I've just read it.
It is very funny and written, tongue fimly in cheek and meant, I assume, to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
I am comfortable in the knowledge that, as a fiddler, only one hundred and thirty seven tunes with different titles are in fact the same tune.....and not the one about the Wolverine either.
We don't get them over here.
We do have some rather agressive squirrels however.
And my cat, Colin, can get a bit funny sometimes but no-one has ever written a tune about him though.
There's a challenge.
... yes, it is one of the secrets of this music ... some tunes sound the same but are not ( what shoots you out of the session after a few bars, because you mixed upt the one they play with the one you thought they play....). others are phenotypically from different solar systems but turn out to be the same tune. but aren´t we all searching for the one tune that has them all???
As a flute player, I've always thought that about tunes on the fiddle.... nah, just joking. As Geoff says, this is a wind-up, but probably a healthy one. It shows that there must be loadsa The Music being played in Canada, enough for a broadsheet(?) satirical journalist to sit up and start giving out about it.
You've definitley got to try the reel "The Cat & the Mountain Squirrel" I posted recently in response to a request. Yeah I know they're not really mountain squirrel variety in your neck of the woods - but it's close.
No, no, no. They only think it's one tune because of the usual scenario: "hey, let's do that reel, you, know that you don't know the name, but it has that part that goes 'dee dee deede dee..." And you think you know it and play the A part, but by the second time through the A part you realize that you don't have a clue about the B part so you just play something that turns out to belong to something else, and then you always play the other tune as a dance set, so you go on to the next tune that Irene taught you that she may not have gotten quite right but it's really fun to play (and she didn't know the name of that one, either....)
So, see, it's sort of like aspen trees. Anyone with an aspen tree in their yard know that there is only one aspen tree in the world; they just send up shoots all over the place and make new trees.
I mean, is that profound or what......
Batlady
Loved the article - liked the humour - I've e-mailed author along the lines of thanking him for (re-)discovering the tune - last heard of when it was illegally smuggled aboard a ship leaving Scotland for Cape Breton around the time of the Highland Clearances. Looking foward to the return of a major part of Scotland's national heritage else major diplomatic incident - maple syrup embargos etc.
Frustrated Scottish fiddler
(fed-up practising All the scales and arpeggios - which is the scale required for THE tune?)
I'm glad so many of you got a kick out of the article. The edge he built into the second half didn't grab my funny bone, but then again, I'm one of those sensitive types.
I think we should take steps to leave this man condemned to listen to some Drum'n'Bass for a week non-stop. Then he might be glad of a fiddle-tune or two to break the monopoly.
If he's right, how come I have books of tunes, of which I can only play a few ?
Only one tune?
Only one tune?
Here we go again. Another article in the weekend paper saying that all the tunes we play and love are exactly the same. Read and rant.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1057961414056
Cheers,
Greg
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by octogreg
Re: Only one tune?
ANOTHER Dave Barry wanna be!
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Only one tune?
I've just read it.
It is very funny and written, tongue fimly in cheek and meant, I assume, to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
I am comfortable in the knowledge that, as a fiddler, only one hundred and thirty seven tunes with different titles are in fact the same tune.....and not the one about the Wolverine either.
We don't get them over here.
We do have some rather agressive squirrels however.
And my cat, Colin, can get a bit funny sometimes but no-one has ever written a tune about him though.
There's a challenge.
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Only one tune?
Yes, now we need a tune called Colin's Midnight Cat Crazies...
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Only one tune?
... yes, it is one of the secrets of this music ... some tunes sound the same but are not ( what shoots you out of the session after a few bars, because you mixed upt the one they play with the one you thought they play....). others are phenotypically from different solar systems but turn out to be the same tune. but aren´t we all searching for the one tune that has them all???
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by crannog
Re: Only one tune?
As a flute player, I've always thought that about tunes on the fiddle.... nah, just joking. As Geoff says, this is a wind-up, but probably a healthy one. It shows that there must be loadsa The Music being played in Canada, enough for a broadsheet(?) satirical journalist to sit up and start giving out about it.
Danny.
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Only one tune?
Bollox
That’s the only response to this pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo.
All the best PP
# Posted on July 14th 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Only one tune?
Geoff,
You've definitley got to try the reel "The Cat & the Mountain Squirrel" I posted recently in response to a request. Yeah I know they're not really mountain squirrel variety in your neck of the woods - but it's close.
Ron
# Posted on July 15th 2003 by fifer
Re: Only one tune?
Fifer!
I have been learning that one for the last couple of weeks. It's a really good tune. Cheers
# Posted on July 15th 2003 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Only one tune?
No, no, no. They only think it's one tune because of the usual scenario: "hey, let's do that reel, you, know that you don't know the name, but it has that part that goes 'dee dee deede dee..." And you think you know it and play the A part, but by the second time through the A part you realize that you don't have a clue about the B part so you just play something that turns out to belong to something else, and then you always play the other tune as a dance set, so you go on to the next tune that Irene taught you that she may not have gotten quite right but it's really fun to play (and she didn't know the name of that one, either....)
So, see, it's sort of like aspen trees. Anyone with an aspen tree in their yard know that there is only one aspen tree in the world; they just send up shoots all over the place and make new trees.
I mean, is that profound or what......
Batlady
# Posted on July 15th 2003 by Batlady
Re: Only one tune?
Loved the article - liked the humour - I've e-mailed author along the lines of thanking him for (re-)discovering the tune - last heard of when it was illegally smuggled aboard a ship leaving Scotland for Cape Breton around the time of the Highland Clearances. Looking foward to the return of a major part of Scotland's national heritage else major diplomatic incident - maple syrup embargos etc.
Frustrated Scottish fiddler
(fed-up practising All the scales and arpeggios - which is the scale required for THE tune?)
# Posted on July 15th 2003 by fifer
Re: Only one tune?
I'm glad so many of you got a kick out of the article. The edge he built into the second half didn't grab my funny bone, but then again, I'm one of those sensitive types.
Greg
# Posted on July 15th 2003 by octogreg
Re: Only one tune?
I think we should take steps to leave this man condemned to listen to some Drum'n'Bass for a week non-stop. Then he might be glad of a fiddle-tune or two to break the monopoly.
If he's right, how come I have books of tunes, of which I can only play a few ?
# Posted on July 17th 2003 by Guernsey Pete