Aandowin at da Bow, Da Cross Reel, Ahint da Dykes o Voe

The reel is the most common tune type in Shetland, and I have known all these three for a long time. 

In the past, a major function of music in Shetland was to drive the dancing, for which rhythm was the key. According to the fiddlers interviewed by Peter Cooke, in his book The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles (1986), a good player had both ‘lilt’ and ‘lift’ in their bowing. These are concepts which are difficult to pin down in words, but which I have tried to absorb through extensive listening.

My interpretation of Aandowin at da Bow is strongly influenced by Willie Hunter senior’s version in the SSS archives. Willie Hunter senior was renowned for the great ‘lilt’ in his bowing rhythms, which was perfect for dancing the Shetland reel. His style was very different to that of his son Willie Hunter junior who was well-known for his fine, expressive playing technique.

'Aandowin at da bow' is what fishermen do with the oars to keep the boat in the same place, by gently rowing against the tide.


1 Aandowin at da Bow, Da Cross Reel, Ahint da Dykes o Voe

Black Sea dance

I begin this arrangement with an improvisation based on a melody called Skaros (‘fish’), from the north west of Greece. The frantic dance tune which follows is from Thrace, a region which extends from the north eastern corner of Greece into parts of Turkey and Bulgaria. Its 7/8 rhythm and hijaz modality are common throughout the Balkans and Middle East. We decided to use accordion and tapan (a very loud drum common throughout the Balkans) to bring out the Balkan flavour of this exciting melody.

5 Black Sea Dance

Ta Xila

This melody is well known in Turkey and throughout the Middle East. There are many versions, of which two are popular in Greece. We have taken influence from both of these, but our version is closest to that of Mitilini, a town on the island of Lesvos just off the Anatolian coastline.
The taxim improvisation is in a beautiful makam called sabah.

4 Ta Xila

These recordings are from the second half of my recent Masters recital, at which I presented arrangements of Greek repertoire with Lewis Powell-Reid (Celtic bouzouki, accordion) and Frazer Watson (tar, tapan, req).

I have always been interested in playing music from different places, and over the years have had opportunities to learn much repertoire from the Balkans and the Middle East. Greece is somewhat of a crossover point between the two, and it is Greek music that has really grabbed my interest in the last year or so.

My learning has been primarily from recordings, but in order to get a better understanding of the social and cultural world in which the music traditions thrive, I have spent time with some fantastic musicians from Greek communities down in London as well as up in the Cretan mountains. Their warmth and enthusiasm, as well as their exceptional musical talents, have been a huge inspiration.

Greece has a wide range of musical styles, including urban popular genres and rural folk traditions. My listening has been broad, and the style of playing I have developed has been influenced by a number of different fiddle players and traditions. Some of the melodies here are from islands along the Anatolian (Turkish) coast in the east, though we have also arranged tunes from Thrace in the north east and Crete in the south.

We found Lewis’s Celtic bouzouki worked very well for arranging the musical material. However, the Greek bouzouki is not usually used as an accompaniment instrument in Greece. Instead, it is the laouto, an instrument similar to the Arabic ‘oud, which traditionally fills this role. Lewis’s playing takes influence from both Greek bouzouki music and traditional laouto styles of accompaniment.

We are grateful to Andy Seagroatt for sharing these recordings of the recital with us. You can also find 'studio' recordings of these sets in the folder 'Greek music with Lewis Powell-Reid and Frazer Watson' to hear them with a cleaner, better balanced sound - though less of the live energy you can only hear in a real performance!

Here is a little bit of information about each of the sets we performed, as was printed in the recital notes:

1.	Pyrgousikos
This dance piece is from the island of Xios, very close to the city of Smyrna on the Anatolian (or Turkish) coastline. I learnt it from the playing of Nikos Oikonomidis, a great fiddler who used to live on the island and has spent much time collecting material from there. The violin originally replaced a former tsambouna (bagpipe) tradition on this island, as is the case for many of the Greek islands and rural areas. The bagpipe melodies and ornaments are echoed in the violin style.
The arrangement consists of two tunes separated by a taxim improvisation. This style of improvising is found in many styles of music throughout the Middle East. The word taxim is Arabic, meaning something like an ‘exercise’. The rhythm of such improvisation is generally unmeasured and the melodic phrases evoke the feeling of a makam, or mode. The first melody of this arrangement is in rast makam, which is similar to the Western major scale, and the second tune moves up a tone to Huseyni makam, which has a minor feel. 

