Moller pays tribute to barn dances and Don Messer

A13

Colleen Kitts

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"With classical music you don't listen to a Beethoven symphony and pick it up by ear."

Katherine Moller is talking about the difference between learning to play the violin and the fiddle. Moller does both. She plays with Symphony New Brunswick, the Atlantic Sinfonia, and the Seasons Baroque Ensemble. She also bends her bow to the fiddle, reeling out Celtic and old-time tunes at pubs and music nights in her community of Harvey, near Fredericton. Her new CD, By Request, is 13-song trip back in time to barn dances and the Don Messer era.

Moller, 31, got her music degree at McGill. And it seemed as if her future lay in so-called 'serious music,' symphony orchestras and such. That changed after graduation, when a Canada Council grant enabled her to spend a year in Ireland, soaking up the music and learning how to play by ear. Moller says that's when she started taking fiddling seriously.

"I learned the most in the pubs because I was going to jam sessions and getting to play with the people who really play it. It changed my approach to fiddle music. With classical music it's very strict. You really have to play it the way it's written. There's a certain amount of personal interpretation, but really not all that much. Whereas in fiddle music, if you get the sheet music it's really just the bare bones and you're expected to add in a whole lot, to embellish."

Her CD launched in Harvey on March 12 at her home pub, the Lougheed.

"I didn't know a lot of this music before I moved to Harvey five years ago. I've been playing at the pub regularly since I moved and they've been very welcoming."