Athabaskan fiddle

Athabaskan fiddle
Stylistic originsWaltzes, Jigs, Two steps, Square Dances
Cultural originsAlaskan Athabaskans
Typical instrumentsOld time fiddle, guitar
Regional scenes
Upriver, Downriver
Other topics
Scottish folk music, Irish folk music, French-Canadian music

Athabaskan fiddle (or fiddle music, fiddling) is the old-time fiddle style that the Alaskan Athabaskans of the Interior Alaska have developed to play the fiddle (violin), solo and in folk ensembles. Fiddles were introduced in this area by Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and Métis fur traders of the Hudson's Bay Company in the mid-19th century. Athabaskan fiddling is a variant of fiddling of the American southlands. Athabaskan fiddle music is most popular genre in Alaska and northwest Canada and featuring Gwich'in Bill Stevens (b. 1933, he is an Athabaskan fiddling legend and recipient the Alaska Governor's 2002 Award for the Native Arts) and Trimble Gilbert (b. 1934, also Traditional Chief of Arctic Village).[1][2][3]

The authoritative study of Alaskan Athabaskan fiddle music is The Crooked Stovepipe: Athapaskan Fiddle Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada (1993),[1] by Athabaskanist and ethnomusicologist Craig Mishler (now an independent scholar and formerly affiliate research professor at the Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.[2]

  1. ^ a b Mishler, Craig (1993). The Crooked Stovepipe: Athapaskan Fiddle Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada (1st ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01996-2.
  2. ^ a b Peter Bowers (2009), Old-time music in Alaska: then and now Archived 2014-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Mishler, Craig (1999), Athabascan fiddlers and dancers: An alternative musical standard. Fiddler Magazine, 6(2), 4-7.