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Author
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Comment
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dlee10
Registered User
(6/16/05 1:43 pm)
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fiddles and devils
Do any of you know where I can purchase any of this music? I love old-time bluegrass and it just isn't available. I couldn't get the link to cedillerecords to work. Thanks!
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/16/05 2:46 pm)
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Re: fiddles and devils
Try this link for Cedille Records: www.cedillerecords.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi
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beautifulstars
Unregistered User
(6/16/05 4:10 pm)
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crossroads & fiddles
Veronica-- No problem. You are free to cross-post comments as you wish.
Most of my fairytale retellings -- inc. in my thesis -- are set in Newfoundland, where, since there is a strong culture connected to Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as France, which has been so amazingly preserved, there are still many connections to the type of songs that mention these sort of legends, as well as good old-fashioned kitchen parties where someone inevitably brings out the fiddle. There's something about a fiddle that forces you to tap your feet, so it makes sense in connection with religious restrictions.
This reminds me of being in a club in Toronto recently. At midnight all of the lights went down and the music lowered until it was simply a beat. When the spotlight came on (a black light) it was highlighting a young, wild-looking half-naked boy on the stage. He was wearing nothing but leather pants and smeared with glow paint. He was concentrating intently on his electric violin and after a moment he began to play with the beat. People were lifting their arms to him as though in workship-- it was absolutely mesmerizing. An experience I have never forgotten and am not likely to. It really underlies alot of my interest in writing a tale along these lines.
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(6/16/05 5:18 pm)
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Re: crossroads & fiddles
Thanks, beautifulstars!
I have to say, my life could do with more wild boys in leather pants and glow paint playing the fiddle. Sigh. I should go out to clubs again, apparently.
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beautifulstars
Unregistered User
(6/19/05 8:17 am)
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lucky
hey veronica-- well, i am not a huge club-goer myself, which is why i figure that i am even more lucky for having seen that particular event! providence, perhaps.
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inkgypsy
Unregistered User
(6/19/05 8:31 pm)
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Red Heels
Have you seen "The
Red Heels" by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Gary
Kelley? Set in New England in Colonial times it deals with the
fear that red heels in shoes are a sign of witchcraft - especially
since the laquer was passed down through the generations.. The
book turns out to be a triumph of love over superstition and fear
in Puritan times. Worth a look.
Here's the amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803711344/thesurlalufairyt
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mmcphie
Unregistered User
(6/21/05 6:34 pm)
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Another crossroads story
A story that I've enjoyed telling is "The Weeping Lass at the Dancing Place." A version of this Scots tale is in Sorche nic Leodhas's book of ghost stories. A dead man returns to his grieving lover at the community dancing ground and tries to take her back with him to the grave. To me, the crossroads motif makes the story all the creepier and more compelling.
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cabin
Unregistered User
(7/7/05 1:56 am)
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fiddles
I have a truly bewildering story about this subject, it keeps me up at night. Id love to share it with you.
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beautifulstars
Unregistered User
(7/8/05 1:24 pm)
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story
cabin-- you can't just say something like that and not expect curiousity. do share.
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darklingthrush
Registered User
(7/13/05 8:43 am)
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Re: story
I'm sure perhaps this refers to some of the religious bans on dancing in some ways perhaps as well. Or the Church versus Pagan ideology, but it does seem as though fiddle-playing or music of a sort is involved in fairy stories as well. But mainly along the lines of fairy folktales where individuals have contact with the Good People. Quite obviously, Thomas the Rhymer but others where they are forced to play, dance etc. I don't have enough folktales sitting on my shelves to site any examples, but it seems to tickle my mind that I've read stories along these lines.
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mommymoon
Registered User
(7/13/05 12:37 pm)
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Re: tales of the devil, stealing souls and fiddles?
I found this while researching your subject, hope it helps! :evil
The Hardanger fiddle is Norway’s special violin. It’s often a work of art in its own right with inlaid
mother of pearl and intricate engravings. Like all violins it has four melody strings, but what makes it
distinctive is a second set of strings which ring out in sympathy when the fiddle is played.
