Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes [Hardcover]

Jeff Todd Titon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2001

" For years fiddlers and folklorists have prized the old-time fiddle tunes from Kentucky. Many of the most outstanding country music artists hail from the state, including Bill Monroe, widely regarded as the founder of bluegrass music. Even Aaron Copland lifted, note-for-note, a Kentucky fiddler's performance of "Bonaparte's Retreat" for the "Hoedown" section of his ballet Rodeo. That tune and nearly 200 others are transcribed here, most for the first time. They are taken from recordings of Kentucky fiddlers, many of whom were born before 1900, practitioners of a style of playing now extremely rare. Jeff Todd Titon places the tunes in their historical context, provides biographical sketches of the performers, and offers suggestions for contemporary fiddlers who want to use the book for performance. A compact disc of recordings is also included.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Journal of Folklore Research" -- The CD on its own would be one of the best old-time records of the year. The boo

About the Author

Jeff Todd Titon, professor of music and director of the Ph.D. program in ethnomusicology at Brown University, is the author of numerous books on American music, including Early Downhome Blues.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (October 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813122007
• ISBN-13: 978-0813122007
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tunes and History, October 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (Hardcover)

Titon's book is an excellent compilation of fiddle tunes from Kentucky. After introductory material that places his scholarship within the history of research on old-time fiddling, Titon focuses on the transcriptions of 170 tunes that are either unique to Kentucky or else characteristic of Kentucky fiddling styles. The tunes are transcribed in clear, accessible, and accurate musical notation. He includes transcriptions of older recordings made decades ago as well as transcriptions of recent field recordings. The tunes are from the repertoires of numerous players, and the transcriptions should thus be very useful in comparing individual techniques. They also will add to the store of tunes that fiddlers can play. Titon includes discographic and historical information on each tune, thereby adding to the usefulness of his study of Kentucky fiddling. I also appreciated the biographical information and photographs of the various fiddlers, and listening to the accompanying CD warmed the written notes on the cold, printed page. The book has a terrific bibliography for those interested in additional research on fiddling, and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in folk music, folklorists' scholarship, and Kentucky history. My only critique of the book is that Titon could have included more information about the style of fiddling used in each tune. Simply discussing bowing techniques, tempo, and ornamentation for various tunes within the pages where they were transcribed would have helped round out the excellent treatment of Kentucky fiddling.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get it now, don't wait, October 16, 2002

By 

Emmett Miller (Burton, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (Hardcover)

It took me a while to cough up the do, re, mi for this one, but I'm glad I did now it's in my hands. I love this book because it's all about the music. It has enough ethnomusicoligy in it to assure you it's honest. It has a wealth of wonderful tunes both in print and on a CD. The CD gets the underlying rhythm across like notation just can't do. And the stories about the old boys and girls are a bonus. Too many old time fiddle books seem to be a catalogue of old boys. You sometimes wonder if the author ever heard them play. Not this book. This is a university press publication, so if it sells out it probably won't be available again for a long time, if ever. So get it now.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable Resource for Fiddlers, August 22, 2007

By 

Brian Scott (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (Hardcover)

This is an indispensable resource for people interested in the fiddling traditions of Kentucky. It includes transcriptions of 170 tunes from a number of Kentucky fiddlers, some well-known (relatively speaking) and some rather obscure. The tunes also run the gamut of familiar (Arkansas Traveler) to obscure (Cotton Bonnet, Pick a Little Cotton and Spin Some Too, and many many other examples). Transcription alone may not be enough to convey the sound and feeling of the tunes so Titon has included a CD with this volume which is a selection of tunes from the book played by the source fiddlers. I wish Titon had included more tunes on this CD as it only covers a few of the 170 tunes in the book. However, for those who wish to locate more of the source tunes, there is a great resource where one can download many of them for this book (but certainly not all). It is the Digital Library of Appalachia (do a Google search and you will find it). Here you can search for a tune or fiddler and download MP3's for free. Much of Titon's book is based on field recordings done by folklorists like Bruce Greene and John Harrod, and these people have donated their recordings to the various libraries involved in the Digital Library project. For example, one can download the complete home recordings of Kentucky fiddler John Salyer on this website-- this includes all the Salyer tunes in Titon's volume and many more that are not transcribed in his book.

In my experience not all of the transcriptions exactly match the source tunes, but Titon admits in the introduction it is nearly impossible to fully capture a fiddler's setting for a tune on the written page. This is true, and I use this resource as a companion to the source tunes to clarify certain passages when needed and learn the tunes primarily by listening to them. Titon's transcriptions are clean and simple, and he does not muddy the page with a lot of prescribed bowing patterns-- he allows the fiddler to interpret the transcription and come up with his/her own bowing patterns for the tunes.

Each tune has a brief history printed below the transcription along with a list of other fiddlers who have recorded the tune (published and unpublished versions) and other books where the tune has been transcribed.
This volume also includes an excellent introduction on the evolution of old-time fiddling in Kentucky and the various tune types that have evolved in Kentucky (Titon outlines 3 different types distinguished by region). Titon includes a capsule biography section that gives a brief bio on each of the fiddlers whose tunes are transcribed in the book and in many cases a photo of the fiddler.

Overall, this is a great resource and learning tool for fiddlers and others interested in Appalachian fiddling traditions. It is in my opinion one of the best (if not the best) books on the subject of Appalachian fiddling. Highly recommended!