2.	Xoros of Agios Vasiliakis
This tune title translates as St. Basil’s Dance. I picked it up after listening many times to a recording of it played by violin virtuoso Kyriakos Gouventas. Having played mainly classical music for many years, he is now considered by many to be Greece’s top traditional violinist. He is from Thessaloniki, a city in the north eastern corner of mainland Greece, but as with many Greek fiddlers today, he is fluent in a range of Greek styles.

3.	Karekladikos (Chairmender’s Dance), Xoros from Aidini, and a tune from Crete
The first two tunes have a 9/8 rhythm, variants of which are common throughout Greece. We start this arrangement with a rhythmically ambiguous ostinato which hints at the mesmerising, hypnotic quality of the rhythm proper.
The version I play of the second melody is another that I picked up from Kyriakos Gouventas. Some sections of the tune are very frequently heard combined with other traditional tunes and songs.
In Crete, there was once a strong violin tradition, but today it is the combination of Cretan lyra and laouto which is particularly popular.  The lyra refers to a family of instruments which are related to the violin but are played the same way up as a cello and rested on the knee. Interestingly, an instrument of the same description, the gue, was once played all over Shetland before the violin became popular. The tune I play here was taught to me by a fantastic violinist in Crete called Giorgos Papaiouannou. I try to bring out the sound of the Cretan tsambouna (bagpipe) in my ornamentation and improvisation.

4.	Ta Xila
This melody is well known in Turkey and throughout the Middle East. There are many versions, of which two are popular in Greece. We have taken influence from both of these, but our version is closest to that of Mitilini, a town on the island of Lesvos just off the Anatolian coastline.
The taxim improvisation is in a beautiful makam called sabah.

5.	Black Sea dance
I begin this arrangement with an improvisation based on a melody called Skaros (‘fish’), from the north west of Greece. The frantic dance tune which follows is from Thrace, a region which extends from the north eastern corner of Greece into parts of Turkey and Bulgaria. Its 7/8 rhythm and hijaz modality are common throughout the Balkans and Middle East. We decided to use accordion and tapan (a very loud drum common throughout the Balkans) to bring out the Balkan flavour of this exciting melody. 


3 Karekladikos (Chairmender's Dance), Xoros from Aidini and a Cretan lyra melody

Xoros of Agios Vasiliakis

This tune title translates as St. Basil’s Dance. I picked it up after listening many times to a recording of it played by violin virtuoso Kyriakos Gouventas. Having played mainly classical music for many years, he is now considered by many to be Greece’s top traditional violinist. He is from Thessaloniki, a city in the north eastern corner of mainland Greece, but as with many Greek fiddlers today, he is fluent in a range of Greek styles.

2 Xoros of Agios Vasiliakis

Pyrgousikos

This dance piece is from the island of Xios, very close to the city of Smyrna on the Anatolian (or Turkish) coastline. I learnt it from the playing of Nikos Oikonomidis, a great fiddler who used to live on the island and has spent much time collecting material from there. The violin originally replaced a former tsambouna (bagpipe) tradition on this island, as is the case for many of the Greek islands and rural areas. The bagpipe melodies and ornaments are echoed in the violin style.
The arrangement consists of two tunes separated by a taxim improvisation. This style of improvising is found in many styles of music throughout the Middle East. The word taxim is Arabic, meaning something like an ‘exercise’. The rhythm of such improvisation is generally unmeasured and the melodic phrases evoke the feeling of a makam, or mode. The first melody of this arrangement is in rast makam, which is similar to the Western major scale, and the second tune moves up a tone to Huseyni makam, which has a minor feel.

1 Pyrgousikos

We put together these sets for my final Masters recital - the live recordings for which are also up on soundcloud. These recordings were made while rehearsing a few days beforehand in a nice sounding wooden-floored room in an isolated farmhouse near Traquair in the Scottish Borders. We made just one take of each arrangement and added a minimum of mixing and reverb.

