Alasir Fraser: Scottish Fiddler.

Essay by volcomwhoreUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, May 2003

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An exciting event full of wonderfully played Scottish folk songs, and a short demonstration of how to do a Celtic dance, left me in a wonderful mood for a Sunday night. Leaving Laxson Auditorium I felt I knew so much more about Scottish music, history, culture, and even geography by his explanations of what each tune was about and where it was originated, than from when I had first arrived.

The concert started when Alasir walked down one of the isles playing his first piece. It was a great start to the concert, left an impression, and set the tone for what was to be expected for the night. The faster tunes, known as jigs, had a lot of energy behind them, which was transmitted to the audience. I never realized that some the tunes they played were also slow. I was misinformed, or just assumed, that most of what the Scottish played were in a "happy" tone and were fast, but I noticed that a reasonable amount of the songs he had played were slower paced.

I also thought it was interesting to have the piano accompanying the fiddle in the tunes, I had assumed, once again, that it was going to be just a single fiddle player. It was a pleasant surprise, it blended well and formed beautiful songs.

The jigs were interesting, they were very upbeat and played at such a fast pace. It was clearly evident that the energy Alasir put into the tunes was then given back when a few audience members got out of their seats and started dancing to them. It was really interesting and fun when he invited the audience to stand up while he taught us how to dance to the jigs ourselves. It was pretty clear that it does...