fast and furious ("short bow"), and Sligo is somewhere inbetween.
Clare: Martin Hayes
Sligo: Kevin Burke
Donegal: Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
This is, of course, a terrible oversimplification, and possibly even completely wrong. Someone will be along shortly to explain it all correctly, at great length. And then someone else will explain why that person has it all wrong.
I certainly recall tunes being associated with a specific county; e.g., The Gravel Path to Granny (or whatever you call it) with Donegal. There is also the issue of tune types: Donegal, being northern, has highlands and other Scottish influence. Check out recordings by the artists named above.
Regional styles are (sadly) disappearing. You can still hear the old fellas playing their local idiosyncratic styles if you know which pubs to go to, but with so many people learning from cd's (I almost typed 'records'. Yipe! I'm old!) and youtube, etc. It seems that most people are taking from every tradition what they like and melding them into their own style.
The old fellas, however, were also well-known for borrowing tunes and ideas from other traditions. Padraig o'Keeffe used music books and Coleman records to find tunes, and Kerry's Paddy Cronin remains notorious for having "challenged" the Sligo masters by re-recording some of their best sets.
frequent tunes
frequent tunes
Hi, I just discovered this great web site. I will be traveling in the Donegal & Sligo area. My understanding is that the fiddling style is different from Co. Clare. Could anyone give me some insight? Are there certain tunes for those areas? Thank you for your help!
# Posted on May 4th 2008 by fiddler woman
Re: frequent tunes
Welcome! My beginner's impression is that Clare fiddling is lyrical and languid ("long bow"), Donegal fiddling is fast and furious ("short bow"), and Sligo is somewhere inbetween.
Clare: Martin Hayes
Sligo: Kevin Burke
Donegal: Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
This is, of course, a terrible oversimplification, and possibly even completely wrong. Someone will be along shortly to explain it all correctly, at great length. And then someone else will explain why that person has it all wrong.
Again--welcome to thesesh!
# Posted on May 4th 2008 by mickray
Re: frequent tunes
I certainly recall tunes being associated with a specific county; e.g., The Gravel Path to Granny (or whatever you call it) with Donegal. There is also the issue of tune types: Donegal, being northern, has highlands and other Scottish influence. Check out recordings by the artists named above.
# Posted on May 4th 2008 by sixholes
Re: frequent tunes
This might help you with the DONEGAL ONE=
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6464/hmpg.html
Hope So- jim,,
# Posted on May 4th 2008 by FIDDLE4
Re: frequent tunes
Regional styles are (sadly) disappearing. You can still hear the old fellas playing their local idiosyncratic styles if you know which pubs to go to, but with so many people learning from cd's (I almost typed 'records'. Yipe! I'm old!) and youtube, etc. It seems that most people are taking from every tradition what they like and melding them into their own style.
# Posted on May 4th 2008 by Farr
Re: frequent tunes
The old fellas, however, were also well-known for borrowing tunes and ideas from other traditions. Padraig o'Keeffe used music books and Coleman records to find tunes, and Kerry's Paddy Cronin remains notorious for having "challenged" the Sligo masters by re-recording some of their best sets.
--DtM
# Posted on May 5th 2008 by Dan the Man