Here is some background information (as has already been put up with the live masters recital recordings):

I have always been interested in playing music from different places, and over the years have had opportunities to learn much repertoire from the Balkans and the Middle East. Greece is somewhat of a crossover point between the two, and it is Greek music that has really grabbed my interest in the last year or so.

My learning has been primarily from recordings, but in order to get a better understanding of the social and cultural world in which the music traditions thrive, I have spent time with some fantastic musicians from Greek communities down in London as well as up in the Cretan mountains. Their warmth and enthusiasm, as well as their exceptional musical talents, have been a huge inspiration.

Greece has a wide range of musical styles, including urban popular genres and rural folk traditions. My listening has been broad, and the style of playing I have developed has been influenced by a number of different fiddle players and traditions. Some of the melodies here are from islands along the Anatolian (Turkish) coast in the east, though we have also arranged tunes from Thrace in the north east and Crete in the south.

We found Lewis’s Celtic bouzouki worked very well for arranging the musical material. However, the Greek bouzouki is not usually used as an accompaniment instrument in Greece. Instead, it is the laouto, an instrument similar to the Arabic ‘oud, which traditionally fills this role. Lewis’s playing takes influence from both Greek bouzouki music and traditional laouto styles of accompaniment.

Here is a little bit of information about each of the sets we performed, as was printed in the recital notes:

1.	Pyrgousikos
This dance piece is from the island of Xios, very close to the city of Smyrna on the Anatolian (or Turkish) coastline. I learnt it from the playing of Nikos Oikonomidis, a great fiddler who used to live on the island and has spent much time collecting material from there. The violin originally replaced a former tsambouna (bagpipe) tradition on this island, as is the case for many of the Greek islands and rural areas. The bagpipe melodies and ornaments are echoed in the violin style.
The arrangement consists of two tunes separated by a taxim improvisation. This style of improvising is found in many styles of music throughout the Middle East. The word taxim is Arabic, meaning something like an ‘exercise’. The rhythm of such improvisation is generally unmeasured and the melodic phrases evoke the feeling of a makam, or mode. The first melody of this arrangement is in rast makam, which is similar to the Western major scale, and the second tune moves up a tone to Huseyni makam, which has a minor feel. 

2.	Xoros of Agios Vasiliakis
This tune title translates as St. Basil’s Dance. I picked it up after listening many times to a recording of it played by violin virtuoso Kyriakos Gouventas. Having played mainly classical music for many years, he is now considered by many to be Greece’s top traditional violinist. He is from Thessaloniki, a city in the north eastern corner of mainland Greece, but as with many Greek fiddlers today, he is fluent in a range of Greek styles.

3.	Karekladikos (Chairmender’s Dance), Xoros from Aidini, and a tune from Crete
The first two tunes have a 9/8 rhythm, variants of which are common throughout Greece. We start this arrangement with a rhythmically ambiguous ostinato which hints at the mesmerising, hypnotic quality of the rhythm proper.
The version I play of the second melody is another that I picked up from Kyriakos Gouventas. Some sections of the tune are very frequently heard combined with other traditional tunes and songs.
In Crete, there was once a strong violin tradition, but today it is the combination of Cretan lyra and laouto which is particularly popular.  The lyra refers to a family of instruments which are related to the violin but are played the same way up as a cello and rested on the knee. Interestingly, an instrument of the same description, the gue, was once played all over Shetland before the violin became popular. The tune I play here was taught to me by a fantastic violinist in Crete called Giorgos Papaiouannou. I try to bring out the sound of the Cretan tsambouna (bagpipe) in my ornamentation and improvisation.

4.	Ta Xila
This melody is well known in Turkey and throughout the Middle East. There are many versions, of which two are popular in Greece. We have taken influence from both of these, but our version is closest to that of Mitilini, a town on the island of Lesvos just off the Anatolian coastline.
The taxim improvisation is in a beautiful makam called sabah.

5.	Black Sea dance
I begin this arrangement with an improvisation based on a melody called Skaros (‘fish’), from the north west of Greece. The frantic dance tune which follows is from Thrace, a region which extends from the north eastern corner of Greece into parts of Turkey and Bulgaria. Its 7/8 rhythm and hijaz modality are common throughout the Balkans and Middle East. We decided to use accordion and tapan (a very large drum common throughout the Balkans) to bring out the Balkan flavour of this exciting melody. 


Morag Brown

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