File: hornbyjim-oh-fiddlersociety_M.mp3
Speakers:
JH – Jim Hornby
JH Yeah. I was around just when they started. At that time they sort of gathered a lot of people who were players and had been for years, and hadn't in some cases been very active, and sort of got them all going together. It was quite different from what it is now. What's come down to now is kind of a learning how to play and how to read notes club, and they perform somewhat, but the actual playing standard is a lot less than it used to be. 'Cause they used to have all the best players, and for a while when Faber MacDonald, who's now Bishop in Newfoundland, galvanised everybody. He was a fiddler, still is a fiddler. He got all these people together - some of them had grievances going back to old contests and stuff - and kind of got everybody going together, and they were quite a powerful group. But it's now sort of come down to people who want to learn how to read notes and play; basically it's instruction in reading music on the violin, or fiddle music on the violin. I don't mean to denigrate it, it's keeping things going. So that first generation who were players, a lot of them are dead, and a lot of them aren't that active anymore.
