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| Contributing
a Article for publication? Regular contributors to 'FiddleOn magazine': Trevor Buck Pete Cooper Jed Mugford Glen Titmus John Offord Sophie Parkes |
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| © MUGFORD 2004. All rights reserved. |
| Contributing an article for publication? Contributing an article for publication couldn’t be easier. You can write as much or as little as you want, but as a rule of thumb, a main article is usually about 2500 words with some photographs and/or illustrations. Your article can be on any fiddle related subject. You can send your article as a 'Word' attachment or as email text. Any images can be sent as jpeg attachments or sent by post, which will be scanned and returned to you as soon as possible. If you would like any graphs, tables or simple illustrations drawn specifically, that can be arranged. Send your article in good time, if possible before the final copy date, which is one month before publication date. If you’re interested in submitting an article for publication it is always best to contact Jed Mugford (the editor) first to be sure of a space in the next issue. Click here to submit a description of your article and the amount of copy you have wrtten or intend to write. I can not accept articles as hard copy only, it takes too long to key, so please only supply your copy as computer ready text. Happy writing! |
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Trevor Buck |
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Pete Cooper Best known worldwide for his book and CD, Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player (1995), Pete has also been strongly influenced, both as a player and composer, by Appalachian, Norwegian, Swedish, Scottish, Hungarian and other styles. One of his main passions, explored in his new partnership with cellist Richard Bolton, is the challenging and vibrant English fiddle tradition.Fiddle Teacher Pete's reputation as a fiddle teacher, both in London and around Britain, is second to none. He conveys a deep interest in the style, techniques and background of the tunes he plays. A Pete Cooper workshop, according to one recent participant, can be relied on to 'do what it says on the tin.' Many young musicians now making their mark on the British roots scene have been inspired by his classes at the Folkworks Summer Schools, Durham, and he also tutors the Fosbrooks youth music group in Stockport, near Manchester. At his own London School of Fiddle Music, based at Cecil Sharp House, Camden Town, Pete's adult classes regularly attract forty or more fiddlers. He also directs courses at Wigmore Hall, London's finest chamber-music venue, and Hands On Music fiddle weekends, near Oxford. He's played and taught at the Dartington International Summer School, the University of Cork and the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival. Early years Born in the Midlands in 1951, Pete started violin with classical teacher Alan D'Agorne in 1960 and played in the Staffordshire Youth Orchestra before going to study English at Oxford University. His music career took off in 1978 when, after busking in Germany to finance a fiddling trip to West Virginia, he met singer and Appalachian dulcimer player Holly Tannen at Ostend ferry terminal. They recorded an LP Frosty Morning in 1979 (with Martin Simpson on guitar) and toured in Britain, Ireland, Europe and the USA. Based in London from the early 1980s, Pete sang and played on the folk club and festival scene with singer Peta Webb (The Heart Is True, 1986) and, for dances, with caller Nigel Hogg and his Ragged But Right Stringband. As well as playing studio sessions and countless weddings, parties and bar gigs, often with guitarist Lawrie Wright, Pete started his teaching project, Fiddling From Scratch. His first 'solo' album All Around The World (1990), released with a tune booklet published by Dragonfly Press, brought together musicians from diverse fiddle traditions, while The Wounded Hussar (1993) focused purely on Irish tunes. Composer Prompted by a request for incidental music for Peter Greenaway's 1987 film, The Belly Of An Architect, Pete began composing and, with Kathryn Locke and Geoff Coombs, formed the acclaimed Vivando. He also wrote and recorded music for Moira Sweeney's TV film Coming Home, BBC2's Eureka Street and BBC Radio 4's Inside Track. Violinist Simon Blendis commissioned Pete's Dartington Jig for his 2000 Bach tribute Partita, and Karen Tweed and Timo Alakotila recorded his tune Melting on their CD May Monday (2001). For more information on Pete visit his website at www.petecooper.com |
