The Cape Breton Fiddle Companion

Liz Doherty

• Publisher: Cape Breton University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781772060263
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

Celtic music scholar and musician Liz Doherty is no stranger to Cape Breton music – in fact, she has made a study of it. Doherty's exposure to, and research of, the island's music traditions was the germination for this compendium on the Cape Breton fiddle: its history, its people, the tunes, the recordings.The fiddle music of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, has its own sound, artistic standards, performance practices and etiquette. The Cape Breton fiddler of the 21st century is performing a music that was transplanted from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Adapted and evolved as it has passed down through several generations, each of its exponents carrying an inherited responsibility to maintain the music's integrity while also making it relevant for contemporary audiences.The Cape Breton Fiddle Companion widens the field of view for future adherents and scholars of Cape Breton music, raises as many questions as it answers, and thus contributes to the ongoing conversation. Above all, it is a tribute to those who have carried and developed this wonderful music and shared it with so many of us around the world.

M

Mabou Coal Mines-style. A specific style and repertoire that is distinct within Cape Breton; associated originally with the Mabou Coal Mines area of Inverness County, specifically with descendants of Alexander Beaton who emigrated from Skye in 1809, and perpetuated ever since through members of the extended Beaton family. Prominent among them were Donald John “The Tailor,” “Johnny Ranald,” “Curly” Sandy and Danny Johnny Ranald Beaton; later, in the 20th century, the key players were Donald Angus Beaton and Mary (Beaton) MacDonald; elements of the style are found more recently in the playing of Kinnon and Andrea Beaton, Rodney MacDonald, Glenn Graham, John Morris Rankin and members of the Campbell family; others such as Baroque violinist and fiddler David Greenberg have modelled their playing on this style. The Mabou Coal Mines style is the singular localized style that has been persistently maintained to the present day; other local stylistic clusters became increasingly less defined over the course of the 20th century, ultimately disappearing as clearly articulated entities. That the Mabou Coal Mines style has been the only one of these to be maintained in a robust and cohesive manner is due to several circumstances: the extent of the Beaton family, specifically the number of individuals within it playing fiddles and thus practicing this style right up to the present day, plus the fact that many of these players emerged as “master” fiddlers, bringing further attention to the style. The Mabou Coal Mines style is widely considered as reflecting an “old” Cape Breton sound and, as such, is often described as old style. It is showcased in a number of recordings such as The Beatons of Mabou (Rounder, 1978) and on Traditional Fiddle Music of Cape Breton: Mabou Coal Mines as part of the North American Traditional Music Series (Rounder, 2002).

style. The Mabou Coal Mines style is often described as the musical expression of the Gaelic language, a claim which many scholars have endeavoured (perhaps not wholly convincingly) to fully substantiate; indeed the descriptor of fiddlers “having Gaelic in their music” is often related to exponents of the Mabou Coal Mines-style. Marches, strathspeys and reels are the dominant tune types; jigs are also found, many of them featuring a rhythmic pattern of a quarter note followed by an eighth note, which creates a very distinctive metrical pulse, further emphasized by slurring across the beat. The style is characterized by a dense musical line, full of left-hand embellishments; many of these are executed in a deliberate and measured fashion so that distinction between the main melody note and the applied ornament is blurred. Drones and double stops abound, creating many passing dissonances that add colour. High-bass tunings for the fiddle were also frequently employed adding to the potential for textural density through ringing sympathetic strings. Intonation generally included a myriad of tonal inflections, many of them influenced by the bagpipe-tuning spectrum (in terms of range and tonality), adding additional colour. The tunes themselves often used mixolydian and dorian modes and, frequently, gapped scales. Various bowed ornaments (e.g., double up-bows) contributed rhythmic interest and complexity to the basic single-stroke bowing pattern. In particular, the technique described as “flying spicatto” (a series of three up-bows articulated in a specific manner) was regarded as a particular thumbprint of the style, and Donald Angus Beaton was considered a master of this. [Doherty 1996; Dunlay and Greenberg 1996; Graham 2006 ] See style, bowing styles, flying spicatto.

Mac. The first independent record label established by a Cape Breton fiddle player, Winston Fitzgerald, along with Lloyd Taylor, an employee of CJCB, Sydney, in the 1950s. Short lived, it had a small output of three 78s; these and other un-issued cuts were later sold to George Taylor of Rodeo Records who released them in 78 and, later, LP format.

MacArthur School of Dance. Based in Sydney since 1997, this dance school is under the directorship of Kelly MacArthur, a champion Highland dancer from Cape Breton, who has competed and performed all over the world. Teaching both Highland and Cape Breton step dance in both traditional and more contemporary forms, the school also has an active performance troupe, the CapeLand Dancers, which consists of top-level dancers from all over Cape Breton.

MacArthur, Lisa. (1977-). Fiddle. Codroy Valley, Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and Halifax, NS. She was introduced to the music of Cape Breton during the 1990s as acts such as the Rankin Family, The Barra MacNeils, Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac were enjoying commercial success and attracting a wide and young fan base. Access to Cape Breton music was relatively easy at this time and she began accumulating recordings and magazines, viewing CBC-TV specials and attending concerts, finding an ally in her father, Neil, a fan of Cape Breton and Irish musics, who had a collection of recordings of fiddlers such as Carl MacKenzie, Natalie MacMaster, Buddy MacMaster, Joe MacLean and Winston Fitzgerald. Deciding that she wanted to give the fiddle a try herself, her father borrowed an old Chinese fiddle from a neighbour and arranged for her to have lessons with Gordon Bennett in Stephenville, NL, who played Cape Breton music. He introduced her to the playing of Cameron Chisholm, Dwayne Côté, Brenda Stubbert, Jerry Holland, Stephanie Wills, Wendy MacIsaac and Jackie Dunn, and through him she met Maudie and Jeanie Hill and Vonnie (Hill) MacDonald, who were important as she began, from a young age, to further her studies of the fiddle music in Cape Breton. She enrolled at the Gaelic College for the entire summer of 1995, an experience out of which she was able to progress her fiddle playing with a variety of tutors, learn note reading, piano accompaniment and step dancing, and to discover and be inspired by a host of players from Cape Breton and Ireland. The following summer she attended both the Ceilidh Trail School and the Gaelic College, and eventually moved to live in Cape Breton. Her debut CD, Lisa MacArthur, was released by Odyssey in 2003; she now plays occasionally in a trio with Paul MacDonald (guitar) and Mario Colossimo (piano).

