Irish Fiddle Music, Song and Step Dance
Instrumental music has an important place in many culture's
traditions. To produce the sound, instruments may be blown,
struck or rubbed, plucked or bowed, or a combination of these.
Some instruments are known and used in modified forms across
many cultures. Others are unique to one culture. Sometimes
instrumental music functions as an accompaniment to dance
or song. Other times, it is performed solo, as entertainment
for an audience or even for the musician alone. Most highly
adept musicians have had some experience in both types of
situations.
One lead instrument that is found in a broad range of Pennsylvania
musical traditions is the violin, also known as the fiddle.
In rural Pennsylvania, many fiddlers play a repertoire mainly
derived from Scotch Irish, Irish, and English heritage. Their
fiddling is done both as part of stringband music, often to
accompany dancing, and in fiddle contests, where each fiddler's
technical virtuosity, breadth of repertoire, and musical acumen
are judged and compared. There are also "front porch"
fiddlers, who neither play for dances nor enter contests,
but who are known within their communities for their skill
and repertoire, demonstrated at informal gatherings of family
and friends.
Others in Pennsylvania, such as east Europeans and groups
from India and Asia also have violin traditions. In Hungarian
and Polish musical forms, the violin is often the lead instrument
in a dance band. In Cambodian and Indian cultures, forms of
the violin are used as solo instruments or to accompany song.
Much of traditional American folk song and dance has its
origins in the musical traditions brought to America by Irish
immigrants. Ballads sung in the Appalachian Mountains bear
a direct connection to those heard in Ireland; many of our
traditional square dance sets reflect early Irish set dancing
in America; and numerous old-time fiddle tunes played in the
Upland South and Midwest have evolved from the dance music
played by early Irish settlers.
© 2001 On Tour Productions
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