Breakin’ Up Christmas
John McCutcheon ends his solo performances by bringing out his fiddle and the story he tells is that this is a tune they used to play to end Christmas celebrations in the Appalachians. He explains that they proceeded from house to house each night (maybe even for 12 nights) and at the last one it was time to “break up” the Christmas festivities by playing/singing this melody.
I remembered about this tune when putting together a Christmas project with the Orange Mighty Trio, and it became the title track to our rather experimental foray into holiday music. (Basically, we tried to make recognizable things not-so-recognizable. If you are feeling curious about what that sounds like, here is where to find it on bandcamp.)
NOTES ON THE STYLE
The tie across the barline from measure 3 to 4 is a good example of anticipating the beat, which adds some excitement and is often done in this kind of music, whether or not it’s written in. An experienced player may use this rhythm on any note that is written on the beat, essentially moving it 1 beat early.
You’ll want to play long down bow before the slur in measure 4, and travel back to the middle after that slur after the down bow from the air. And, the commas indicate that you should lift the bow.
The slide with 4 and 0 over it means to slide the 4th finger while playing the open string until they become the same note…a super cool fiddle technique. You can also do that in the last note of measure 4, come to think of it.
It may take some time to internalize the syncopated rhythm of the B part. If it is tricky, then understand the counting (even write something above the ntoes) then count the beats in your head, while playing slowly. The trick to these rhythms is to feel all the beats even when you’re not changing notes.
You’ll often hear this in an alternate tuning of A E A C# but it sounds fine in normal tuning, too. (I used my own alternate tuning of E D A E on my recording, for a different sound yet.)