Read the blog post I was invited to write for the Traditional Music Forum here. You can make a comment or leave feedback below.
Read the blog post I was invited to write for the Traditional Music Forum here. You can make a comment or leave feedback below.
hi Ronnie
In the early 1980s, the conductor of the Glasgow Caledonian SRS, James Moir, persuaded the Adviser of Music for Glasgow Schools, Eoin Millar to let him start a Glasgow Schools Fiddle Orchestra. I don’t think we ever played in public, but we used to rehearse in Allan Glen’s School once a week, late afternoon, with kids coming in from all over Glasgow. It fizzled out after a while, but I wonder how many of them are still playing now …
Nice to hear from you, David. Yla Steven did a similar thing in Edinburgh at about the same time (they recently merged with EHRSS). The perceived classical/folk incongruity of fiddle orchestras has made them unfashionable in school settings these days. School ceilidh bands are probably as close as it gets- and that’s not all that close. Time and time again, I’m struck by how recent modern ideas about traditional music actually are.