Traditional fiddle repertoire

Martin Hayes [traditional fiddle]

The program will emerge on the evening of the concert from a long list of tunes from my most current rotating repertoire, the actual program will emerge as a kind of improvisation, as a kind of response to the moment. The tunes are often hovering just beneath my conscious awareness and occasionally a tune that I haven’t played in years may present itself. Some of the pieces I play are as much three hundred years old and some are more recent compositions and many of them are in my consciousness since childhood. A lot of the melodies are simple and beautiful, but yet are rich with expressive possibility. Most of these tunes exist somewhere on a spectrum between a free form lyrical song and a percussive rhythmic dance. I try to simultaneously play as though I am both a singer and a dancer. All the tunes are in a constant flux of change and development, they exist with an improvisational freedom as part of their very makeup. New notes and phrases can find their way into the melody at any moment, but it is absolutely fine if the moment doesn’t call them into being. The tunes are fine just as they are.

Martin Hayes