Iain Churches said:
"Richard Robinson" wrote in message
o.uk...
Jim Lesurf said:
In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Eiron
wrote:
Very odd you want 'respect' shown to fiddle players regardless, but
are happy to slag off every other trade. Are you a frustrated
fiddle player?

The OED says "Now only in familiar or contemptuous use".

It's what a pro musician friend of mine calls his. ;-)

By co-incidence I was at a (social) meeting yesterday where one of the
people was a viola/violin player and teacher we know and someone else
was a Gaelic speaker from Harris. One of the questions he raised was wrt
what was the 'difference' (if any) between a Violin and a Fiddle. This
was in the context of it being called a 'fiddle' in terms of
Scots/Gaelic folk/traditional music but a 'violin' for classical.
Certainly not a 'contemptuous' term for the traditional players, etc. So
'familiar' may cover it.

Snap !

The view was that there wasn't necessarily any specific inherent
difference required between the instruments to which the terms were
applied. But there could be in terms of the way it was played or perhaps
'set up'.

It's not my instrument, I'm a clarinettist, so I can't say for sure, but
some of the people I meet in 'traditional' contexts also play in
orchestras, and I don't think I've ever heard any mention of needing
separate instruments. Given the cost of a good one, I'd be suprised.

One can buy a pretty good used low-bridge folk fiddle for maybe UKP100. An
Amati violin can costs three times as much as a Bentley.

I've heard of Hungarian players using a flat-bridge instrument for
accompaniment, I don't believe I've ever heard of it closer to home, except
in vague 'reconstruction' terms of what people might have done a long time
ago[1]. And most of the people I've heard from seem to expect to pay a few
times that for a (ahem) fiddlestick.

(conversation collapses into vicarious willywaving)

Don't confuse the two:-)

I think our contacts with 'folk' music must be very different, but I'll be
sure to notice the other sort if I see one.

[1] I did see something called a 'crwth' once, which was something someone
thought some Welsh players might have used once[2], with a flat bridge. It
wasn't very handy for playing a tune on, not being able to get at a single
string.

[2] Used once ? Is that's why they're so cheap secondhand ? runs away

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://www.qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html