Old New England

Review of ONE IV

Posted on The Monadnock Folklore Society website by Gordon Peery:

“ONE IV is the newly released recording from Old New England, which is Jane Orzechowski on fiddle, Deanna Stiles on flute, piccolo and fiddle, and Bob McQuillen on piano and accordion.  As one might expect, the arrangements are fairly  straightforward, and the orchestration does not employ the rhythmical gymnastics and melodic pyrotechnics that are increasingly common with recordings of dance music. In the hands of less capable musicians that might make for tedious listening, but not only is this recording a total pleasure to listen to – I personally think it represents the best album yet from this trio.

Some of the appeal is achieved through understatement. An example of that appears in the first set. It starts with “Jack Beard’s Jig”, moves on to “Dr. Becky’s”, and then after a switch to “Martha’s Hornpipe”, I gradually realized the time signature had changed from 6/8 to 4/4. This is a common trick among contra dance musicians, but it is usually rendered with a bit of a flourish. Here it was a like a subtle but refreshing change of scenery on a drive down a winding country road.

Possibly the most “daring” device on the album is a series of key changes. It’s unusual to start a set in the key of A, as it is such a bright key and usually saved for the last piece of a set. But “Castle Hornpipe” starts in A, then you can’t help but smile when there is a half-step modulation to the key of Bb for “Mr. R. Catto”.  It ends up in C with “Chandler’s Hornpipe”.

McQuillen breaks out the accordion on “Fitzwilliam Polka”, and it’s nice to hear that he can still squeeze quite a bit of joy out of that instrument.  Given their long history together, it’s not surprising that Jane and Deanna’s playing is as tight as it is – there are moments of absolute simultaneity. Other times though you could swear they were dancing around each other as they were playing – such lovely harmonies and counter melodies come forth.  Throughout the album their musical virtuosity is manifest: there are times when I felt breathless just listening to the speed and vigor of Deanna’s flute playing.  In “John Brennan’s”  Jane is executing cuts (a Scottish embellishment involving playing a note three times in succession with machine-gun rapidity) that are at once powerful and light, adding some serious electricity.

Bob McQuillen’s waltz “Amelia”, has long been regarded not only as his most beautiful composition, but also among the most beautiful tunes in the traditional music genre. (Amelia, BTW, is Deanna’s daughter.) Enter a new contestant, a tune named (ironically) after Amelia’s daughter, “Arianna”.   This is an air, so it won’t be heard much at dances, but I predict that this will get picked up by musicians all over the world. It’s a born classic!

Indeed, about half of the tunes on ONE IV are McQuillen originals, mostly from his later books, including one that is pending publication in the forthcoming “Bookie 14.”

Though contra dance music is global, and its original influences are from older musical traditions, there is a flavor about the tunes that is often evocative of New England. Old New England is an aptly named band – as you listen to this music you can just feel the town halls, the village squares, the snow-bound winters and gentle summers that give character to this part of the world. This is Old New England, and it doesn’t get any better than this.”