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CASE STUDY OF THE ‘HOTBED CLASS’ AT THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL HARP
FESTIVAL, 11-16 APRIL
Dr
Karen Marshalsay
FROM THE
SOURCE class / tutor KAREN MARSHALSAY The Edinburgh International Harp Festival
The Edinburgh International Harp Festival has been
running for over 20 years and is one of the foremost harp festivals in the
world. Although there are performances on each of the five days, one of the
main aspects of the festival is the teaching on offer. About 30 different
classes, of one and three quarters hours for each of the festival’s five days,
are taught in various areas such as beginner, elementary, Scottish, Welsh,
Irish, Paraguayan, wire-strung, song accompaniment, composition/improvisation,
jazz and pedal harp. There are also workshops, talks, exhibitions and ceilidhs.
Players of all levels, from the very recent starter to professionals attend
from both Scotland and abroad. Within the harp world it is seen as quite
prestigious to be asked to teach or perform at the festival. Why take HOTBED to such an environment?
The advantage of trying a class based around HOTBED
materials at the harp festival was the opportunity for intensive work with the
students. In the RSAMD a tutor will only see students for one hour once a week,
and will generally see them individually. This class gave us the opportunity to
work with advanced players in an intensive group situation over five
consecutive days. Another reason for running this class was to work
with players whose instrument was not particularly well represented on the
system and evaluate how they coped with using material from other instruments
and genres. This was, in fact, one of the features which attracted students to
the class in the first place. While a similar experiment could have been
undertaken within the RSAMD course it would have been more difficult because of
the amount of preparation the harp tutors would have had to do (an unrealistic
expectation), the disruption it would cause to their current teaching plans and
the fact that they only see the students once a week. The value of learning from players of other
instruments or singers cannot be over emphasised. It is particularly important
for Scottish harp players as theirs is a broken tradition. While the harp is
one of the oldest instruments , being played in Scotland over a thousand years
ago, and was the court or art instrument of Gaelic society through the
important Bardic period, its use declined during the eighteenth century,
largely due to the break up of the clan structure following the Jacobite period
and the removal of the Scottish royal court to London following the Union of
the Crowns. The harp was an instrument
requiring years of training and therefore also of patronage. The harpers never
wrote any of their music down as this would have been against their training
and beliefs. Obviously this has meant that when the instrument was revived in
the twentieth century it was necessary to look elsewhere to discover and
explore the instrument’s possibilities. In the later half of the twentieth
century leading players have looked in depth at the way tunes and songs are
performed by other traditional musicians such as pipers, fiddlers who, although
their traditions may not be as old as the harp one have an unbroken lineage.
And of course, song is probably the oldest tradition of all. It is still very
much part of the training of a modern professional player to study pipers,
fiddlers and singers and learn from their renditions. HOTBED is one way of
enabling students to achieve this. The HOTBED class
The class was entitled From the Source and was
described in the festival brochure as follows: Where do you go for your
repertoire? Ever wondered how people used to play or sing? This class is a rare
opportunity to learn material collected as fieldwork, now part of the RSAMD’s
innovative HOTBED project. Other materials have been donated by various tutors
of the Scottish Music department. This class will move quite fast, listening to
and learning material and then looking at arranging it for harp or clarsach.
Both aural methods and written music will be used, emphasising original
recordings. Check out www.hotbed.ac.uk
or contact k.marshalsay@rsamd.ac.uk
to discuss or request! Aims To use HOTBED resources to teach harp players of an
intermediate or advanced level. To look at each of the following areas which are
covered by HOTBED resources: Scots
Song / Traveller musicians / Pipe music / fiddle music, especially that of Niel
Gow and Scott Skinner / Gaelic music To use the video excerpts of Ann Heyman’s workshop in
a teaching situation. Overall Objective To use the non-harp materials to draw the harpers’
attention to specific ways of playing or characteristics of particular genres
of Scottish music, then to discuss and explore ways of satisfactorily playing
them on the harp. To evaluate the use of the HOTBED system. Class composition There were 5 students in the class, two of whom are
professional or semi-professional teachers and players, one from Switzerland
and one from Alaska. The other three players were Scottish, and came to find
out more about other types of Scottish music, rather than just harp music. Classes last for 1 3/4 hours each day, for 5 days. Technical Notes A G4 Powerbook was used, with the HOTBED database
cloned in it, along with a data projector, small battery powered speakers and a
mouse. Access was available to powerpoints, using a borrowed extension cable. It took about 15 minutes to set up the equipment
before the class and about the same at the end. There was only a problem with
this on one day when the previous class ran late. In general the set-up was
fine, although there were a few problems.
