Classical Music Under the Stars; What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?

 

Celebrate Glengarry's legacy of violin music TOMORROW evening at "Classical Music Under the Stars" featuring the NuTrio classical music ensemble on August 10th at 7:30 pm on the grounds of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum. 

While you enjoy the performance, you may wonder about the difference between violin music and the fiddle music that is so characteristic of Glengarry's musical identity. As word has it, “fiddle” music refers to the often lively tunes played with a standard violin in the Irish-Scottish-French traditional music that would be familiar to many Glengarrians whose pioneer ancestors would have influenced local musical traditions with the styles of their homelands across the Atlantic. 

Fiddle, Higginson, Vankleek Hill. Object ID: 2022-001-002 a.

Fiddle in Case, Higginson, Vankleek Hill. Object ID: 2022-001-002 b.

This fiddle for instance was donated to the museum by the Higginson family in 2022 after it was passed down through generations of family members who enjoyed and played "fiddle" music. The fiddle belongs to a collection of artefacts that were held by the Higginson family on Welby Farm, located between Hawkesbury and Vankleek Hill on Hwy 34. The family lived in the large home where Thomas Tweed Higginson (1828-1903) lived and built the famous round barn which still stands today.

Join us tomorrow evening to celebrate this stringed instrument so common in Glengarry at "Classical Music Under the Stars" among the picturesque setting of the Glengarry Pioneer Museum grounds. See you there!