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The term 'fiddle' refers to a violin when used in folk music. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music. 'Fiddle playing', or 'fiddling', is a style of music.
Violin vs. fiddle
A violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the kind of music being played with it. The word "violin" is derived from Italian and the word "fiddle" is native to English. The two words are etymologically related, however, both ultimately deriving from the same Germanic word.[1]
Historically, the word ''fiddle'' also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have 4 strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another family of instruments which contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards.
One very slight difference between "fiddles" and ordinary violins may be seen in American (e.g., bluegrass and old-time music) fiddling: in these styles, the top of the bridge may be cut so that it is very slightly less curved. This reduces the range of right-arm motion required for the rapid string-crossings found in some styles, and is said to make it easier to play double stops and shuffles (bariolage), or to make triple stops possible, allowing one to play chords.
Most classical violinists prefer a more rounded curve to the top of the bridge, which allows them to articulate each note more easily and clearly. In practice, most instruments are fitted with a rounded bridge to better accommodate the shape of the fingerboard. (One exception is the 3-string ''kontra'' or ''bracsa'', a viola used in Hungarian and Transylvanian folk music fitted with a flat bridge to allow all three strings to be played simultaneously.) In any case, the difference between "round" and "flat" is not great; about a quarter or half a millimeter variation in the height of one or two strings. As a violin's bridge is relatively easy to replace, modifying the bridge does not permanently make a violin into a fiddle.
It is also more common to see an instrument described as a fiddle if it has steel strings rather than gut or synthetic, and fine tuners on all four strings; it is very uncommon to see four fine tuners on instruments played by classical musicians. (Fine tuners are small screw mechanisms attached to the tailpiece, which make small tuning adjustments easier.) As with the bridge, this configuration is easy to change from "violin" to "fiddle", and causes no irreversible changes to the instrument.
In construction, fiddles and violins are exactly the same. Various clichés describe the difference: "When you are buying it, it's a fiddle. When you are selling it, it's a violin," "The violin sings, the fiddle dances," "A fiddle is a violin with attitude," or, in answer to the musical joke, "What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?", "No one cries when they spill beer on a fiddle." According to Branson performer Shoji Tabuchi, the difference lies "in how you fiddle around with it." As might be expected from the differences between classical and folk music, violinists tend to be formally trained and fiddlers tend to be informally trained, although crossing over is not uncommon.
Fiddling
In performance, solo fiddling is the norm, though twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian, and Irish styles. Violins, on the other hand, are commonly grouped in sections. These contrasting traditions may be vestiges of historical performance settings: large concert halls in which violins were played required more instruments, before electronic amplification, than did more intimate dance halls and houses fiddles were played in. The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music and fiddle music. Historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness which fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, did not always follow - in situations that required greater volume, a fiddler (as long as they kept the beat) could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. (Different fiddle traditions had different values, as detailed below; these explanations are meant to present the differences between fiddle music and violin music generally.)
Following the folk revivals of the second half of the 20th century, however, it has become common for less formal situations to find large groups of fiddlers playing together -- see for example the Swedish Spelmanslag folk-musician clubs, and the world-wide[2] phenomenon of Irish sessions.
In the very late 20th century, a few artists have successfully attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and "big fiddle," or cello. Notable recorded examples include Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses and Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas' Fire and Grace.
Bows used in fiddling
Most fiddling styles that use the standard violin also use the standard violin bow, the same as classical players. However, there are a few styles which use other bows. One notable example is the folk music from Hungary and Transylvania used in the táncház tradition. While the violinist uses a standard bow, both the kontra (3-string viola) and bass are played here with short, heavy and crude "folk bows", consisting of a stout stick, usually hand-hewn, with the hank of horsehair attached at the tip and tied around the frog. The player tensions the hair by squeezing it when playing.
Violin bows used by fiddlers are usually made from wood, but bows made from fiberglass and other materials are becoming more common.
Scottish fiddlers emulating 18th century playing styles sometimes use a replica of the type of bow used in that period, which is a few inches shorter, and weighted significantly differently.