| John Kirkness Moar Place of birth? Orkney. Ethnic group? Norse, according to the "Blood of the Vikings" DNA test. Earliest musical education? Recorder at junior school. At about 10 my grandfather gave me a half-sized fiddle he’d bought from the auction mart. My uncle Andy (himself a fine fiddler) strung it and showed me where to put my fingers. My first tunes were "Skye Boat Song" and "The Barren Rocks of Aden". A good start! What happened then? I gave it up! After a year’s classical lessons at school I was so hacked off that the fiddle went back into its case and never came out again. What got you started, then? Pentangle, Fairport and Steeleye Span. Dave Swarbrick was God, and Rags, Reels and Airs the holy text. I joined a group at University playing mandolin, which came easily after the early violin lessons and the footling about on the guitar. Next came whistles, tenor banjo and finally the fiddle. So - did you find it easy to take up the instrument again? Yes and no. I got annoyed that playing in tune was so much harder than on the mandolin, so I banged frets into the violin fingerboard. Problem solved! Who were your main influences at that time? Lots, but I really liked Barry Dransfield’s and Swarb’s use of drones, Tom Anderson, Liz Carroll’s Irish/American feel, Sugarcane Harris playing blues and Stephane Grappelli. What happened after university? I became a teacher and moved to Launceston, in Cornwall. I wanted to play in a dance band, and had the great good luck to meet a brilliant accordionist, Kathie Upton, who was looking for musicians at the same time. She really taught me all I know about playing for dancing. She would set up a book on the music stand, say "Right - we’ll play that, that and that" and we’d welly on into it, which did my sight reading a power of good! I also played a bit with the near-legendary Bob Cann, and with the Trigg Morris of Bodmin. How long did that last? A few years, but I’ve got a low boredom threshold as far as my teaching is concerned, so I moved about a bit: to Tiverton in Devon and to Warminster, Wiltshire. That meant changing bands, too. I learnt the flute and started to write music when there was no band on the go. Finally I taught myself the accordion in order to get a group together, which was enormous fun. You’re back in Orkney now. Do you notice many differences? The main one, when I moved nearly twenty years ago, was that the standard of playing was much higher here than where I was in England. There was no chance of getting into a band! I enjoyed playing with the Strathspey and Reel societies, though. The other thing was that when I was living on the island of Shapinsay (pop. 200 or so) I noticed that a lot of the musicians - mainly middle aged and elderly men - were composing their own tunes. I felt that there was a real danger of the music passing away with the musicians because they were very modest about their skill and didn’t try to press others to learn the tunes. So, the Community Council gave me a grant which allowed me to collect, transcribe and publish about thirty of the tunes in a book called "The Sound of the String". Anything more recently? I was involved with the Orkney Folk Festival for a while. The high point of my career, though, must be when I was asked to write two songs, which Sir Peter Maxwell Davis set to music. It is an amazing feeling to hear your words turned into something you could never have imagined, and sung for the first time. Do you do any playing, though? I’ve been learning the saxophone this year, but I do very little on the fiddle, I’m afraid. I’ve never really liked the noise I made, and anyway I can listen to other people doing it so much better: Graham Townsend, Kevin Burke, Alasdair Fraser, Joe Venuti, and a galaxy of younger players like Jennifer Wrigley and Catriona MacDonald. You feel the tradition is in good hands, then? Definitely. Fiddle teaching is a lot more enlightened these days, so fewer kids are put off as I was: the instructors use a lot of dance tunes, for a start. In Scotland, there’s the Strathspey and Reel societies and the Fiddle and Accordion groups which mean that youngsters can learn by listening so that they soak up the feel of the music: it’s like learning to speak your own home dialect. So - yes, the future |
| Jed Mugford – The Editor Brought up in the small village of Hartland on rugged Atlantic coast. My dad had a small building business in the village, and when I left school I worked for him until, my mum died and the business folded. I got a job with another builder in the village who was also the village undertaker - that is another story. After a couple of years, I got a place at art college studying graphics at Plymouth College of Art and Design. When I left college I moved to Oxfordshire where I now live. Musical background I took an interest in music at an early age after hearing my sister's Beatles records. My sister (Lin) and I became swept along by Beatlemania of the 1960's. When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my parents bought me an acoustic guitar and Bert Weedon's book 'Play in a Day'. Sadly, in my case, it took almost 10 years before I could play, and that was after I had bought myself an electric guitar and a Beatles song book, from then on there was no looking back. I joined a small local band for a couple of years playing Country music. Taking up the fiddle I took up the fiddle in 1994 because I wanted to carry tunes at sessions, which I wasn't able to do; being a very mediocre guitarist. But having taken up the fiddle, I discovered that there was no way a fiddler could find out what was going on in the UK fiddle scene, other than by word of mouth or coming across a leaflet by chance. So in March 2000 the first copy of FiddleOn magazine was produced. Desert Island Disks? Songs of the Auvergne - Bailéro by Canteloube. Song for Ireland by Dick Gaughan. Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. Gi'mme Shelter by The Rolling Stones. Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, Ah Sweet Dancer by Micheál Ó Súlleabháin and anything by James Taylor, or the Beatles, I could go on and on. |
