by Francis Wood » Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:56 am
Thanks, Bryn for posting the link to the musette in Fort William, said to have belonged to Charles Edward Stuart, aka The Young Pretender.
The provenance on the attached plaque may or may not be accurate. So much romantic mist attaches to this figure and it's not uncommon for such provenances to be subsequently invented and applied. However he did have a very broadly European background, so it seems to me fairly possible that this (or bits of it) may be the genuine thing. As a great adopter of other doomed enterprises, his learning to play the musette would have been relatively harmless!
Replying to your earlier query about the significance of the V symbol in the Missisipy duet, it's important to remember that the version I provided was transposed for NSP, and that with absolutely closed fingering, the possibilities of executing these decorations are more limited. This is not the case with the musette, where the fingering is essentially closed but the chanter is not, allowing more complex decoration in the playing. The manner of doing so is explained very thoroughly in Hotteterre's tutor. When playing this repertoire on NSPs, I'd advise doing only what is absolutely required in context, and only if the individual's technique allows decoration without drawing attention away from the melody. Where the V is indicated, what seems to me to go best is to approach the note from a very brief one adjacent to it, usually from below. There may be more expert views on this, so we shall wait and see!
Francis