Paul
Cranford's latest collection of fiddle tunes called
simply, Winston Fitzgerald, memorializes the
most famous of 20th century Cape Breton fiddlers with
transcriptions of of nearly 250 tunes arranged from
his performances. No one who plays the fiddle, or
listens to it and loves it will have to be told that
Fitzgerald's many recordings, TV appearances and a
lifetime of playing for dances represent the legacy of
one of the greatest Cape Breton fiddlers who ever
lived.
Cranford's book, the
fourth in the Cape Breton Musical Heritage
Series, follows his publications of the Brenda
Stubbert Collection, the Jerry Holland Collection, and
his own The Lighthouse Collection. He has also
reissued traditional collections of fiddle tunes in
the Skye, Simon Fraser and Alexander Walker
Collections, tune books which have become as essential
to fiddlers and fans, scholars and folkies as
dictionaries and encyclopeodias.
Best of all, and the
new Winston Fitzgerald Collection brilliantly
exemplifies this character of Paul Cranford's
beautifully typeset and well organized publications,
he has written an introductory essay on Winston
"Scotty's" life, a shorter essay on techniques and
observations of Fitzgerald's inimitable style, and a
host of notes both on individual tunes throughout the
book and in exhaustive references to traditional
collections in which Fitzgerald's repertoire may be
found in their original settings. While the table of
contents lists the tunes in the book, the back of the
book index goes way beyond that list, supplying not
only tune titles that are in the book, but
cross-referencing them to the standard collections in
which they may be found ...
Apart from
organizing the tunes by key and tune type in the
front-of-book index (Hornpipes and Clogs, Pipe Tunes
in A and D, Strathspeys and Reels, Jigs, Polkas, Airs,
Melodies and Walzes), Cranford also obligingly
supplies a list of composers which shows at a glance,
incidentally, Fitzgerald's passion for J. Scott
Skinner, who is represented by the largest number of
tunes in the Fitzgerald repertoire
Cranford is careful
to warn the reader that tune books don't teach you how
to play, and supports it with pungent
remarks:
"When
learning a tune it is good fun to play with all
available sources, (aural recorded or written)
before carving out a personal setting and commiting
it to long term memory"
Fitzgerald is quoted
in the paragraph before as saying,
"Anybody
who'd pick up a book and follow the book, and put
the book away and then play the tune as it's in the
book, will never, never ... be a tasty
player."
Clearly Cranford, a
lighthouse keeper and tunesmith himself, and,
moreover, one who learned most of what he knows about
it in the 22 years he has studied the subject in
various lighthouses, intentionally focusses on live
fiddle playing, folk tradition, and intends his book
as a help and not a magic pill. It is true that
notation an inexact science at the best of times, can
never capture every nuance, sonority, rhythmic style
or any other aural aspect of perfomance. But when it
is as well presented as it is here, with a judicious
balance between giving too little or too much detail,
it is a great help to the beginner and expert both,
providing many useful insights into how Fitzgerald
took a tune and made it his own.
With a number of
photographs, relevant quotes from Fitzgerald, clear
reasonable print, and a presentation of tunes not
exactly as they might be found "original settings",
but more as Fitzgerald played them. Cranford has
pulled off a piece of stunning scholarship while
simultaneously adding to his many important
contributions towards perpetuating and preseving Cape
Breton's still very much alive musical
heritage.
