and if you were a fiddler, then you were a fiddler (2024)
to Sinestéticas Collective

After an excerpt from Jon Fosse's Trilogy:

    "There's no way around it, you'll become a fiddler too, he said
    and Pa Sigvald said if that's what it was like, that he was a fiddler and should be a fiddler, then that's how it was, he was a good player already, as far as playing goes he was already an accomplished fiddler, and if you were a fiddler, then you were a fiddler, there was little and nothing to do about that, he would become a fiddler, his son as well, and that was not a surprise, because both his father, old Asle, and his grandfather, old Pa Sigvald, had been fiddlers, to be a fiddler was a family fate, even if being a fiddler was reckoned to be bad luck, yes that it was, Pa Sigvald said, but if you were a fiddler yes then you were a fiddler, if that's how it was, yes, there was nothing to do about that, not much, yes, in his opinion, said Pa Sigvald, and if he was asked where it came from, he answered that it probably came from grief, grieving over something, or just grief, and in the music the grief could lighten and become soaring and the soaring could become happiness and joy, so therefore music was needed, therefore he had to play, and some people had something left of this grief and that's why there were many who enjoyed listening to the playing, that's how it was, because the music lifted their life and gave it height, whether they were holding a wake or celebrating a wedding or people were just meeting to dance and celebrate, but why they were the only ones who were given the fate of the fiddler, yes he couldn't say why, of course not, and he had never had much knowledge or wisdom, but he'd been a good fiddler since he was just a boy, since he was Asle's age, just like Asle was a good fiddler now too, they were alike in so many things he and Asle, Pa Sigvald said, and just as he had followed his father when he was Asle's age and his granddad was playing in a wedding, now Asle was going to follow his father and get his training, and later in the summer he would come with his father when he played at an ordinary dance and he would come with his father when he played at a wake, the way he himself had come with his father, to weddings, wakes, and dances, but whether he liked it, whether he liked that his son should also become a fiddler, no that was something else altogether, and no one would ask about that anyway, a fiddler's fate is just that, a fate, but he who was without property had to manage as best as he could with the gift God had given him, that's how it was, that was life
    And tonight you'll try to be a fiddler, Pa Sigvald said"

and if you were a fiddler, then you were a fiddler

I'm a Brazilian composer based in London and I hold a PhD in Music from City, University of London. I work mainly with algorithmic music and my research interests include automatic generation of scores, musical repetition, perception, mapping techniques, and generative techniques in general.

and if you were a fiddler, then you were a fiddler

Gilberto Agostinho