Fiddle

Etymology

The etymology of fiddle is uncertain: it probably derives from the Latin fidula, which is the early word for violin, or it may be natively Germanic.

The name appears to be related to Icelandic fiðla and also Old English fiðele. A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle might even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin.

In medieval times, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards.

Ensembles

In performance, a solo fiddler, or one or two with a group of other instrumentalists, is the norm, though twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian, Scottish and Irish styles. Following the folk revivals of the second half of the 20th century, it became common for less formal situations to find large groups of fiddlers playing together—see for example the Calgary Fiddlers, Swedish Spelmanslag folk-musician clubs, and the worldwide phenomenon of Irish sessions.

Orchestral violins, on the other hand, are commonly grouped in sections, or "chairs". These contrasting traditions may be vestiges of historical performance settings: large concert halls where violins were played required more instruments, before electronic amplification, than did more intimate dance halls and houses that fiddlers played in.

The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music and fiddle music. Historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, did not always follow. In situations that required greater volume, a fiddler (as long as they kept the beat) could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. Various fiddle traditions have differing values.

Scottish, with cello

In the very late 20th century, a few artists successfully reconstructed the Scottish tradition of violin and "big fiddle", or cello. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas' Fire and Grace, and Tim Macdonald and Jeremy Ward's The Wilds.

Balkan, with kontra

Hungarian, Slovenian, and Romanian fiddle players are often accompanied by a three-stringed variant of the viola—known as the kontra—and by double bass, with cimbalom and clarinet being less standard yet still common additions to a band. In Hungary, a three-stringed viola variant with a flat bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music. The flat bridge lets the musician play three-string chords. A three-stringed double bass variant is also used.

Styles

To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound.

Europe

Great Britain

• English folk music fiddling, including:
  • Northumbrian fiddle style, which features "seconding", an improvised harmony part played by a second fiddler.
  • Lakeland or Cumbrian fiddling has a repertoire largely based upon hornpipes but also incorporates reels and jigs.
  • Yorkshire fiddling is a combination of two main approaches: a clearly phrased and articulated performance with few slurs but sometimes with open string drones, similar to the playing of Cotswold Morris and Southern English country dance musicians; for more notey tunes, a more fluent style with irregular slurs which shift the accent around between on-beats and off-beats, similar to Northumbrian fiddle music.
• Scottish fiddling, including:
  • Shetland fiddling, which includes trowie tunes said to come from peerie folk. The style is characterised by "ringing strings" and syncopated rhythms.
  • A North East (particularly Aberdeenshire and Moray) tradition strongly influenced by baroque violin technique with staccato and Scotch snap bowing techniques and double stops.
  • A Scottish Borders tradition with a repertoire heavy in hornpipes and with heavy use of double stops.
  • A Highland tradition, highly influenced by the ornamentation and mixolydian scale of the Great Highland Bagpipe, as well as smoother bowing than other Scottish fiddle styles and a swinging of the 6/8 jig rhythm.
  • A West Highland and Hebridean Tradition, very closely related to the Highland tradition with major influence from the Gaelic song tradition.
  • An Orkney tradition with simpler bowing and ornamentation but with tunes featuring accidentals.
• Welsh fiddling (Welsh Ffidil; see Ar Log), a recently revived tradition.

Ireland

• Irish folk music fiddling including:
  • Donegal fiddling from the northwest in Ulster, which features mazurkas and a Scottish-influenced repertoire including Strathspey and Highland Fling dances. Fiddlers tend to play fast and make heavy use of staccato bowing and may from time to time "play the bass", meaning a second fiddler may play a melody an octave below where a first fiddler is playing it.
  • Sligo fiddling from northern Connacht, which like Donegal fiddling tends to be fast, but with a bouncier feel to the bowing.
  • Galway fiddling southern Connacht, which is slower than Sligo or Donegal traditions, with a heavier emphasis on ornamentation. Tunes are occasionally played in Eb or Bb to match the tonality of flat pipes.
  • Clare fiddling from northern Munster, which tends to be played near the slower Galway tempo yet with a greater emphasis on the melody itself rather than ornamentation.
  • Sliabh Luachra fiddling from the southwest in Munster, characterized by a unique repertoire of polkas and slides, the use of double stops and drones, as well as playing the melody in two octaves as in Donegal.

