The Home Ruler Set
I recorded the two hornpipes The Home Ruler and Boys of Bluehill on solo fiddle for the soundtrack to the video linked below. I’ve been spending loads of time lately trying to play clearly, with varying degrees of success and failure. Clarity of expression on the fiddle, and on the bagpipes, requires a high level of technical ability. I only hear fleeting moments of anything like that in my own playing. But, with continued effort, those moments when I’m playing music, not just notes, are happening with increasing frequency. That makes all the effort worthwhile.
I feel I’m playing well when the voice of the fiddle or the pipes themselves isn’t in any way impeded by a lack of technique on my part. Ironically in that sense, when I’m playing at my best, my presence diminishes in the sound, at least on a technical level. The notes and the instrument are working together at their peak levels to create music, and I’m not getting in their way.
Obviously a companion perspective is that the musician is the animator, the prime mover, but even the greatest musicians only are at best a third of the equation. The music itself, the instrument, and the musician all work in concert, pun intended. When each member of the musical triumvirate is performing and cooperating optimally, the result is as close to magic as I’ve ever experienced, as an observer, or on those aforementioned rare occasions, as a participant.
Keeping at the forefront of my mind a clear definition of my one-third role in the process of making music informs and directs my performance, during practice, rehearsal, and play. I’m there to be the musician by cooperating with the music, and with the instrument. Even playing solo, such as in the linked recording, I’m still playing in an ensemble, which includes my teachers over the years, the composers of the music, and the makers of the instrument I’m playing. As a musician, even if you’re playing alone in a soundproof room, you always are participating in community.
The video footage is from my first trip to Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, in Lloyd Harbor, New York. After more than two hours walking, I’d only seen a small fraction of the grounds. The existence of the preserve is the result of people collectively doing things that create comprehensive joy, but just as with music, and not for nothing, with beer brewing and loads of other pursuits besides, that creation involves a significant degree of putting things in motion, then getting out of the way to let things create themselves. We play our parts, and when we recognize, understand, and respect the other constituents in our lives, we play our parts so much the better.