Fiddling styles
To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound, including, but not limited to:
★ American fiddling, including
★
★ Old Time fiddling
★
★ New England style fiddling, and contra dance fiddling generally
★
★ Cajun fiddling
★
★ Texas style fiddling
★
★ Contest Fiddling
★
★ Bluegrass fiddling
★
★ Blues fiddling
★ Arabic Music
★ Balkan Music, Táncház (Hungarian) and Romanian music
Newfoundland fiddle player Patrick Moran
★ Canadian fiddling, including
★
★ Cape Breton fiddling, with a distinct Scottish and Acadian influence
★
★ Québécois fiddling, influenced from the Brittany area of northern France
★
★ Métis fiddling, of central and western Canada, with French influence
★
★ Newfoundland fiddling, with a strong Irish Sliabh Luachra style of playing
★
★ Maritime or Downeast style of fiddling which has many similarities to Cape Breton fiddling
★ English fiddling
★ French fiddling (including a rich Breton fiddling tradition)
★ Irish fiddling including, among others,
★
★ Clare fiddling, from the central west
★
★ Donegal fiddling, from the northwest
★
★ Sliabh Luachra fiddling, from the southwest
★
★ Sligo fiddling, from a bit south of the northwest
★ Mexican fiddling from the Tierra Caliente region of Mexico
★ Norwegian fiddling (including Hardanger fiddling)
★ Peruvian violin
★ Scottish fiddling
★ Slovenian fiddling
★ Swedish fiddling
★ South Indian Carnatic fiddling
List of notable recorded fiddle players
''For a more comprehensive list of fiddlers, see List of fiddlers; for a list of All-Ireland Fiddle Champions, see Fiddle champions.''
★ Fred Carpenter
★ Stuart Duncan
★ Betse Ellis
★ Johnny Gimble
★ Red Herron
★ Bobby Hicks
★ Buddy Spicher
★ Paul Warren
★ Chubby Wise
American
Appalachian/Piedmont
:
★ Vernon Derrick (Jimmy Martin's fiddler)
:
★ Rayna Gellert
:
★ Bruce Greene (collector of Kentucky tunes and styles)
:
★ Ed Haley
:
★ Tommy Jarrell
:
★ Clark Kessinger
:
★ Brad Leftwich
:
★ Bruce Molsky
:
★ Uncle Charlie Osborne
:
★ Bridget Regan from Flogging Molly
:
★ Doc Roberts
:
★ John Salyer
Bluegrass
:
★ Darol Anger
:
★ Kenny Baker (Bill Monroe's fiddler)
:
★ Byron Berline
:
★ Dewey Brown
:
★ Sam Bush
:
★ Vassar Clements
:
★ Clinton Gregory (also country)
:
★ John Hartford
:
★ Aubrey Haynie
:
★ Alison Krauss (also country)
:
★ Martie Maguire (also country)
:
★ Benny Martin
:
★ Mark O'Connor (also jazz, Texas)
:
★ Ricky Skaggs (also country)
:
★ Jim Van Cleve
:
★ Sara Watkins
Blues
:
★ Eddie Anthony (also jazz)
:
★ Andrew Baxter
:
★ Lonnie Chatmon of the Mississippi Sheiks (also old-time)
Cajun
:
★ Dewey Balfa
:
★ Al Berard
:
★ Harry Choates
:
★ Sady Courville
:
★ Michael Doucet of Beausoleil
:
★ Wade Fruge
:
★ Doug Kershaw (also country)
:
★ Dennis McGee
:
★ Louis Michot of The Lost Bayou Ramblers
:
★ Joel Savoy
:
★ Kevin Wimmer of The Red Stick Ramblers
Contra dance (including New England)
:
★ Sam Amidon
:
★ Sarah Blair
:
★ Ruthie Dornfeld
:
★ David Kaynor
:
★ Dudley Laufman
:
★ Randy Miller
:
★ Rodney Miller