Nordic countries

• Norwegian fiddling (including Hardanger fiddling; see also Bygdedans and Gammaldans), including traditions from:
  • Røros and Nord-Noreg styles, both using the standard fiddle.
  • Finnskogen, using the standard fiddle, but featuring some flatted notes influenced by Finnish folk music.
  • Voss and Telemark styles, both using the Hardanger fiddle.
  • Setesdal, which uses both standard and Hardanger fiddles.
• Swedish fiddling (including Låtfiol playing; see also Spelmanslag and Gammaldans), including traditions from:
  • Jämtland
  • Dalarna
• Finnish fiddling, including the regional styles of:
  • Kaustinen
  • Ostrobothnia, heavily influenced by Swedish fiddling.

Continental Europe

• Austrian fiddling
• French fiddling, including an old tradition from Corrèze and a revived one from Brittany
• Hungarian folk music traditions
• Italian fiddling
• Klezmer fiddling
• Polish fiddling
• Mainland Portuguese and Azorean fiddling
• Romanian fiddling

Americas

United States

American fiddling is a broad category including traditional and modern styles:

Traditional

• Blues fiddling
• Cajun and Zydeco fiddling
• Native American fiddling, including:
  • Cherokee
  • Creek
  • Tohono O'odham waila music, a style heavily influenced by Mexican fiddling and featuring irregular counts and harmonies in thirds, fourths, and sixths.
• Old time fiddling, including:
  • Fiddling from Appalachia, the most well-known style today, featuring heavy use of droning and double-stops as well as syncopated bowing patterns.
  • Athabaskan fiddling of the Interior Alaska.
  • Midwestern fiddling, highly influenced by Scandinavian music.
  • Ozarks fiddling, faster and crisper bowing than Appalachia.
  • Texas fiddling, with influences from Mexican fiddling and an emphasis on competitive playing.
  • New England fiddling, with strong influences from Québécois/French Canadian and British repertoires.
  • Northwest fiddling, with influences from both Ozark and Midwestern fiddle styles, though with a strong emphasis on competitive playing like Texas fiddling.

Modern

• Bluegrass fiddling
• Country fiddling
• Western swing style fiddling

Canada

Fiddling remains popular in Canada, and the various homegrown styles of Canadian fiddling are seen as an important part of the country's cultural identity, as celebrated during the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

• Cape Breton fiddling, with a distinct Scottish influence
• French Canadian fiddling including "crooked tunes", that is, tunes with irregular beat patterns.
• Métis fiddling, of central and western Canada featuring strong French Canadian influence, but with even more "crooked" tunes.
• Newfoundland fiddling, also featuring many crooked tunes, colloquially termed 'singles' or 'doubles'.
• Maritimes, Acadian or Downeast style of fiddling, which has many similarities to Cape Breton fiddling
• English Canadian fiddling or Anglo-Canadian fiddling

Mexico

Mexican fiddling includes

• Danza indígena
• Mariachi
• Son arribeño
• Son calentano
• Son huasteco
• Son planeco
• Violín-tambora
• Violín tuxtleco
• Violín mixteco

South America

• Forró, a type of music from Brazil, including the rabeca fiddle tradition
• Peruvian violin

Africa, Asia and Australia

• African fiddle
• Australian folk music traditions
• Huqin Chinese fiddles
• Morna fiddling from Cape Verde
• Indian fiddle
• Indian classical music

Related instruments

Variants

• Hardanger fiddle
• Stroh violin or phonofiddle, known in Romanian as Vioara cu goarnă.

Near relations

• Cello
• Double bass
• Kontra
• Låtfiol
• Rebec
• Rabeca
• Viola

Distant relations

• Apache fiddle
• Byzantine lyra, the medieval bowed instrument of the Byzantine Empire
• Cretan Lyra
• Crwth
• Gadulka
• Gudok
• Gusle
• Hurdy-gurdy also known as the wheel fiddle
• Kamancheh
• Lijerica
• Nyckelharpa
• Rebab
• Erhu
• morin khuur