Today at a teaching workshop as we were playing through new orchestral arrangements ( one was a very beautiful setting of Logan Water) someone mentioned the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. I don’t know much about them, could anyone give me some information? Thank you.
Don’t know if this link will work or not - if not, do a “Google” - they have a website, and have certainly made CDs and videotapes.:
http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ap_Cks354TxYTgZYlMurmrRLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBjcWlmbGY5BGwDV1MxBHNlYwNzcg--/SIG=11gql2pm7/EXP=1129927403/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfo.org.uk%2F
Seems to work OK - good luck !
Thank you, Kenny. That is one huge orchestra; have you heard them? It doesn’t look like they tour in my area.
Melbourne (Oz) have a great Scottish Fiddle Orchestra as well. Their CD whose name escapes me had a video on the first track - if you played it on the computer - and it really looked like they all had a great time playing together.
http://www.scottishfiddlers.com/Sydney/Melbourne.htm
I heard them about 15 years ago.
The sound was not to my liking (I was, and still am, of the opinion that someone just hadn’t thought it through). You must make your own judgement.
The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra originally formed after the success of various fiddlers rallies about thirty years or so ago. Many local strathspey and reel societies hold their own rallies and invite fiddlers etc to join them. Sometimes, there can be well over a hundred participants. The idea behind the SFO was to form a full time touring orchestra with the better players run along the same lines as the local fiddle societies.
Now, this sort of arrangement is not, as Dave indicates, to everyone’s taste. The musicians play “from the music” and it tends to be a very uniform, mechanical sound with little scope for individuality, although there are occasional solos.
Having said that, I attend a strathspey and reel society myself and participate in these rallies. I enjoy playing with other people and they are a great scource for (mostly) Scottish tunes. However, I wouldn’t play them in the same style outwith the orchestra situation which can be very restrictive. Many of the members(by no means all) are often incapable of adapting to other situations and have to rely on following the written arrangements.
Thank you for the input. I thought this might be the case; with a large orchestra everything must be very precise as to avoid muddiness in sound. And, one does tend to get very reliant one the notes.
Aye, I played wi’ the Oldmeldrum Fiddlers & the late Bill Hardie (RIP). It was very much a case of all bows up, all bows down & I remember the auld boy who sat beside me had been playing the fiddle for about 60 years & yet he still gazed with glassy eyes at the music as we played all the bog standard tunes!
We played for local functions & events, & in small groups at local Nursing Homes & so took the music out into the community & it did give musicians, who may well have been too shy to play on their own, an outlet for their music.
However, I would agree with what has been said above, it is certainly not everyon’s cup of tea. The SFO comes to Norn Iron regularly & they always get good crowds attending trheir concerts, so there is a market for this, but you don’t usually see any trad musicians amongst the crowd.
Just think of Lisa Simpson being banished, with her Sax, from the school orchestra & you’ll get the picture! 🙂
Perfect, Ptarmigan! Great analogy.
Not to veryone’s taste but everyone should hear it at least once.
Quite a - … unique … - sound
Once was definately once to often for me!