File: arsenaultrobert06-oh-professionalization_M.mp3
Speakers:
RA: Robert Arsenault
KP: Ken Perlman
RA: In terms of where's the music going .We were talking last time that traditional music was essentially through kitchen parties in the home, sometimes at the church picnics, these kinds of things; and the Acadian festival started out in '67, >68, >69, and people started to take this music out of the kitchen and on to the stage, with sound systems. That's a big difference. I think Eddy and Armand [Arsenault] were the first to go on stage.
KP: And they started with the step-dancing.
RA: Yeah. There was all the step-dancing [on stage] and fiddlers would play for the step-dance. Like the same thing happened all over with traditional music, including the bluegrass music, and the Cajun players is the same way. But it did get to go out of the kitchens and on to the stage with sound systems. It was tentative at first. And then some started taking fiddle lessons, some people started teaching fiddle so young people would be sent more and more, whereas fiddle music was generally learned by some talented musicians in the communities who heard the fiddle, or the parents were brought up in it.
KP: Like your family, for instance.
RA: Yeah, we were brought up in it, so you learned it by osmosis, and you just work it out your own self. But now the last 15 years, some started giving fiddle lessons – Anastasia DesRoches is giving fiddle lessons, Kim Vincent was giving lessons and he learned by taking lessons. And so did Anastasia; she learned by taking lessons from Kim. And so you get a different style, you get a more learned style rather than a free flowing rhythmic style. You get that in the Scottish fiddlers as well.You take some of the old-time Scottish fiddlers, they you get the swing in the wrist, that's where they get that rhythmic swing. But when you learn it by written notes, you're not really lettin' that rhythm loose.