Cairdeas na bhFidléirí has prepared three volumes of Donegal fiddle music, for use in the Donegal Fiddlers' Summer School in Glencolmcille (which meets the first week of August annually). The primary force behind the compilations is the founder of Cairdeas and author of Between the Jigs and the Reels, Caoimhín Mac Aoidh.
The first volume is, unfortunately, out of print. The second and third volumes are well worth the price for anyone who has an interest in the music -- indeed, for any Irish musician who likes to play Donegal tunes. Very many classic Donegal tunes appear, in excellent settings. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the tunebooks without the accompanying tapes -- or at least without good prior knowledge of what the tunes sound like. Details follow.
These are transcriptions from a variety of sources -- some from commercial recordings, some from private recordings, and no doubt some from memory. And all from good players, most from masters like the Dohertys. Some, but not all, of the double stops and other ornaments from the original performances are included. An important aspect of any tunebook is the amount of ornamentation included; the extremes of too much and too little are usually to be avoided, and these tunebooks do a good job of steering a middle course.
There is a large variety of tune types in both volumes: reels, highlands (also called schottishes or flings), germans (also called barndances), jigs (double, slip, and single), strathspeys, hornpipes, a number of mazurkas (including two I didn't know existed), some airs, and even a few polkas (and you thought they didn't play polkas in Donegal). There are four versions of "Pidgeon on the Gate" included and three of "Dulaman na Beinne Buidhe." Sometimes the type of tune is not indicated anywhere -- and the player may not know whether it is a reel, highland, or barndance. This is not such a problem in volume 3 since the tunes are arranged by type there; but it is a problem in volume 2.
The editor/transcribers are of course steeped in the Donegal tradition, and there are notes, often extensive, on all the tunes, at the end of each volume. The notes are very helpful for anyone who has a lot of recorded Donegal fiddling, for purposes of locating original sources and so forth. There is no table of contents or index, however, which is a regrettable oversight.
Volume 2 is photocopied from handwritten transcriptions. In a small number of places it's hard to make out which note is supposed to be played, but that isn't a very big problem. Repeat signs are left out, which is very annoying and would surely make playing confusing for anyone who did not know the tunes well (this is one reason why I say it's necessary to get the tapes too). But the excellence of the tunes themselves and the transcriptions makes up for these defects, in my opinion.
Volume 3, on the other hand, is more of a slick production, easy to read, on semi-glossy paper and with apparently computer-typeset tune transcriptions. The repeats are included. And again, it is chock-full of great tunes.
In both volumes, some position work is sometimes required; then fingering is very usefully noted. Fourth finger notation (reminding the player not to use the open string) is included -- which can be a guilty reminder (or an annoyance) for a lazy player like me, but maybe it will do good in the end. After all, these are supposed to be tutor books.
I greatly look forward to a compilation volume, which Caoimhín Mac Aoidh has told me is forthcoming. No doubt it will lack some of the problems I've noted, and which the editors are surely already aware of; some people may indeed wish to wait for it to appear rather than buy these books.
In any case, the tunebooks are, unfortunately, not recommended to be used without the accompanying tutor tapes, or without prior knowledge of what the tunes sound like. Unless you know what the tunes sound like already, do not buy the books unless you plan to buy the tapes. Highlands, barndances, and mazurkas are usually played swung, and sometimes parts are "snapped," but there is no indication of this in the text. Anyone with little knowledge of the Donegal style would be confused by a number of such unexplained matters. This makes the tapes required and makes the entire investment in the package $35 plus two blank tapes; but...
....fortunately, the tapes make good listening, so it will not seem like such a sacrifice. The players include the likes of Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Paul O'Shaughnessy, Ciaran Tourish (Altan's three fiddlers, in other words), along with several other fiddlers of high caliber such as Kevin and Séamus Glackin, and Séamus Gibson. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh should do a solo recording. The Paul O'Shaughnessy tracks are often astonishingly good; Francie Byrne did not say for nothing that he was one of the most exciting and skilled players he had ever encountered (this judgment was reported in the liner notes to The Fiddle Music of Donegal CD). The Séamus Gibson tracks are similar to -- and arguably better than -- the tracks in his uncle Tommy Peoples' tutor tape. Listening to Gibson alongside the other players is quite interesting: one asks, "Are these players supposed to be playing the same style?"
There are a lot of tunes on these tapes -- over 130 between the two by my estimate. Not every tune in the books is recorded, but many are. There is no cross-referencing between the two (which would of course be very useful). Some tunes, notably "Paddy's Trip to Scotland," are recorded not once or twice but several times (to give the student exposure to different variations and styles).
The trouble -- if you want to call it that -- with the tapes is that they are not really tutor tapes at all. Only one of the players (Séamus Glackin) slows down to half or two-thirds speed, before playing a tune again up to speed. Very often the players are giving us really excellent performances of the tunes, up to speed and with many and idiosyncratic embellishments. There is an up side and a down side to this. On the one hand, the good playing encourages the student to listen to the tape -- it makes for good listening. On this point, they are in stark contrast with the fiddle tutor recordings that come with the Matt Cranitch and Peter Cooper fiddle tutor books. It's also good listening even if you have no intention to learn the tunes. On the other hand, anyone who is not fairly well advanced is not likely to be able to (and shouldn't try to) play along with much of the tape. Indeed, the whole production will no doubt leave beginners high and dry, unless the beginner attends the summer school. But of course these books and tapes were not originally conceived for wide consumption by beginners outside the school.
Caoimhín dubs the tapes with his own equipment -- which is all right, as the sound quality of the tapes is usually good. They weren't done in a studio, apparently, but does that matter? The only defects as far as sound goes is an occasional odd tapping noise, and some harsh overtones on some tracks when, apparently, the recording level was set too high.
If you buy the tapes alone, that's fine except that you will not know what is on them. The contents and players of the tapes is listed in Vol. 2 of the Tutor. So without the tutor, you can treat the tapes as extremely good bootlegs or field recordings.
To anyone seriously playing or learning to play fiddle in the Donegal style, the whole package is most highly recommended. For fiddlers who dabble in all sorts of styles, whether it can be recommended depends on how much you like to play Donegal tunes. For rank beginners whose direction is as yet uncertain, the package cannot be recommended unless you have a great interest in Donegal fiddling and money burning a hole in your pocket. Of course, I personally find the whole production a joy and a godsend.
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