Yesterday, holidays officially started at Think Long Island First with the Small Business Saturday events.
Modest but enthusiastic group of guests and artists gathered around our table to decorate majolica ornaments under the guidance of potter Sue Adler, tie impressive bows and gift wrap in eco-friendly fashion as introduced by Kristi Halpern, Jolanta Zamecka, and Ewa Rumprecht respectively, and benefit from the expert knowledge of Feng Shui presented by Sharon LaMonica.
Award winning Long Island limericks were read by one of the judges, poet Joan Digby. Evening ended with holiday poetry reading and music cum historical commentary by fiddler Eric Marten, and his limber jack and beating straws playing wife Trudy.
Painter Yvonne Dagger and wood carver Don Dailey provided live demonstrations throughout the day.
We want to thank All Artists who made the day so special and All Guests who graced us with their company.
Eric Marten, violinist, music teacher and historian, delighted the visitors of a school house (c. 1845, from Manhasset) at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration with traditional tunes on this swelteringly hot Independence Day.
Eric played one of four 19th century violins in the possession of the Village. This violin/fiddle differed from a modern day instrument in a number of ways - sheep gut strings produced milder, richer, less metallic sound, the violin had no chin rest and no fine tuners. It was tuned differently from the standard GDAE and its pitch was lower than modern A-440.
The simple tunes were charming, warm, and catching. It was not difficult to imagine dancers moving gently to the rhythm. If not for the fact that we wanted to preserve the gravitas of the place, were eager to hear more music and more information (and were very hot), we would have danced ourselves, right there, in the small, one room school house.
Eric Marten is the music historian at the museum. He has extensive knowledge of period tunes and instruments. Over the years he has been involved in the works of The Long Island Traditional Music Association (LITMA), where he currently conducts Young Musicians Fiddle Instruction Series workshops, The Barnburners, The Long Island Fiddlemonic Orchestra, The "No Frills" Contradance Orchestra, and various school fiddle clubs on Long Island.
If you need information about traditional tunes, period instruments at the Village, or just want to play music, contact Eric at 1.516.359.3801.
In the following video, Eric plays the fiddle while his wife plays limberjack, a wooden instrument.
More fiddle music performed by Eric can be found on YouTube:
