The Donald Angus Beaton Project
Interpretation
Traditional Tunes as Interpreted by Donald Angus Beaton. From the ‘Dungreen Collection’.
| TUNE | NOTATION |
AUDIO |
PLAYED BY |
| Angus Ronald’s Big Tune | Sheet Music | Donald Angus & Kinnon Beaton | |
| Sheet Music | Mary MacDonald | ||
| Beatons of Mabou | |||
| Colonel McBain’s Fancy | Sheet Music | Donald Angus & Kinnon Beaton | |
| Donald Angus Beaton | |||
| Hughie Rory MacKinnon | Sheet Music | Donald Angus & Kinnon Beaton | |
| Sheet Music | Mary MacDonald | ||
| Beatons of Mabou | |||
| I Won’t Do The Work | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| London Lasses | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| MacKinnon’s Brook Strathspey | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| MacKinnon’s Other Rant | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| Margaree | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| Miss Charlotte Alston Stewart’s | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| Sarah MacArthur’s | Sheet Music | Donald Angus & Kinnon Beaton | |
| Sheet Music | Mary MacDonald | ||
| Stumpie | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| West Mabou Reel | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| Whiskey Jig | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton | |
| Willy MacKenzie’s | Sheet Music | Donald Angus Beaton |
A NOTE ABOUT ‘WILD NOTES’
This is a note-substitution ornament used in reels which nearly always involves playing a fourth-finger note in place of a third-finger melody note. Frequently, this means that the second scale-degree replaces the tonic, or the sixth scale-degree replaces the fifth. Unlike most other notes which are embellished, the substituted note is usually in a rhythmically weak position (often the last eighth note of a measure) rather than on a strong beat. The wild-note is then played more strongly than the normal note would have been, which adds rhythmic complexity. The wild-note is a characteristic feature of the old “Mabou Coal Mines” style of playing. It imparts a wild and spirited flavour to the tune.
It can be difficult for a listener to judge what is a wild-note substitution and what is a standard melody-note, although often the wild-note will sound dissonant If the fiddler only sometimes plays the wild-note, it is fairly dear which note is the melody-note, or if other fiddlers use a note which sounds more like it belongs to the tune, it is also fairly dear. However, sometimes a wild-note has become an accepted part of a standard Cape Breton version, and it is only by comparing the tune to a book version that one’s instinct can be affirmed. Sometimes there is no such reference for the curious to check.
The notes of the tune are written in the transcriptions just as the particular fiddler played them, since a wild-note may or may not be a part of the skeletal version of the tune in the fiddler’s mind. Suspected wild-notes are notated with a box around them. Usually this indicates that the “real” melody note may be one step below the boxed note. Further speculation or presumptions about a substitution may be found in the commentary accompanying the particular tune, especially if a wild-note seems to be substituting for a note other than a step below it.
Material for this session from DunGreen Collection. Copyright 1996. By Kate Dunlay and David Greenberg. Used with permission.