skin

Nem só de gaita-de-foles se faz música tradicional escocesa. A Escócia é, afinal, lar de uma grande escola de violinistas tradicionais. Escola que se define pela “força”, a incisividade no uso do arco, o que, de fato, aproxima os violinistas da Escócia de seus gaiteiros, assim como os aproxima dos violinistas da região norte da Irlanda (lembrando que parte do norte da ilha ainda faz parte da República), como (meu predileto entre os fiddlers…) o grande John Doherty.

Neste post, em especial, apresento por aqui um dos gigantes do violino escocês no século XIX (sim, estamos falando de um sujeito nascido há mais de cento e cinqüenta anos, e que de sua música ainda nos resta gravações de excelente qualidade) o rei do strathspey, James Scott Skinner (1843-1927).

O strathspey, a dança segundo a qual Skinner é o rei, é uma dança originária da região de mesmo nome localizada nas lowlands, nas terras baixas do noroeste escocês. Trata-se de uma dança em 4/4, como são as reels e os hornipes. O strathspey, contudo, possuí uma pontuação peculiar (mais próxima das hornpipee do que das reel tunes). No strathspey encontramos o tempo todo os scotch snaps, didvisão rítmica que consiste de uma semicolcheia ligada em uma colcheia pontuada (tataaa, tataaa…)

O repertório de Skinner que foi, além de um ótimo fiddler, um grande tune composer, não se limita a strathspeys, dele ouvimos também bonitos airs, polcas, reels e jigs, tocados sempre no estilo incisivo e “cortante” do violino escocês.

As gravações que disponibilizo aqui, lançadas em CD pela Temple Label de Londres, são gravações realizadas nos EUA da década de 10, ou seja, há exato cem anos! O que não significa que o que se ouve aqui é um amontoado de chiados e ruídos, ao contrário, a gravação é de excelente qualidade, assim como as tunes nelas executadas. Uma preciosa gravação, sem dúvida!

CD J. Scott Skinner – King Of The Starthspey

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This entry was posted on domingo, maio 23rd, 2010 at 19:01 and is filed under V - A música de Albion.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 comments so far

 1 

wow, another one of those finds that makes my day, thanks a million !
(Last friday I had my first exam of violin iin the music academy and one of the songs I played was Skinner’s Hector the Hero)

junho 7th, 2010 at 7:21
tiago
 2 

Hi Patrick, hope you’ve been approved in your exam!Scott Skinner is a great traditional tune composer, nice choice ;)

junho 7th, 2010 at 8:03
 3 

well, I think I made for a breath of fresh air between all the six to nine years olds (or youngs as I should put it), and my teacher likes all these traiditional tunes, so it went down well ! And it strikes me as funny that for me to be able to find this great music I have to surf the web and accost on this Brazilian blog !
keep up your excellent work and rest assured, I spread your blog to a few selected good friends of mine !

junho 7th, 2010 at 8:27
tiago
 4 

Thanx Patrick! In a web space, and web culture, I think we’re very close to each others culture. Actually even outside the web. I grew up watching to Tin-Tin’s cartoon on brazilian television, you see :)

junho 7th, 2010 at 11:53
 5 

wow, great !
and do you know the recordings that Toots Thielemans did with all the Brazilian artists ? And one of my most treasured albums (yes, I still have lp’s) is a solo-recording by Joao Gilberto in Tokyo …
Keep up this very good work Tiago !
greetz from Belgium

junho 8th, 2010 at 4:11
tiago
 6 

Yes, Toots Thieleman would do that Belgium-Brazil musical connection. He recorded a great album with Sivuca an accordeonist from brazilian north-east region. I will post one of Sivuca’s albums here very soon (I will stick to the “World Cup related traditional music” ideia for the blog – it’s always a good ideia do something related to football here, as you may guess).

João Gilberto is one of the greatest bossa nova’s singers and composer. Very smooth and cool sounding, and even though I would, personally, rather the more festive approach in the brazilian traditional music, I think Gilberto is a great artist in his own right. Did not now that LP (dont worry, I still have some LPs here too ;)

All the best and thanks for visiting,

Tiago.

junho 8th, 2010 at 17:20
 7 

what do you know, I think I’ve got that lp you mention of mister Sivuca and Toots Thielemans (I found it at a car boot sale a few years back), it’s a small world after all :-)

I think I know what you mean when you put it nicely “the more festive approach”, as you might have guessed I like all kinds of music (as long as it’s good music), and it’s a brilliant idea to team up the teams of the world cup with the music of those countrys !

grtz
Patrick

junho 9th, 2010 at 6:15
tiago
 8 

Hi Patrick, of Sivuca (who sadly passed away a couple of years ago) and Thieleman’s I guess the most famous record would be the one you find at this address: http://loronix.blogspot.com/2007/09/sivuca-toots-thielemans-chikos-bar-1986.html . Called Chiko’s Bar (I dont know if it is the same one that you have).

I hope you like the world cup posts. Sadly, Belgium is not there – as you dont have Enzo Scifo and Preud’homme as a goal keeper (that was a nice keeper!) anymore. ;)

All the best,

Tiago.

junho 9th, 2010 at 15:02
 9 

yes Tiago, that’s the one ! a great album that is, it “let’s the sun shine in”, and no mistake !

And I really enjoy your world cup postings !!!!!

Yes, Scifo and Preud’homme, those were the days (I even once shook hands with Preud’homme, just met him walking down the street in my hometown), let’s hope we can enjoy some real samba football from you guys !

grtz
Patrick

junho 10th, 2010 at 4:40
tiago
 10 

“Let’s the sun shine in” that’s exactly right! :)

How cool you met Preud’Homme he’s really a football legend!

All the best!
Tiago

junho 10th, 2010 at 12:38
 11 

That’s what’s always so striking with Brazilian music, be it in it’s most basic form to it’s most sophisticated, there’s always that ray of sunlight coming in thru’ your ears-thing about it, that is so uplifting (espescially in rain-soaked Belgium)…

As for the story with Preud’homme, at the time one of his sponsors was a bank from my hometown and I met him when he had collected posters and stuff, and apart from him being a very nice friendly guy who took a moment to chat with me, what struck me most were those long long arms of his… For the moment he is a very succesfull coach (he obtained the Belgian title with Standard de Liège and won the Belgian Cup with Gent this year) and he’s moved on to the Netherlands to coach Utrecht I think.

grtz
Patrick

junho 11th, 2010 at 4:15
tiago
 12 

Yes, I fell much in the same way you do about brazilian music. Though brazilian music is, indeed, very diverse in its different genres (and people here often listen other things rather than tradition inclined music) I think we can say that, after all, brazilian music is very festive and uplifting. And even when it is a little “sad”, like sometimes “bossa nova” is, it is a ‘heart warming’ kind of sadness, more of a conforting melancholy.

Oh, you know what, brazilian weather, or rather the weather here in São Paulo, it is actually kind of mild. We’re having between 12-22 celsius here. Very cloudy. It is like late spring in Ireland we may say lol. I need some Sivuca and Toots to warm my day too. ;)

How nice you met Preud’Homme! His skills were highly stimated here, he had a very unique style of playing. Nice to hear that he is having a good career as a coach!

All the best,

Tiago.

junho 11th, 2010 at 14:07

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