Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
Newcastle University
VAMM
Catriona Macdonald’s practice based research focuses on traditional fiddle music. Within the context of Scottish fiddle music, she specialises in music from the Shetland Islands, performing solo and with national and international folk ensembles.
VAMM’s musical objective is to invent and re-version melodies from within the international fiddle repertory, creating new interpretations of traditional material while bringing to life newly researched and composed material. The music articulates the co-researchers’ heritage, bringing the essential aesthetics of their respective traditions to a create new and distinctive sound within the contemporary traditional music field.
Launched in 2010, VAMM is a string trio consisting of two fiddles and Låtmandola (bass-drone mandola). This research output is delivered as a CD album linked to several series of national and international concerts. VAMM consists of: Macdonald on fiddles; Patsy Reid, former member of Breabach (2011 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominee) on fiddles and viola; and Marit Fålt from Norway on mandola.
The exploration of VAMM’s unusual instrumental combination, using three mainly melodic instruments in both a harmonic and melodic context, forms a key aspect of the research. Investigation focuses on string arranging and composition, specifically the intricacy of traditional unison playing, using stylistic ornamentation, chording, bowing patterns and different tunings. The music seeks to layer detailed melodies with counter-melodies, ostinati and harmonies in an innovative and original way.
Two years of research, rehearsals and recording by VAMM have culminated in this eponymous debut album. Particular research questions examined by the ensemble are detailed in the accompanying portfolio (collated as a PowerPoint presentation), which also outlines the longer historical trajectory of folk string ensembles and their associated musical traditions – the wider context from which the creative products of this research draw their significance and instigate a new phase.
