Bowing before a new audience

Published on Monday 6 May 2002 01:00

HECTOR MacAndrew was the doyen of north-east fiddlers, possibly the finest Scots fiddler of his generation. MacAndrew died in 1980, but his reputation is unchallenged. Now, for the first time, his standing as a composer can be judged: The MacAndrew Collection, a compilation of 100 of his tunes, has been published along with a CD played by the acclaimed young fiddler Paul Anderson.

A modest man who worked as a gardener like his father (who tended Fyvie Castle while also fiddler and piper to Lord Leith), MacAndrew inherited a direct lineage of playing from the 18th-century master Niel Gow, his grandfather having been taught fiddle by James Mackintosh of Dunkeld, a pupil of Gow’s. Apart from concerts and radio recitals, perhaps MacAndrew’s most famous exploit was in 1974, when he introduced Yehudi Menuhin, an ardent admirer of Scottish fiddle music, to the intricacies of strathspey bowing at Blair Atholl, while making the documentary, Mr Menuhin’s Welcome to Blair Castle. Its producer, James Hunter, recalls: "Menuhin just couldn’t get a hold of the famous Scottish up-stroke, and he got more and more frustrated and eventually said to Hector, ‘Oh, I cannot play The Marquis of Huntly’s Farewell.’ But Hector looked at him and said, ‘Ah, but you can play the Beethoven (violin concerto) and I can’t.’"

Menuhin later said: "When I met this man and heard him play, I knew I was in the presence of Scottish history." Classical composer Ronald Stevenson once described MacAndrew’s bowing as "an inventory of ingenuities". Despite such plaudits, and the fact that he and Menuhin got on famously, MacAndrew was a modest man, and when Menuhin invited him to tour with him, he declined.

Paul Anderson, the fiddler who plays on the album with pianist Dennis Morrison (apart from two tracks of unaccompanied MacAndrew), can also boast a distinguished fiddle pedigree: he was taught by Douglas Lawrence, the most distinguished of MacAndrew’s pupils. It was, says the 31-year-old Glenfiddich Award-winning fiddler, "a real privilege to be asked to do it. MacAndrew is a bit of a legend, although I never met him".

So how do this legendary player’s own tunes stand up now? "Anyone who’s heard the collection would agree that they’re very much in the north-east tradition," says Anderson, "and I think they stand up pretty well. The best of them would stand comparison with the greats like Gow or Skinner - Gight Castle, for instance."

Anderson could hardly be more rooted in the north-east fiddle tradition, living and farming in Tarland, home of the 19th-century "Tarland Minstrel" Peter Milne, mentor to the great Scott Skinner.

Asked what he thinks of the currently high-profile barrage of fiddling and piping from the Gaelic Diaspora of Cape Breton, he says he enjoys it, "but I enjoy the north-east stuff better. I think there’s a lot more colour in it."

Coincidentally, Anderson has an album of his own compositions, The Singing Land, just out on the Moidart label. Unlike the basic piano settings of the MacAndrew selection, he is joined here by more contemporary augmentation such as guitar, bouzouki and keyboards. "Hector would never have done anything with a guitarist," he muses, "but take away the backing and just listen to the tunes, and I think you’ll find I play them the same way."

The MacAndrew Collection, book and CD, are published by Champion Recordings and Publishing (Scotland).