Peter Macfarlane will lead our April workshop.
The strathspey is quintessentially Scottish. The very name means “valley of the River Spey”, which flows northeast from the Grampian Mountains. It was in this region, maybe in the 17th Century that a distinctive style of playing reels developed. They were slowed down and played in a jaunty, swung fashion, becoming known as Strathspey reels (reels played in the Spey Valley regional style). Over time they have become recognised as a distinct type of tune, rather than a reel variation, and have undergone their own evolution.
This workshop will examine the rhythmical features of a strathspey, using Niel Gow's Miss Stewart of Grandtully as an example. It will cover how to make the most of these features and their nuances,everything that is required to make the tune fly off the page and inspire dancing. Whilst many of the technical suggestions will relate to bowing a fiddle, all of the ideas can - and should - be adapted for other instruments.
If time permits, a second tune will be introduced: James Scott Skinner's The Iron Man. This will add a few more rhythmical and bowing ideas.
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Everyone please arrive in time for a prompt 1 p.m. start. Workshops typically run for two hours, then a coffee and tea break followed by a less formal jam using tunes from our session book.
If you are coming for the first time, note that the rear parking lot off of
Fayette St. provides the easiest access. We always try to have extra copies of the music for newcomers.
Questions? NHScottishMusic@gmail.com
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About Peter MacFarlane
Peter has been performing Scottish traditional music for well over three decades. Primarily a dance musician, he discovered the music through Scottish dancing, and this informs and infuses his playing. He cut his musical teeth in the hot seat as an itinerant fiddler with most of the Scottish dance bands in the south of England, learning from master accordionists. Later, as his own fiddle & piano duo, he performed in much of England and Wales, as well as the European continent.
In 1990 Peter inherited the mantle of organisation of the Aylesbury Fiddle Rally, an annual gathering of over 60 fiddlers to perform a concert of Scottish traditional music for an audience of ten times as many. He continued to organise and lead this event throughout the 1990s. During that time he was also invited to teach various fiddle workshops, notably for the UK’s Hands-on-Music series as well as at Pinewoods Scottish week in 1994, his first foray across the Atlantic. Since immigrating to Vermont in 2003, Peter has been teaching fiddle privately, along with workshops, such as at the Flurry Festival, NEFFA, Pinewoods, and several more.
Whilst he plays more now for contra dancing (with Atlantic Crossing & Frost and Fire), Peter still plays for a number of Scottish dances in northern New England each year, and occasionally beyond, as well as for celebrations with Scottish flavour, such as wedding ceilidh dances and Burns Nights. He has also co-founded, and is musical director of, the Champlain Valley Scottish Fiddle Club, an informal group which gathers monthly to enjoy playing Scottish traditional music. And most recently, in January 2020, he was appointed music director of the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra.
When not playing and teaching music, Peter can be found either in his workshop building cedar strip canoes or paddling them on remote waters, where he gains inspiration for new tunes. He has published two volumes of his own compositions, entitled North Country, and also recorded a CD (2003) of original Scottish-style tunes with Lilian Linden. More recently (2017) he has made a solo recording of several of his self-penned waltzes. Books, CDs and canoes can all be obtained directly from him.