Shetland Fiddle Frenzy

Now "Shetland Folk Frenzy"

Note: this article was published in Scottish Life magazine in 2018 and is part of my book MusicScapes of Scotland: Vignettes from Prehistory to Pandemic.

---

As we boarded the Northlink ferry, it was fun to see the gigantic Viking painted on the side of the boat, pointing the way to the Shetland Islands. For six centuries, until 1472, Shetland belonged to the Vikings, and for the past six centuries has been a part of Scotland. Not surprisingly, its music, dialect, and traditions reflect a mix of local, Scottish, and Scandinavian influences.

On the ferry, an old Shetland tune, “Da Ferry Reel,” came to mind. The “da” (“the”) is just one of many unique Shetland words and pronunciations that are vestiges of Norn, a Germanic language related to Norse and Danish, which was gradually replaced by Scots, and died out (some Shetlanders say it was banned) in the 19th century.

“Da Ferry Reel” may refer to a ferryboat, but it is also said to honor the “fairy,” one of the “little people” who made up or inspired the melody. Known in Shetland as trows or trowies, these fairies figure prominently in Shetland folklore. A word of warning to fiddlers: Beware of trowies who invite you into their knoll for a party. Legend has it that after playing music all night, you may discover in the morning that you've been away from home, not for a night, but for a century!

When we arrived in Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, we found our B&B located nearly opposite the park where a replica Viking longship is burned during the winter “Up Helly Aa” festival. This is but one of a number of local annual festivals, including the fall Shetland Wool Week, the spring Shetland Folk Festival, and the early August event we were looking forward to, Shetland Fiddle Frenzy.

Begun in 2004, Fiddle Frenzy is an aptly named, week-long immersion in Shetland fiddle tradition, with daily classes for fiddlers and guitarists, and related events such as a tour of places linked to particular tunes, and workshops in silversmithing, drawing, and painting. Nightly concerts feature top bands and artists with Shetland connections, as well as showcases of local musicians, including excellent kids groups.

The headquarters for Fiddle Frenzy is the Mareel arts center on the Lerwick waterfront. Opened in 2012, the center hosts a multipurpose auditorium, two movie theaters, rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, broadcast facilities and a cafe bar. Its name comes from a special Shetland word for the phosphorescence of ocean waves on dark autumn nights.

Much of Shetland culture is centered around the sea and fishing. Next door to Mareel is the Shetland Museum and Archives, with a fantastic exhibition about Shetland history and culture. Some of the Fiddle Frenzy classes are held in the Museum's auditorium or in the boat hall, whose ceiling, several stories high, allows for historic boats to be hung on display from above.

One of the boats on display was a 19th century sixareen, so named because it was made for six oarsmen. A broad black boat with a single mast, it reminded me of a jaunty fiddle tune named “Da Sixareen.” At the museum, I learned how Shetland fishermen had used sixareens in the 18th and 19th centuries to make a living beyond the control of the local lairds, rowing some 40 miles out to sea, against the wind, so they could fill their boats with fish and sail home.

The tune “Da Sixereen” was written by Tom Anderson, who was a driving force in the preservation of Shetland fiddle music. A fiddler and insurance salesman, Anderson used his business travels throughout Shetland to coax anyone who played fiddle into recording their tunes for him, and thus managed to preserve many traditional tunes while they were still within living memory.

The archives at the museum have a computer with digitized copies of all of Anderson's recordings. I listened to one recording of a fiddle lesson Anderson gave in the 1970s, in which he talked about how he came to compose one of his most famous tunes, the beautiful slow air “Da Slockit Light.” Just after his wife died in 1969, Tom was up at night walking the grassy fields of Eshaness, his home town, in northwest Shetland. There is hardly a more dramatic coastline to be found in Scotland than at Eshaness, with its 100-foot cliffs by the sea, and geos cut into the land like inlets of a giant jigsaw puzzle piece. When the melody came to him, Anderson cut open a cigarette, unrolled the paper, and wrote the tune down. “Da Slockit Light” means “the light that went out” and although I've heard this referred to the darkened homes of Shetlanders off to work in the North Sea oil rigs, after listening to that tape I wondered if the light that went out had been his wife.

Tunes throughout Scotland have been named for places, battles, and people of note, but in Shetland, most of the tunes refer to the sea or everyday events. Often, the melody paints a picture of the story behind the tune. “Aandowin at da Bow,” a tune about fishermen using oars to keep their boat steady in the currents, has a syncopated section that imitates the rhythm of the oars. “Doon Da Rooth,” a jig in 21/8 time, perfectly mirrors the uneven rhythm of a foot on the treadle of a spinning wheel. In “Jack Broke Da Prison Door,” a crashing high note highlights the moment Jack broke down the heavy wooden door. “Aald Swaara,” named for the black waterproof sweater worn by fishermen, was played to honor those lost at sea. “Spootiskerry,” originally called “Spoot o' Skerry,” refers to the spoot, or razor clams, harvested on the skerries, small uninhabited islands off the Shetland coast.

“Willafjord” is one of the most popular of Shetland tunes, but until recently, nobody knew what its title meant. After a lot of sleuthing, fiddler Maurice Henderson found out. He's a member of a great band called Haltadans, which we heard at a Fiddle Frenzy evening concert, but for many years has played with one of Scotland's best bands, Fiddlers’ Bid. Their four energetic CDs are well worth a listen, with lots of exciting arrangements of traditional Shetland tunes as well as originals by band members. Several fiddlers from Fiddlers' Bid are well known in the Scottish music scene today, including Kevin Henderson (no relation) who also plays with Session A9, and the innovative fiddle/harp duo of Chris Stout and Catriona McKay.

Maurice's book, In Search of Willafjord, documents his discovery, using the logs of whaling ships, that Willafjord was once the name of a settlement, now called Sisiumiut, on the west coast of Greenland. Many Shetlanders worked as whalers, “now beyond living memory, but remembered in the tunes,” as Maurice says. The lavishly illustrated book shows amazing scenery including dramatic icebergs, native Greenland fiddlers, and describes local dance steps very similar to those of Shetland.

Shetland is so proud of its vibrant fiddle tradition that every schoolchild is provided with a fiddle and instruction. Some great Scottish fiddlers have hailed from Shetland, including Aly Bain, best known for years as the fiddler with the Boys of the Lough, and more recently in his duo with accordionist Phil Cunningham, or as host of the television series Transatlantic Sessions. Other great Shetland fiddlers, in addition to Fiddlers' Bid, include Jenna Reid of Blazin' Fiddles and Rant, and Catriona MacDonald, formerly also of Blazin' Fiddles.

It was exhilarating to hear so many great concerts, learn Shetland tunes from great fiddlers, and view breathtaking sights. But as I made my way to my little bedroom on the overnight ferry to Aberdeen, for some reason the Shetland tune that came to mind was “Sleep Soond Ida Moarnin” (Sleep Soundly in the Morning).

[Note: Fiddle Frenzy is now called Folk Frenzy; info is at Shetland Arts.]