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Written in fRoots issue 299, 2008
 

BOOK + CD

Scottish Folk Tunes – 54 Traditional Pieces For Accordion
Ian Lowthian
Schott  ISBN 978-1-902455-88-4 (2007)

Another very useful, clear and reasonably priced release in Schott’s series of large softbacks that comprise an introduction on playing style, a set of tunes, both in dots and on a CD of them all played by the author, and background notes on the origin and features of each tune.
      This one is by Borders piano-accordionist Ian Lowthian, who will perhaps be best known to many for his period in a very fine and sparky duo with Shetland fiddler Catriona MacDonald.
      In pleasingly readable dots, melody with accompaniment, he delivers fifty-four tunes that well display the core repertoire and styles of present-day Scottish accordion playing. As he explains, despite the book’s subtitle they’re not all “traditional” in the sense of having unknown authors, because Scottish accordion-playing is a relatively recent tradition so many of its tunes, including those here, are by well-remembered or still living musicians, among them Lowthian himself. Many, though, also come from fiddle, vocal or bagpipe tradition. Actually what we get here is a pretty handy tunebook not just for accordionists but for instrumentalists in general to get a grip on some key Scottish repertoire.
      On the CD he generally plays them a couple of times round each, well displaying the possible techniques and possibilities for grace-noting and chordal accompaniment which he explains and describes clearly in the short but enlightening text in English, German and French. He also covers, in an easily understandable way, the principles of combining of left-hand chords to make today’s ‘jazz’ chord progressions, and his notes about the tunes are well-researched and gently witty.


© 2008 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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