Making sense of a recording of the fiddling poet made by Alan Lomax in Edinburgh in 1951, with a perspective from his friend Seamus Heaney.
Norman MacCaig
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Hidden Scottish Fiddlers #1 : George Harvey-Webb
A fiddler active in the first half of the twentieth century. A regular broadcaster on BBC and in theatrical productions. Listen here to his 1959 playing in the Theatre Workshop performance of Brendan Behan’s The Hostage:
More rare clarsach
We have now added another two restored tracks by pioneering clarsach player/singer Héloïse Russell-Fergusson, Eriskay Lullaby and Dunvegan Bridal Procession, from the private collection of Hélène Witcher.
Rare Clarsach Recordings Restored
To coincide with @edinharpfest the Virtual Edinburgh International Harp Festival 2020 we have added four recordings of pioneer professional harper and singer Héloïse Russell-Fergusson recorded in Edinburgh in 1933 for release on the Beltona label. These have been restored by Stuart Eydmann from original records held in private collections.
Ms Russell-Fergusson had a role in establishing the Clarsach Society in the early 1930s and the tracks are among the oldest recordings of the small harp in Scotland. They were preceded only by those by Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser from 1929, which can also be heard on rareTunes.
We will be adding further archival tracks by Héloïse and more harp-related material in due course so register to follow rareTunes if you wish to receive notice of this and other additions.
Chasing the story behind another very old fiddle recording
Might this be the oldest surviving non-commercial recording of Scottish fiddle music. Explored here: https://raretunes.org/professor-maclellan-of-berkeley/
Two short tunes on a small concertina
Stuart Eydmann adds two new tracks played on a new miniature concertina recently made for him by Andrew Norman. More to follow. https://raretunes.org/stuart-eydmann/
William Craig : One of Scotland’s earliest recording fiddlers
Simon Thoumire recently asked whether we knew anything about fiddler William Craig, his life and music. Like others we knew little but had been intrigued by him for some years. After a brief flurry of research we offer the following information as well as three of his pioneering tracks.
Figures for Scotch Quadrilles and more
Elgin melodeon player Fred Cameron recorded these figures for quadrilles and other tracks in 1910.
Two Famous Pipers
The great John MacDonald plays a fragment of the pibroch Lament for the Children and Pipe Major Forsyth plays “The King’s Piper”, plays The Flowers of the Forest and Mallorca.
An American sings Burns
Singer Earl Robinson paired his song that opens with the line “What is America to me?…” with Robert Burns’ A man’s a man for a’ that.
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