Play It Like It Is - Fiddle and Dance Studies from around the North Atlantic

Contributors:

• Mary Anne Alburger
• Fenella Bazin
• Richard Blaustein
• Jan Petter Blom
• Liz Doherty
• Karin Eriksson
• Stuart Eydmann
• Burt Feintuch
• Sherry Johnson
• Jan Ling
• Cass Meurig
• Evelyn Osborne
• Paul E. W. Roberts
• Ian Russell
• Catherine A. Shoupe

This collection provides an important contribution to our understanding of the role of fiddle traditions at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It explores the legacy of the British Isles, the richness of the Scandinavian scene, and the vitality of North American fiddling - from Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and Ontario.

The 14 selected essays cover a range of themes, including revival, marginalization, diaspora, gender, institutionalization, cultural tourism, acculturation, and the interrelationships of music and dance. Social context and identity form a particular focus, together with repertoire, instrumentation, and virtuosity.

The North Atlantic, a unifying frame for these studies, is not conceived in terms of boundaries that separate and divide peoples, but rather as corridors through which cultures have flowed and continue to flow in a process of exchange, enrichment and communication.

This is a fascinating and timely collection of new insights in the field of international folk music and ethnomusicological studies, representing the diversity of current research, and deserves to be read widely by scholars and enthusiasts alike.

Play It Like It Is book, £11.00, is available from the Online Store.