MacCuaig, Viola. Piano, fiddle. Glengarry County, Ontario, and Dalhousie, Québec. Born to parents Norman B. and Mary Jane (MacMillan) MacRae, she was raised at Lochiel, ON, in an area which had been settled by Scottish emigrants during the late 18th century and in which the Scottish culture and traditions had been maintained. Her mother played piano and her father sang Gaelic songs, and from a young age she attended music classes, gradually emerging as an accompanist to local fiddlers who visited the family home. In 1940 she married Walter MacCuaig and moved to Dalhousie, Québec, where she teamed up with Cape Breton fiddler “Little” Jack MacDonald and became his regular piano accompanist for more than three decades. They played for many years at Bob’s Hotel, Dalhousie Station, where Cape Breton musicians visited regularly. Following “Little” Jack’s death she joined a local fiddle group, Lochiel Strings in 1982, initially as a piano player and later on fiddle. After her death in 1994, Québec flute player and scholar Jean Duval, composed a lament in her honour, “Farewell Viola,” which was performed at her funeral. She was inducted posthumously into the Glengarry Celtic Hall of Fame in 2005 and later, as part of the Lochiel Fiddlers, in 2009.

MacCuspic, Charlie. (1931-2001). Fiddle. Baddeck, Victoria County. Born on Hunter’s Mountain, his main music influences came from outside the family and indeed outside of the predominantly Presbyterian Baddeck area where there were few fiddlers. His father played some fiddle, but since the family were sabbatarian Charlie wasn’t permitted to play music on the main recreation day, Sunday. He learned by ear, inspired by the music of Joe MacLean, Winston Fitzgerald, Buddy MacMaster and Carl MacKenzie, and became involved with the CBFA with whom he performed. He made a number of recordings, the earliest on cassette, the last, The Baddeck Gathering, on CD in 1993. He is also featured on a number of compilations, including Traditional Fiddle Music of Cape Breton: Bras d’Or House (Rounder, 2008). [Wilson 2008].

MacDonald, “Little” Jack. (1887-1969). Fiddle, bagpipes, step dance. Judique, Detroit, Dalhousie, Québec and Glengarry County, Ontario. Born to Donald Rory and Flora MacDonald, his parents died when he was very young and he was raised in Judique by his maternal uncle Allan “Tal” MacDonnell and his wife, Annie MacMaster. Another uncle, Angus “Hughie” MacDonnell, who lived on River Denys Road, introduced him to music, being a piper and a step-dance teacher whose own four sons – Allan, Archie, Hughie, Alexander – all played fiddle. “Little” Jack and his brother, “Little” Roddy, were taught the fiddle in their home by “Big” Dan Beaton from Mabou. Jack started on a homemade half-sized fiddle, and by the time he was a teenager was proficient enough to join a travelling show, Home Products and Medicine Man, travelling to Montréal where he continued his music education and developed basic music notation skills. Following a period in New England he lived in Timmons, ON, before moving in 1923 to Detroit, where he became part of the Cape Breton music scene playing, typically, with a guitarist or with Ann MacNeil on piano, at the Nova Scotia Club of Detroit, the Maritime Club in Windsor and at the various Scottish Societies; he also broadcast regularly on WMBC radio. In the 1940s he moved to Dalhousie, Québec, where he formed a music partnership with piano player Viola MacCuaig. “Little” Jack MacDonald is regarded as a particularly expressive player, who was one of the first Cape Breton fiddlers to emphasize the value of the music as an art form that might be experienced through listening, rather than always being danced to. He had a great interest in the classical violinists Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz, and was keen to transfer some of the ethos surrounding their performances into his playing of Cape Breton fiddle music. He was particularly renowned for his playing of airs that had only a limited presence in the tradition until then, and certain tunes – such as “Our Highland Queen” – came to be associated with him. In these he found a perfect vehicle for displaying his command of the bow, his confident and sweet tone, and his use of ornamental devices such as vibrato and slides. In his dance music, he was noted for his ability to employ distinctive bowing patterns and embellishments such as the double cut, a thumbprint of his style. Although “Little” Jack did not have a huge impact on Cape Breton music at home during his lifetime (having only returned on a few visits during his 50-year absence), he was a significant figure within the displaced Cape Breton community in the Detroit-Windsor area, and he influenced younger players such as Bobby MacNeil of Dearborn, Michigan. In 1939, he recorded the first of five 78s for the Celtic label, and, in the 1950s, an LP, The Bard of Scottish Fiddling; he also is featured on various anthologies of Cape Breton music for the Celtic and Banff labels. [MacGillivray 1981].

MacDonald family of Detroit, Michigan. One of several discrete family groupings of MacDonalds in the Detroit-Cape Breton community, father and daughter John Archie and Barbara (Magone) recorded together and individually.

MacDonald, John A. (...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright Notice
• Acknowledgements
• Using the Companion
• Abbreviations
• A Note from the Editors
• A Timeline of Cape Breton Fiddle Music
• Introduction
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
• Select Bibliography
• Index