Couldn't Have a Wedding without the Fiddler: The Story of Traditional Fiddling on Prince Edward Island by Ken Perlman (review)

The Canadian Maritimes have long been home to fiddling traditions that maintain, blend, and expand styles from Scotland, Ireland, and the Acadian home-lands. Due to historical twists of fate that author Ken Perlman documents in Couldn't Have a Wedding without the Fiddler, while Cape Breton may have gained more fame for its musical contributions, Prince Edward Island (PEI) has nurtured a range of remarkable fiddling styles and practices all its own. In this book, Perlman gives the PEI scene its moment in the maritime sun, exquisitely detailing how the island's musical traditions originated, developed, and have been revitalized.

Perlman based this book on years of research into the history and culture behind the music and the musicians that are such an integral part of PEI's communities. During the summers of 1991 and 1992, and again in 2006, he led ethnomusicological teams who worked with local residents to record (in audio and video formats) public and private musical performances, oral histories, photographs, and song lists. Collaborating with EarthWatch for the first two years, and then with grant support from the Canadian Museum of History/Musée Canadien de l'Histoire in 2006, all of this research generated an astonishing amount of material. But what is perhaps even more notable is the fact that much of it is also accessible through the associated website, BowingDownHome. ca. This online platform is a folklorist's dream, complete with field-collected sound files representing more than 700 tunes (with multiple fiddlers performing some of the same songs), curated oral history excerpts, biographies, images, and contextual information on fiddling styles and local traditions and events. Much of this ground is covered more thoroughly in the book, but the ability to listen to representative samples while reading about different styles, for example, is invaluable. The website's discovery system is well organized and allows users to easily navigate to excerpts directly referenced in the book while also making for fascinating browsing when comparative questions arise out of Perlman's discussions. Accessing this rich online collection as a companion to the volume deepens both the interpretive and experiential aspects of Perlman's work.

As a folklorist, Perlman approaches oral history methodology in a way that most practitioners will recognize, with a concern for representation, preservation, accessibility, and ethics. He spends a considerable (but not unreasonable) amount of time in the text outlining his process and approach, and it is clear that the resulting oral history material has been archived and made available to the public—in part through the website but also through an institutional home at the Canadian Museum of History/Musée Canadien de l'Histoire.

Perlman uses the oral histories to great effect throughout the book, and they, along with the fiddle tunes themselves, are central to his discussions and conclusions. While the music itself provides a basis for understanding the sound and mechanics of different styles, the interviews open a door to a better understanding of how these styles evolved from and within their cultural context. Perlman utilizes these oral histories to explain the importance of music on PEI, its role as a marker of identity, and the changes the music scene has undergone as modernization has impacted the island over the decades, both economically and culturally. The depth of personal and familial identification with tunes, styles, locations, and events is brought out beautifully through Perlman's descriptions and his use of his chroniclers' recollections.

Couldn't Have a Wedding without a Fiddler is a thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis of an often overlooked but exceedingly rich musical tradition. Perlman's perspectives on stylistic evolution, trends, priorities, and the role of music on PEI are important not only for the specific information they convey about the island, but also for the larger global trends to which his conclusions point...