On Sunday, the second day of classes, the laptop crashed. Having
restarted the computer, which took some time, things seemed to work okay. On two occasions the sound was very poor or would not
play at all, yet on other occasions those same items would play without any
problems. The venue allocated to us on the first day was not
acceptable as there was too much natural daylight for anyone to see the screen
projection. We changed to a different location the next day, a smaller room
with curtains at the windows which could be closed. The system is very neat and compact, folding away
into two shoulder sized computer bags. However, with a harp and some other
items, such as back copies of Tocher (the journal of the School of
Scottish Studies which publishes interviews, information, songs stories and notated
music taken from their archive recordings), photocopied hand outs, some
published tune collections and other background reference material, it still
required two journeys and as close access with the car as possible, which might
on other occasions pose security risks for the materials or equipment if only
one person is present. STRUCTURE OF THE CLASSES
All sound items were played directly from HOTBED with
the exception of one track which was taken from the RSAMD’s CD. HOTBED was used
as a teacher’s aid, albeit one without which this class could not have
functioned, rather than an individual resource tool by the students. The other
point to note is that teaching Scottish traditional music necessitates crossing
over into other fields of knowledge especially history, social history, music
theory and notation. In practice this
often means that the teacher will distribute a wide range of handouts
comprising, for example, general information and further reading or listening
lists, press or journal articles or photographs, song lyrics, staff notation.
These handouts are not background as such, the information they contain is
vital to the student to allow them to properly absorb and reproduce the tunes
they are being taught. It is a very
complex teaching situation and the teacher is constantly using various mediums
and methodologies to impart information. DAY ONE Introduction to the system – especially instructions
on the use of the search facilities, and the looping technology. Handed out both HOTBED leaflets. Bing Abree
Barrie Gadgie – sung by Jeannie Robertson Played over several times, including Jeannie’s
translation of the cant vocabulary which she is asked about by the collector,
Hamish Henderson. The song lines were then played over individually with
the class singing along, gradually increasing the length of the loops until the
entire 4-line song was in one loop. Tried getting people to play along on harps
with some success. The looping technology is the main manipulation tool
in HOTBED. A user plays the track and inserts track markers by clicking the
mouse at the desired place. The segment between any two such loops can then be
continuously played. Cuddie’s
Wedding – sung by Jeannie Robertson A similar methodology was used, but this time with a
longer song of a chorus and two verses. I then taught the tune as a strathspey the way I
learnt it and play it with fiddlers. Discussion of differences. Handed out a
transcription of Jeannie’s version (both words and music notation) and the
version from Grieg-Duncan collection
containing both a tune and song version. Discussion of Jeannie Robertson’s style and the
importance of travellers to the Folk Revival, especially in storytelling and
ballad singing. Played Son Davit.
