The Fiddler of Reeling and Rocking

In Thomas Hardy's short story "The Fiddler of the Reels," he tells of the power of an iterant fiddler, Mop Ollamoor, to dramatically affect the women and children who hear his playing. "He could make any child in the parish, who was at all sensitive to music, burst into tears in a few minutes by simply fiddling one of the old dance-tunes he almost entirely affected," writes Hardy; for "young women of fragile and responsive organization," he continued, there is seduction in his "fantastical" bowing.

I've always been struck by that story's description of how powerfully music can affect a listener. In this case, it does not end well. (With Hardy, it never does.) Car'line Aspent, the young woman transfixed by Ollamoor's playing, ultimately dances herself into collapse and convulsions as she is unable to resist the relentless sequence of tunes.

And part of the attraction of the fiddler's music is no doubt that "all were devil's tunes in his repertory;" that idea had as much currency in 1893 when the story was written as in the 1950s, when rock and roll was launched and Elvis Presley's shaking hips were not shown on television.

Last night, when playing at a local restaurant, I felt a little like Mop Ollamoor. We played to a rather large (for us) crowd, and like the inn where Car'line falls under the spell of the devil's music, this room was also hot, sweaty, and filled with people ready for fun. So as the music thumped out, and the beat took hold of hips and feet, and I took in the energy gave back the command that since there was no dance floor, it was ok to dance on tables. And they did! Here, there, across the room people got up on their chairs and tables and let the music take them. Others, more vertiginous, stayed on the floor but redoubled their efforts. I was watching as it took place, feeling a bit like a spectator, but then also realizing that it was the band, and a command that made this all happen.

Remarkable. When things like this happen, I start to think that music is something larger than me that runs through the universe, and I just happen to be the person transmitting that message along. Remarkable.

Pitch Less Than Perfect

Having just been downgraded at work to slightly less than full-time employment, I find I have a little more time on my hands. And if the devil makes work for idle hands, a computer and the Internet seem to have taken on God's role, keeping me busy with things that have been lurking about in the background.

This blog, for instance. And the press release I encountered some time back, in which researchers from the University of California San Francisco discuss their research into a genetic background for perfect pitch. Whether perfect pitch or some other talent, we've all encountered individuals who say they were "just born with it." But what exactly does that mean? What exactly in their physical makeup or the individual biochemistry results in a person having a particular skill?

It may be, as with eye color and certain diseases, that perfect pitch has a genetic component. For the patient sample of this study, the scientists looked at families in which at least 2 people (usually siblings) had perfect pitch as determined by a web-based test. They then obtained DNA samples and looked for bits of DNA shared by family members with perfect pitch. They discovered that genetic variations related to acquiring perfect pitch might be different among different ethnic groups.

In terms of what this might mean, the press release said it was an important development for scientists looking to understand the role of nature and nurture in early musical training. I took the test, and to my somewhat surprise, I was awful! (Results in the image above.) These are not the kind of results you want to see in a musician. So I think I'll stick to my day job. Er, wait a minute...

To take the University of California Absolute Pitch Study (you will have to answer a lot of questions before you actually get to it), follow this link.