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Nashville answers the question, "Is it a fiddle or a violin?"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (FOLLETT)  --  The “Is It a Fiddle or a Violin” school tour is a joint collaboration between the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The program describes the four-stringed instrument as “In Texas it's a fiddle. In Boston it's a violin. In Nashville it depends.”  In a fun-filled and educational two hours, students learned how the sound of one instrument connects country and classical music.  
   

As fans wandered throughout the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, often stopping to examine clothing, instruments, awards, and other objects, Sandy Conatser began the “Is it a Fiddle or a Violin” school tour by asking the tour group why the artifact is called a fiddle.  “Because it’s smaller and doesn’t have a thing, the stick thing,” replied one student.  
      Conatser then informed the group they will receive a special instrument demonstration that will highlight the differences between the fiddle and the violin.   “Oh, I don’t know.  You keep that in your mind and when you go over to the Schermerhorn, you’ll see the difference,” she said.  “You’ll get to know when to call it a violin and when to call it a fiddle.  In country music, what are we probably going to call it?” In unison, the schoolchildren answered “a fiddle.”
      The fiddle has always been associated with country music.  But Jay Orr, the Senior Director for Research, Editorial, and Content at the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum, stressed that it’s not just an instrument for rustic hill people.
      “But there were Irish immigrants who were playing fiddles in Irish bars in New York City.  And there were French immigrants who were playing fiddle in Nova Scotia, who then migrated from Nova Scotia down to Louisiana and played in a Cajun style,” Orr said.  “Sort of a long bow.  There were different styles of fiddle music.  It’s a rich and varied landscape.”
      After touring the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, students walked across the street to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where David Coe, who has played the fiddle throughout North America for the past thirty years, played and summarized the fiddle’s style.
      “So what have we learned about fiddle music?  It’s usually learned by ear, it’s really created and for playing for dancers.  Now I would imagine it’s a little different for Matt and how he learned the whole idea of it,” Coe informed the group.  “Oh and by the way, when he’s playing classical violin, no clapping along to the beat.  You don’t do that when you’re at the Schermerhorn.”
      Matt Combs, an Adjunct Instructor in Fiddling and Violin at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, subsequently performed and talked about the violin’s style.  Combs told the students one main difference is that violin music is learned through written notations.
      “And the other main difference is that David mentioned fiddle music is dance music.  So what is the violin, well I kind of think of it as art music,” Combs said.  And so you would experience it the same way as you would a painting.  Or it creates a mood, it paints a picture.”  The students listened intently to the sounds of Combs’ captivating violin playing.
      But even though there are differences between the fiddle and the violin, the two styles have been blended since the 19th Century.  Classical composers such as Charles Ives and Antonin Dvorak used folk and fiddle music in their compositions.  According to historian Jay Orr, “there was a lot of back and forth.  There was acknowledgment by formal composers that these melodies were as legitimate as melodies that could have been fabricated or composed out of other inspirations.”
      So it was fitting that the fiddle or a violin program concluded with a piece incorporating both the fiddle and violin elements.  Kids gasped and cheered when fiddler David Coe asked, “Would you like to hear us play something together?”
      Coe and Combs then played “Bonaparte’s Retreat” for the schoolchildren, who clapped and cheered along to the song, and concluded an insightful and entertaining learning experience for the school children.
      The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum provides interactive school and teacher programs, lesson guides, workshops, and tours.  The Schermerhorn Symphony center also offers after school events, instrument petting zoos, and other educational programs.