| Glen Titmus Glen Titmus started playing the fiddle in 1984. After playing for some years the fiddle started to come apart and, after recovering from the shock of discovering how much it would cost to have it repaired, he decided to do it himself! Armed with a copy of Heron-Allen and basic woodworking skills learned in childhood he repaired the instrument, and then several belonging to friends. He now repairs violins for a living, www.glentitmus.co.uk, as well as making violin bows and selling violins and bows from his workshop in Taunton and at festivals around the southern half of England. Glen still plays fiddle, specialising in English country dance music, teaches and runs workshops. |
| John Offord Family background I was born in 1947 in Camden, London. My mother’s family were partly Irish and partly from Norfolk. My father’s parents were from Southwest England. I have never been to college. My parents advised me to work in an office and not to be a manual worker like my father. Apart from a brief spell as a carpenter I have always done office work and I have been working in my current job, for the London Fire Brigade for over 25 years. Musical background My parents only liked light popular music c.1930-1960. My father played the ukulele-banjo. I also like jazz and classical music, both western and eastern. My first influences of ‘folk’ were Dave Swabrick and students I knew at Dartington college in Devon in the 70’s. I first took up the mandolin but gave it up for the fiddle because it is louder and more versatile. I started dancing and playing with the Hammersmith Morris but gave up dancing in the early 80’s when I started to learn Irish music. I started to play French folk music with the Blowzabella musicians, this was much easier than Irish. After hearing John Kirkpatrick play, I started playing more English music and published a collection of tunes, mainly in 3/2 and 9/4 called ‘John of the Greeny Cheshire Way’ in 1985. I am currently finishing the second edition. I am in contact with the ‘Village Music Project’, which is making available on the web the many thousands of tunes found in manuscripts in England. Since the 80’s I have played in many sessions, French, English and Irish. I play in an enormous ceilidh band called ‘Gig CB’ who play mainly French and English music in France and England. I restarted playing and dancing Morris with Blackheath 4 years ago. |
| Sophie Parkes Sophie, was introduced to music early on at primary school, with the typical classroom and peripatetic classical educations that are found in rural C of E primary schools ñ recorders and borrowed violins. It was at this time that she began writing stories with a neighbourhood friend that happened to be three years older than her. This friend had a massive influence on the young Sophie, and contributed greatly to the neatening of handwriting and more importantly, the maturity of her vocabulary and command of the language. But it wasnít until she was approximately twelve years of age that her real education began ñ when she discovered the Levellers. Do not underestimate the effect a band can have on a young girl. For the Levellers introduced her to a new world. A world where violins were played in bands and protest song and politics went hand in hand. And folk music By the time Sophie was sixteen, music folk music ñ amongst many other genres ñ had been devoured. But she noticed that some of the journalism commentating on her favourite genre was not as hot and fresh as the music itself. So she took it upon herself to combine the two Since she was sixteen, Sophie has steadily expanded the number of magazines and publications ñ and genres ñ for which she writes. (Have a look on the other pages of her website for samples) She has begun her own zine, For Folkís Sake, and can be relied upon for fresh, knowledgeable and enthusiastic copy and commentary. But donít think that Sophie was neglecting her creative writing in this time. As soon as she begun her degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Manchester in 2003, she founded the universityís Creative Writing Society. The society met weekly in a social environment and attracted members from all academic disciplines, keen to discuss their material in enthusiastic yet critical surroundings. The Society published their own material in the 2005 anthology ëTiny Mindsí and regularly invited established writers in for question and answer sessions. Sophie won a place on the fiercely competitive creative writing module for years two and three as part of her degree course, and built up a portfolio of short stories under novelists Martyn Bedford and Geoff Ryman, and poet John McAuliffe. She has since had a short story placed in the prestigious Round Table Review journal, been shortlisted in a union short story competition and had a longer work serialised in a magazine. |