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mommymoon
Registered User
(7/13/05 1:27 pm)
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Re: tales of the devil, stealing souls and fiddles?
more on that particular fiddle
hope this helps :evil
Sus
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mommymoon
Registered User
(7/13/05 1:28 pm)
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Re: tales of the devil, stealing souls and fiddles?
ooops -- sorry forgot to past it on the last one :o
In the old days, the Hardanger fiddle was blamed for immorality and
wantonness. It was called the instrument of the Devil because superstition had it that you could only
become a really great fiddler if you gave up your soul.
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mommymoon
Registered User
(7/13/05 1:49 pm)
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Re: tales of the devil, stealing souls and fiddles?
www.ebu.ch/CMSimages/en/N...-17205.pdf
;)
here's the url for that particular fiddle
Sus
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beautifulstars
Unregistered User
(7/13/05 3:25 pm)
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work of art fiddle
mommymoon-- thanks, that's pretty amazing. hrm. i think music has always been connected, in various ways, with the supernatural. think of 'sirens' 'singing' men off of the ships, and how people with unnatural attraction are said to have voices 'like honey' or 'smoke.' i think it's because the part of us that reacts to music is much more primitive then the other parts.
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janeyolen
Registered User
(7/13/05 8:53 pm)
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Re: tales of the devil, stealing souls and fiddles?
There's a hardinger fiddle and a fossegrim to teach Our Heroes how to play it (bad move!) in Adam's and my TROLL BRIDGE coming out next year from Tor. If you an wait. . .
Or we can post part of the scene where they play it.
Jane
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redwill0w
Registered User
(7/17/05 6:04 pm)
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Re: devil at the crossroads
Actually, it was Tommy Johnson
("Maggie Campbell Blues") who made this Crossroads and
the Devil claim, not Robert Johnson, as has been widely reported.
The two musicians were contemporaries and friends, but not related
despite their common surnames.
Tommy Johnson claimed that he met the Devil at the crossroads, and had bestowed upon him musical skill, but he did not claim to have sold his soul to the devil for it.
This Crossroads rite has roots going very far back in southern folk magical practice,the crossroads being considered a place of particular mystery and power where much can occur, including meeting a being who can bestow upon the brave at heart talents and skills.
Dara
Edited by: redwill0w at: 7/17/05 9:59 pm
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beautifulstars
Unregistered User
(7/19/05 8:02 am)
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scene
janeyolen-- ooo, yes please!
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janeyolen
Registered User
(7/20/05 7:32 am)
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Re: devil at the crossroads
Since there are two chapters when they are playing the Hardinger fiddle, I have just excerpted a few paragraphs. Book is TROLL BRIDGE. The fox is the fossegrim in animal form:
Jakob chuckled. “I don’t think either of us can learn to play the fiddle in an afternoon.”
“It is a magic fiddle.” Lifting his head up off his paws, Foss stared at Jakob with his dark eyes. It was like staring into black fathomless pools. “A magic fiddle--and you are a musician.”
“Yes, but. . .”
“Tell me, child of man, do you not hear music all the time? Music such that you cannot keep your toes from tapping, your lips from whistling, your fingers from tracing the lines of your chosen instrument in the air?”
Jakob had never thought of it that way, but he nodded.
Foss nodded back. “Then you are a musician. And so is the girl.” The fox’s lips pulled back from his teeth in an animal grin. “And I am the Fossegrim, a teacher of musicians. I will teach you to play such music as to make the lame to dance and graybeards spring up from the chimney corner.”
“Ok,” Jakob said, though that was a bizarre thing to want: graybeards and the lame dancing and springing. “But why do we both need to learn? And for what reason?”
“It will take two of you all day to do what the Fossegrim could do in an eye blink.”
“Do what, exactly?” Jakob asked.
“Give me back my true form.” Foss sighed. “I have not felt an instrument under my fingers in far too long.”
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