Looked at the way a singer will take years to crystallize their own version,
the idea of variation from singer to singer and performance to performance. Handed out various background information sheets on
ballads, Jeannie Robertson’s versions of Son
Davit, and Scots song genres. Listened to several other recordings, of children’s
songs, ballads and bothy ballads, several of which were selected by the
students after searching the system. DAY TWO Played When I
wis new bit sweet sixteen , a 4 verse lullaby, again performed by Jeannie
Robertson. I gave out the transcription after the first playing and we
discussed the way the performer’s rhythm and delivery changes as each verse
goes by. This is something that would not have been picked up solely from the
notation, and highlights the necessity to hear as well as look at material. Played Jimmy MacBeath, Aikey Fair, discussed bothy ballads. In response to a question from
one of the students listened to his version on The Muckin o Geordie’s Byre. One of the advantages of HOTBED is the
amount of material it is possible to store, giving instant access to material
that would not otherwise be to hand in response to unforeseen questions from
students, or tangential issues. Handed out article on Hamish Henderson, discussed the
role of the collectors and the development of the fieldwork collection at the
School of Scottish Studies. Played some recordings of Hamish singing – Farewell to the Creeks – mentioned use
of pipe tunes for songs. Handed out a sheet of instrumental tune types –
descriptions plus notation examples. Listened to performance of Fhir a’chinn duibh, by RSAMD students – vocal and on small pipes,
from No 1 Scottish CD (played through computer).This is the only item
that was not on the HOTBED system, nbowever it is interesting to note that the
performers learned the piece during HOTBED’s first User Needs Analysis from the
pilot School of Scottish Studies website, Pearl. Discussed pibroch and
pibroch songs. Tried to play Donald Morrison reminiscence but this item would
not play. Handed out excerpt from Tocher – biography of Alasdair Boyd,
and transcription of his version, plus notation of part of the pibroch (Lament
for the Children) that the song most closely resembles). Let students read
through several times, then played track several times with everyone playing
along. Discussed ways to arrange on
harp – left hand chords, decorations etc. Gave everyone time to experiment then
went round group individually – drone effects, downwards chords. I taught some
two handed ornamentation ideas – and illustrated by playing the pibroch part of
a jig from Journeying (one of my
compositions). Handed out the pipe settings of two of the tunes we’d
be looking at next day and background information sheet on pibroch and
canntaireachd. DAY THREE Discussed pipe notation ie no key signatures used,
stems on tune notes go downwards, gracenotes upwards etc. The Donald Morrison
item played successfully today. Also played an interview with Pipe Major Robert
Nicol in which he discusses canntaireachd with the fieldworker. The interviews
held on the HOTBED system hold much valuable material, often personal thoughts
and ideas about how things should be done, from older and highly respected
practitioners, many of whom have passed on. To hear these comments actually
being said by the informant makes much more of an impression on the students
than to have either the same statement read out by the tutor or put in print. Played George Moss, ‘the causes of bad march,
strathspey and reel playing’. Looked at the music while played through again.
Put the actual diddled versions of ‘2’ and then ‘4’ on loops and played until
people got the difference. Tried out the first part of The Athole Highlanders March to Loch Katrine in both timings to get
the difference and to make sure everyone understood that it’s better to play in
2. Same with Leaving Glenurquhart. Looked at ways of playing pipe decorations on harp –
used two Ap Huw techniques for crisp snaps in strathspeys (thumb choke) and for birls. Discussed technicalities of
why and how pipers play these graces, and how best to interpret on harp. Gave students time to experiment with ideas,
and take these into both the marches and the pibroch. Looked at the importance of playing in 4s for
strathspeys and a heavy 2 for reels, using Cuttie’s
Wedding and Glenlivet as
examples. Played some Gaelic puirt-a-beul (mouth music, highly rhythmic and sung for dancing)
and some in Scots. Spent some
more time on Fhir a’chinn duibh. Handed out a background information sheet on fiddle composers,
and the Scott Skinner music (from The Scottish Violinist and The
Atholl Collection) to look over for tomorrow. DAY FOUR Played through some Skinner tunes and spoke about him
and his work, also showing the students the biographical webpages published by
the North East Folklore Archive, to which there is a link from any Skinner item
in HOTBED. Bogniebrae strathspey
- discussed what Skinner is actually playing – at times different from
the notation eg the triplets are all played evenly at the end of the B part,
use of open A strings for octave jumps, how it’s easier to change g gracenote
to a repeated e on the harp etc. Athole
Brose played both Skinner’s peformance and Iain Fraser’s,
compared, discussed use of triplets in A part, try alternative harp fingering 3
212 rather than 432 which is more suitable for a dropped in ornament rather
than actual tune notes. Looked at which
lever changes are necessary and which could be tuned in at the start. Reels – looked at The
Bride’s Reel and The Auld Wheel –
looked at playing these splitting tune between two hands – taking stressed
notes with LH plus the octave below – led onto video clips of Ann Heymann
discussing and demonstrating coupled hands technique. Gave students some time to experiment with this style of reel
playing. DAY FIVE Started with other Ann Heymann clips – looking at
some of the techniques she demonstrates. The students found it possible to try
to copy her finger movements from the videos, and although it would take many
weeks of practice to actually use them accurately, it enabled the students to
gain a greater understanding of her methodology and enough information to begin
to work on the techniques on their own. Played through some Skinner slow tunes – with music
handed out – The Cradle Song, The Flower
o the Quern . Marie Louise Napier came round to collect register sheet, and
sang some words to the latter tune. Looked at choosing tunes to arrange on harp – played Niel Gow’s Lament for James Moray of
Abercairney, played in ensemble with piano, cello 2 fiddles etc, talked
about using that to get harp ideas. Played Niel
Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second Wife, solo and then the ensemble
version, discussion as above. Asked for any ‘ last requests’, played over some of
the stuff again. Played through all tunes covered so far, ending with
an ‘arrangement’ of Fhir a’chinn duibh. CONCLUSIONS The class all expressed their interest in the
material and enjoyment of the class, stating that it was something different
and gave them plenty of things to go away and think about, and to try out at
home, both in these tunes and for others as well. They also expressed their
gratitude with a very well-received gift of a large Easter egg and signed card!
