{"id":2916,"date":"2011-08-29T21:35:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T01:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2011-08-29T22:48:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T02:48:02","slug":"fiddling-with-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/fiddling-with-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiddling with Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

It all began the day that Hope Grietzer<\/a> and I found ourselves at the Broome County Public Library playing an unrehearsed concert for then-Senator Hillary Clinton.\"Had<\/a> “Gosh! What should we play?!” And, on the spot, we came up with Red-Haired Boy<\/em> and Arkansas Traveler<\/em>, which both seemed to suit our audience nicely. Hope, an award-winning fiddler, had just moved back to New York State, and we were friends from the moment we met and discovered our shared love of music and children’s literature. As a parent and library employee, I had knowledge of and access to a limitless supply of books that nearly matched Hope’s fiddle repertoire, and so began a program we could only call “Fiddling with Books.”<\/p>\n

Libba Moore Grey’s book When Uncle Took the Fiddle<\/em> has always been our opener, and I pretend to yawn and doze while Hope plays a snippet of Brahms’ Lullabye<\/em>. All ages can immediately recognize that tune and how it is our universal musical message of ‘sleep’. Less than a minute later, as Uncle has taken up his fiddle, Hope and I are playing Miss MacLeod’s Reel<\/em> — also known as\u00a0Uncle Joe<\/em> — and we have accomplished two things. First, the children have just heard the difference between violin and fiddle, and second, they have learned that we are not going to read<\/em> these books, we are going to play<\/em> them. An example of playing the story is here in Rosie’s Fiddle Medley<\/a> of Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman \/ Devil\u2019s Dream<\/em> which tells the story of Phyllis Root\u2019s book <\/em><\/p>\n

The pairings of tunes and books happens in a variety of ways. Natalie Kinsey-Warnock’s Fiddler of the Northern Lights<\/em> (paired with Cold Frosty Morning<\/em>) and Valerie Flournoy’s Celie and the Harvest Fiddler<\/em> (paired with Jump at the Sun<\/em>) have mysterious fiddlers whose music creates magic, so Hope and I connect each with a traditional tune in a minor key that creates the right “feel” for the stories. When we present Marianna Dengler’s Fiddlin’ Sam<\/em> we help children get a sense of all the occasions when a traveling musician might we needed or welcomed, beginning with the “sad times” as represented by the ancient air Ash Grove<\/em> and moving on to celebratory events with the Old Timey toe-tapper Shove That Pig’s Foot a Little Further into the Fire<\/em>. (And, yes, we explain that this refers to raw metal a blacksmith is working on, not a real pig!) As a special treat, we also bring out an old handmade traveler’s fiddle that features a lion’s head just like the one on Sam’s fiddle in the story. Fiddlin’ Sam medley<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes there are fiddle tunes that Hope and I know will be a hit with our audiences, so we try to find a book that will suit the tunes. For example, Old Joe Clark<\/em> is a classic tune with tall-tale lyrics that we have paired with Anne Isaacs\u2019 Swamp Angel<\/em> and Phyllis Root\u2019s Paula Bunyan<\/em>. Old Grey Cat<\/em> is a marvelously feline tune, and we have found Mary C. Calhoun\u2019s Henry stories (Blue Ribbon Henry<\/em> and Cross-Country Cat<\/em>, for two) to have just the right mix of playfulness and \u201ccatitude\u201d\u009d to work. By far, the most fun was when we searched for a book to partner with Flop-Eared Mule<\/em> and came across Sue Porter\u2019s Moose Music<\/em>. The illustrations showing how painfully awful Moose\u2019s cloven-hoofed fiddling must have been is exactly the goofiness we hoped for, and it\u2019s one of our silliest moments. (Yes, I \u201csing\u201d\u009d the part of the moose he finally attracts. It isn\u2019t pretty.) Old Grey Cat \/ Flop-Eared Mule<\/a><\/p>\n

Our program usually lasts an hour, presenting 12 books and 12 fiddle tunes and three or four songs for the audience to sing with us, such as Cotton Mill Girls<\/em>, which we pair with Elizabeth Winthrop\u2019s Counting on Grace<\/em>, or Jeanette Winter\u2019s Follow the Drinking Gourd<\/em>. The variety of tunes covers Celtic, French-Canadien, Old Timey, and Cajun, with a mix of airs, waltzes, and clogging tunes, major and minor keys, and ultimately a song in there for everyone to enjoy. Over the years, we\u2019ve found ways to include such trendy topics as wizards (pairing J.K. Rowlings\u2019 Harry Potter with Jay Ungar\u2019s Wizard\u2019s Walk<\/em>) and pirates (putting Jonny Duddle\u2019s The Pirate Cruncher<\/em> \u2014 with that evil fiddler puppet! \u2014 with Da Full-Rigged Ship.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

We always make sure to end with the audience able to stand up and dance with us, presenting Anna Marlis Burgard\u2019s Flying Feet<\/em> and the instantly-recognizable jig Irish Washerwoman<\/a>. Afterwards, we welcome the children\u2019s questions and let them come and try a note or two on the instruments.