Brenda Stubbert The 2nd
Collection One of the things that
makes the best old fiddle tunes sound (and feel) so good is
the old musical sensibility from which they sprung. Cape
Breton's Brenda Stubbert embodies that sensibility; her new
tunes are cut from the same cloth as the old ones she plays.
It's a sturdy and complex weave containing both Irish and
Scottish colors and patterns as well as a certain something
that makes it Cape Breton music. I had the pleasure of
reviewing Brenda Stubbert's first collection for Fiddler
Magazine over a decade ago. The new Second Collection is as
good or better. It contains 161 jigs,
reels, strathspeys, marches, slow airs, and waltzes. 60 are
Brenda Stubbert's excellent compositions, 38 are by living
composers from both sides of the Canadian border and both
sides of the Atlantic, and the balance are Brenda's versions
of older fiddle tunes. I found many surprises in Brenda's
settings of these older well-known tunes. A tune like "The
Maid Behind the Bar" has been played so many times it may
seem written in stone. What could be done with it? Plenty,
it turns out. Brenda Stubbert doesn't "muck about" with a
tune or distort it, she makes it better. The little changes
in "Bonniest Lass In A' the World" are so good and
unexpected they made me laugh. On the other hand a tune like
"The MacLellan Trio," Brenda's own composition, is so
satisfying in part because it sounds like it always existed.
The book contains many such tunes. If there are any mistakes
in the transcriptions I sure haven't found them. The
collection is enhanced by Paul Cranford's lucid and reliable
text, both in the introduction and in the musical and
historical commentary that appears after many of the tunes.
- - - Jody Stecher
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Volume 6 of the
Cape
Breton Musical Heritage
Series
Review by
Jody Stecher orignally published in Fiddler
Magazine.
8/4/07