The "chop" is a percussive string instrument technique pioneered by bluegrass fiddler Richard Greene in the 1960s and adopted into contemporary string styles by Darol Anger in the 1980s. This article traces the diffusion of the chop through a number of North Atlantic fiddling traditions in the 1990s and 2000s. It also considers the circumstances and implications of musicians' decisions to adopt, adapt, or reject the chop. Drawing on both sociological research on the diffusion of innovations and genre theory, this article demonstrates that the diffusion trajectory of a musical innovation depends on the innovation itself, on the sites of transmission, and on the interplay of the lived and imagined musical worlds within which musicians play, work, and study. It concludes by suggesting that, when studying North Atlantic fiddling, both regional divisions and generational trends should be taken into consideration. The violin is so old and the techniques are so well established. .. . And now all of a sudden there's a new thing, after how many years?-Casey Driessen (telephone interview, 1 February 2011) I n 1966, bluegrass fiddler Richard Greene invented a percussive string instrument technique that he dubbed "the chunky chop" (telephone interview, 1 February 2011). Now known simply as "the chop" or, in its verbal form, "chopping, " this technique is currently used by violinists, violists, and cellists in nu-Note: this article refers to figures and video clips that can be found on the Society for Ethnomusicology's website, following the pathway Publications > Journal > Multimedia Appendices. As of 2013, the URLs for the SEM website and the multimedia appendices are www.ethnomusicology.org and http://www .ethnomusicology.org/?Pub_JournalMA, respectively. merous musical genres, including traditional fiddling styles of the British Isles, Canada, Scandinavia, Spain, and the United States; jazz; progressive bluegrass, or newgrass; popular styles; and classical string pedagogy. In this paper, I trace the diffusion of the chop through a number of North Atlantic fiddling traditions. 1 I also consider the circumstances and implications of musicians' decisions to adopt, adapt, or reject the chop. Drawing on both sociological research on the diffusion of innovations and genre theory, I demonstrate that the diffusion trajectory of a musical innovation depends on the innovation itself, on the sites of transmission, and on the interplay of the lived and imagined musical worlds within which musicians play, work, and study. I conclude by suggesting that, when studying North Atlantic fiddling, we ought to consider not only standard geographic or regional divisions, but also generational trends. Like col legno (striking the strings with the wood of the bow) or sautillé (a rapid bouncing that uses the natural springiness of the bow), the chop is a technique specific to bowed string instruments. It consists of dropping the bow vertically onto the strings to make a crunchy, percussive noise, then picking it up off the strings with a slight h...
Cellist Mike Block (Silkroad Ensemble), here interviewed by Laura Risk, describes the work of moving his music camps online and the transition to teaching virtually in a conservatory setting. He discusses the challenges of learning to teach and perform online, and finding new ways to generate revenue in the digital realm.
Note to Volume Two IntroductionThis double issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation (CSI-ÉCI) on "Improvisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic" is the second of two volumes comprising three special issues in total. Our second volume includes the introduction from the previous issue, slightly altered to reflect new developments in the weeks since we published the first volume, as well as new writing that provides an overview of the contents of this volume specifically. Readers who have read the introduction to volume one and would like to proceed directly to the volume two-specific introduction, "Viral Contagions and the Dream of Liveness," may do so by following this link. CSI-ÉCI is also pleased to present six general topics book reviews, which can be found immediately following the contents of the special issue.
Ginger Smock (1920–95), an African American jazz and classical violinist, was a popular Los Angeles entertainer and one of the first African American women bandleaders on television. This article traces her career from Los Angeles’ Central Avenue to Las Vegas showroom orchestras, drawing on archival materials from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Through a close reading of a 1951 DownBeat profile of Smock, I interrogate racialized constructions of gender in that magazine and frame mid-century jazz reporting on women instrumentalists via a “narrative of perpetual discovery” that positions these women as waiting for a career break that never comes. As an antidote to the effacement implicit in such narratives, I propose close documentation of sustained artistic practice: That is, the day-to-day facts of a working musician's life. This article reads Smock's professional trajectory through an intersectional lens to offer a critical perspective on the ways in which social identities, especially race and gender, may shape both musical careers and our historicization of those careers.
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