Heinz .... as you no doubt know the history of traditional music is an aural one ... tunes were passed from player to player and not written down like 'classical' music ... so it's an evolving and fluid genre.

The guitar wasn't seen as an accompanying instrument before the 1920s and wasn't much used at all until the 1960s .... so the style of guitar accompaniment is relatively modern .... to my mind the guitar has two functions ... a melodic one with the chords and a rhythmic one with the strumming beat. If we want to go way back then early tunes were probably played for dancing on a pipe with a hand drum giving rhythm.

Looking at the bit of the tune you mention, the 'off beat' chop on the guitar and bass, although sounding modern, seems to me to hark back to the sort of rhythmic variation an old time drummer might whack out on the tabor or bodhran so works well with the tune.

But, as I said, it's an constantly evolving form so 'what works' tends to survive to the next generation of players to become the norm. I doubt a real old player from the 1500s would recognise our current virtuoso 'break-neck speed' renditions at all.

Essays and books have been written on this so I'll stop there 🙂

K

Ps .... Kathryn Tickell is a great Northumbrian pipe player ... just to rub it in, she's a fine fiddle player (you can see her going to pick it up for the next tune at rhe end of the clip) and whistle player as well ... some people have unreasonable levels of talent! 🙂




Last edited by Image; 07/12/22 11:09 AM.