Define "Tradition"? How long have you got!

It's a huge question.  However, old favourites often tell us a lot about how things were played in the past.

The Whittaker Library is glad they've got this old book by William C Honeyman in the stacks:-

The strathspey, reel and hornpipe tutor: being a concise analysis of the peculiar method of bowing these compositions, with numerous examples, and a selection of 100 favourite strathspeys and reels, and 53 favourite hornpipes, with the bowing and fingering marked throughout exactly as these should be played.  Ask for it at the desk - click here for the shelfmark

Now, we've mentioned this book before - you might like to find out more about it.  Just click here.   And we hope to get a modern reprint soon, so that there will be a copy students can actually borrow.

Strathspey Players Past and Present, by William Honeyman

If you play the fiddle, take a look at this.  It was written in 1922, practically a century ago.  William Honeyman is all but forgotten now.  He talks about Niel Gow and James Scott Skinner in an unashamedly anecdotal style.  But the stories themselves might be worth sharing next time you're introducing a Gow strathspey at a gig.

Fifteen pages to 'favourite' (They're already in my Diigo bookmarks!):-

http://www.cyberstudia.com/ogmios/texts/honeyman/strathspey-players/strathspey-players.html


Honeyman wrote a Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor, too - we have it in the Whittaker Library.  We blogged about it in the context of Newcastle fiddle reels, not so long ago.  Read that blogpost here.