:
★ Lissa Schneckenburger
:
★ Sue Sternberg
:
★ Harvey Tolman
:
★ Becky Tracy
Country
:
★ Fiddlin' John Carson
:
★ Charlie Daniels
:
★ Doug Kershaw
:
★ Alison Krauss
:
★ Martie Maguire
:
★ Ricky Skaggs
:
★ Gid Tanner
:
★ Bob Wills
Jazz
:
★ Svend Asmussen
:
★ Stephane Grappelli
:
★ Mark O'Connor (also bluegrass, Texas)
Southeastern
:
★ Clayton McMichen
Texas
:
★ Chris Daring
:
★ Larry Franklin
:
★ Johnny Gimble
:
★ Mark O'Connor (also bluegrass, jazz)
:
★ Buddy Spicher
:
★ Benny Thomasson
Canadian
:
★ Tania Elizabeth
:
★ Mitchell Grobb
:
★ Don Messer
:
★ April Verch
Cape Breton
:
★ Joseph Cormier
:
★ Ashley MacIsaac
:
★ Buddy MacMaster
:
★ Natalie MacMaster
Quebec
:
★ Jean Carignan
:
★ Olivier Demers
:
★ Omer Dumas
:
★ Pascal Gemme
:
★ Joseph-Ovila La Madeleine
English
:
★ Phil Beer
:
★ Jon Boden
:
★ Eliza Carthy
:
★ Pete Cooper
:
★ Barry Dransfield
:
★ Lisa Knapp
:
★ Seth Lakeman
:
★ Ric Sanders
:
★ Jonathan Sevink
:
★ Dave Swarbrick
:
★ Kathryn Tickell
:
★ Chris Wood
Irish
Clare
:
★ Paddy Canny
:
★ Bobby Casey
:
★ Junior Crehan
:
★ Mrs. Ellen Galvin
:
★ Martin Hayes
:
★ P.J. Hayes
:
★ John Kelly
:
★ Patrick Kelly
:
★ Martin Rochford
:
★ Joe Ryan
Donegal
:
★ Neillidh Ó Baoighill
:
★ James Byrne
:
★ Vincent Campbell
:
★ John Doherty
:
★ Danny O'Donnell
:
★ Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
:
★ Proinnsias Ó Mhaonaigh
:
★ Tommy Peoples
:
★ Paul O'Shaughnessy
Sliabh Luachra
:
★ Julia Clifford
:
★ Paddy Cronin
:
★ Denis Murphy (Irish musician)
:
★ Padraig O'Keeffe
Sligo
:
★ Kevin Burke
:
★ John Carty
:
★ Michael Coleman
:
★ Kathleen Collins
:
★ Paddy Killoran
Mexican
★ Juan Reynoso
Scottish
★ Aly Bain (Shetland)
★ Duncan Chisholm
★ Melinda Crawford
★ Johnny Cunningham
★ Andrew Dodds
★ Colyn Fischer
★ Alasdair Fraser
★ Dougie MacLean
★ Bonnie Rideout
References
1. Mario Pei, ''The Story of the English Language'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967), p. 109.
2.
The Session: Sessions
See also
★ Donegal fiddle tradition
★ List of All-Ireland Champions
Bibliography
★ ''The Fiddle Book'', by Marion Thede, (1970), Oak Publications. ISBN 0-8256-0145-2.
★ ''The Fiddler's Fakebook'', by David Brody, (1983), Oak Publications. US ISBN 0-8256-0238-6; UK ISBN 0-7119-0309-3.
★ ''Oldtime Fiddling Across America'', by David Reiner and Peter Anick (1989), Mel Bay Publications. ISBN 0-87166-766-5. Has transcriptions (standard notation) and analysis of tunes from multiple regional and ethnic styles.
External links
★ Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier, the Henry Reed Collection, US Library of Congress audio clips, and transcriptions by Alan Jabbour
★ Folk and Alternative Strings Community
★ Voyager Records' catalog, organized by region, has clips of many North American styles.
★ A French Violin fiddle method website - video, text, and forum with explanation (with tablatures).
★ The Fiddler's Companion Huge database of historical notes
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