'Danse Ce Soir! Fiddle and Accordion Music of Québec,' by Laurie Hart and Greg Sandell (Mel Bay Publications, Inc., $29.95)
Authors have organized the book by players
From the frontier fusions of the Athabascan fiddlers to the pure Scottish strains heard in the Maritime Provinces, Canada is home to some of North America's most intriguing folk-violin traditions. Quebec boasts a particularly fecund fiddle heritage rich with distinctive rhythms, unique phrasing, challenging bowing, and lots of deliriously "crooked" tunes.
Despite thousands of 78 rpm commercial recordings of traditional music and a small-but-steady stream of new CDs by revival bands in the province, the Quebecois repertoire has been poorly documented in print, and the music has survived in the traditional manner—passed down from musician to musician. Outside the region, the music has been limited to a small coterie of devoted enthusiasts, including a burgeoning group of admirers south of the border. This splendid new volume was a ten-year labor of love by Yankee fiddler Laurie Hart and pianist Greg Sandell, and it goes a long way towards documenting this worthy tradition.
The 122 transcriptions provide a core repertoire derived from many of the most significant practitioners of the tradition—mostly fiddlers and accordionists. The historic role of instrumental folk music in Quebec is the accompaniment of dancing, and the repertoire comprises reels, six-huits (equivalent to jigs in the Irish or Scottish traditions), galopes, marches, gigues, clogs, valses, and valse-clogs. Each form is well represented in the collection, and there are detailed notes about the quirks and characteristics of each rhythm. The extensive introduction also includes notes on the history of the region and its music, and player-oriented information about typical modes, idiomatic ornamentation, syncopation, bowing, and other matters of style.
The authors organized the book by players, and each section begins with a brief biography of the source musician followed by several tunes associated with that player. There are specific notes on the provenance of each tune, as well as some handy style tips and accompaniment details, including suggested chords for accompanying each tune. Unlike the rudimentary backup styles found in many folk-dance traditions, accompaniment in Quebec is a relatively sophisticated affair, and Hart and Sandell have included a useful primer on the typical sequences, harmonies, substitutions, and voicings employed by pianists and guitarists in the region. The book also provides contact information for organizations, festivals, and music camps that feature Quebecois music, as well as an extensive discography and a brief bibliography.
A companion CD featuring the playing of Hart and Sandell presents a selection of 32 tunes in a variety of settings, with fiddle and accordion taking turns on the lead voices, sometimes unaccompanied, other times with piano, guitar, or the spirited clogging associated with fiddling in Quebec providing the pulsating backup. The CD is nice listening, and it brings the details of the printed page to life as real music.
In all, an excellent introduction for those new to the tradition, and an essential resource for anyone already smitten with the bounce and swing of Quebecois music. To see the complete table of contents and list of transcriptions or to purchase the book and CD online, visit www.frenchcanadiantunebook.com.
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