/https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CK6V-QTb6qI

Traditions Week 3 at Common Ground on the Hill is right around the corner! The week of workshops on Celtic music and dance runs from Monday, July 14 through Friday, July 18. After attending Common Ground as a student many times over the years, I’m excited to take on the role of teacher this year! In late April, I was asked to teach two classes, Irish Fiddle and Celtic Fiddle, when English fiddler Saskia Tomkins was unable to return this year. I have slightly modified her course descriptions to fit my own teaching style, but the focus of the classes has remained largely unchanged.

Preparing for the Celtic Fiddle Class has been a journey! As a fiddler, I have mainly focused on Irish Fiddle styles, from Kerry to Donegal, and spent a period of time exploring the music of the Sligo greats, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, and Michael Coleman. Performing at the Festival InterCeltique in Lorient, Brittany many years ago exposed me to music from Brittany and the other Celtic “nations” – Galicia, Wales, The Isle of Man, and Cornwall – but I never set out to add any of this music to my repertoire. Until now. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with my class.

Like many Americans of my generation, my first exposure to Irish music was through records. Starting with Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, I learned jigs and reels that were presented in a hybrid folk/rock style. A few years later I met fiddler Brendan Mulvihill, who had come to Washington D.C. along with Billy McComiskey and Andy O’Brien to perform at The Dubliner Pub on Capitol Hill. I began visiting Brendan and taping tunes from him, and eventually he invited me to partner with him at sessions and even a duo performance at NYC’s Eagle Tavern. Later on, my wife Muriel and I attended the Willie Clancy Festival in Miltown Malbay, along the coast of Clare. While she took dance classes, I took fiddle classes with Tommy Peoples, one of my early heroes, and local Clare fiddle legends Bobby Casey, Junior Crehan, and Joe Ryan.

Returning to Irish Fiddle after more than two decades teaching music to high school students and playing classical music with the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, I brought a fresh perspective to my fiddling that was more deliberate and controlled, and more attuned to stylistically appropriate phrasing and articulation. I had accumulated hundreds of recordings of Irish music over the years, and once I retired from teaching I set about digitizing tapes and LPs . I discovered online resources that had appeared over the last twenty years – the Irish Traditional Music Archives, The Session, field recordings from Kevin Delaney and the County Clare Library, that presented recordings of many great players from the past. Having these recordings available as digital files allowed me to transcribe tunes and play along with them, and to adjust their pitch and tempo.

My approach to teaching the Irish Fiddle Class will be to give students a greater appreciation of the nuances of traditional fiddle, and help them to gain insight into the structure of the tunes in order to bring out their “stories.” To me, one of the joys of playing Irish Trad is the freedom to add ornamentation and variations to the tunes, whether solo or in sessions. It is a process that is worked out over years, and it begins with memorizing a basic version of a given tune, then elaborating upon it over each playing. The tunes I am presenting will come in two versions – a simple setting followed by a more elaborate version with added ornamentation and variations.

I hope to share some of the fruits of my labor with my students during the week of classes. I also look forward to meeting and collaborating with the other Celtic Week teachers in our daily Session class and evening concert on Thursday, July 17. Many thanks to Walt Michael and the Common Ground staff for giving me this opportunity.

Celtic Fiddle Repertoire

/https://www.commongroundonthehill.org/classes/celtic-fiddle-rep

Irish Fiddle

/https://www.commongroundonthehill.org/classes/irish-fiddle-oneill