Although the numbers were quite low compared to other classes ( 10-15 in a
class is more usual) this is not entirely unexpected as festival goers do seem
rather reluctant to try out something new or unusual. The class was much talked
about and several other players all asked it if I would be doing it again the
following year as they would liked to have attended but ‘weren’t sure about
it’. This kind of teaching requires a lot of preparation –
much more so than for other harp festival classes that I have taught, which
have simply been a case of teaching tunes which I play in the style in which I
play them. Part of the reason for this
necessary preparation is because of the limited information which HOTBED stores
about each item in comparison to the amount of information included, for
example, in the Greentrax Scottish Tradition Series sleeve notes. ( High
quality commercial records and CDs of archive recordings from the School of
Scottish Studies.) At the minute the
teacher would need to be familiar with most of the interviews, manyof which are
20-30minutes long, to know if it is any way relevant to what they are going to
teach, which means that they have to have already listened to it all and
ideally spent time putting in markers at relevant sections. If HOTBED hopes to have as many tutors as possible
using this material then we will need to consider inputting as much information
as we hold about the interviews (not necessarily about the tunes), or possibly
even transcribing them. This would encourage tutors of other instruments for
example to use the interviews with pipers or fiddlers without spending a lot of
their own time searching through it all for useful material. This kind of
richly detailed metadata could then be searchable, cutting down tutors’
preparation time by a significant amount. This type of class uses HOTBED as a teacher’s aid,
albeit an indispensable one. The HOTBED materials are of course, only the first
step in teaching a class like this, and the tutor needs to carefully plan the
lessons, translate the information into a form that is understood by the
players of other instruments than those mentioned, and then to generate
discussion and experimentation with the students. However HOTBED does provide a useful and convenient resource for accessing
material which would not otherwise be readily available. On the other hand the
system is not foolproof, as no system could be, and it is very awkward in a
class situation when the item you require will not play properly or the system
crashes. The tutor needs to be doubly prepared with something else to instantly
do instead. This amount of preparation could well dissuade some tutors from
using the system in their actual classes, preferring to refer the students to
go and check the references on their own. As stated in the introduction the advantage of trying
this class out at the harp festival was the intensive work with the students.
In the RSAMD a tutor will only see the students for one hour once a week, and
will generally see them individually. This class gave us the opportunity to work
with advanced players in an intensive group situation over five consecutive
days. It is certainly easier to familiarise the students with the system when
they are seeing it every day rather than just once a week. If the system were
to be fully integrated into the Academy course then it would be great to
develop some kind of intensive HOTBED usage for the new first year intake each
year. This could begin with similar kinds of training sessions as have been run
and develop into more specialised usage, leading to individual coaching from
the tutors on material worked with. It would however cause many problems to try
and fit something like this into an already crowded timetable. It is vitally important for any traditional musician
to know about the background and history of both the music in general but also
of the players and individual tunes. This was stated by students during the
focus group discussion, when they mentioned that one of the most important
things that they could gain from HOTBED was ‘historical background, for the
purposes of exams and introducing pieces to the audience’. Indeed one student
stated that the whole purpose of the course was ‘to be informed’. This is one
of HOTBED’s most important roles.
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This page last modified: 18:03, Fri 25 Jan 80 This page published by HOTBED Project at RSAMD. |
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