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The Piano in Traditional Cape Breton Music

Say, who's that fool sitting next to the fiddler? Sure makes a racket!

Why, that's the Cape Breton piano player - the chorder. They provide the percussion and the drive and the harmonic context and basically form the throne on which the fiddle music sits.

And this is the Cape Breton Piano Page. Read and learn. A special thanks to the folks on the Kitchen Céilidh mailing list for thier help. Huge amounts of information on history and players came from Tracey Dares and Paul MacDonald's video tape "A Chording to the Tunes", and from the book "A Cape Breton Céilidh" compiled and editted by Allister MacGillivray. There is very little original research here, except when I add some real research to my "crackpot theory" page.

• An Introduction for the Uninitiated
• The History of Piano in Cape Breton Music
• The Parlor Reed Organ in Cape Breton Music
• The Players Past and Present
• A Gallery of Pianos and Parlor Organs
• Learning to Play in the Style
• My Untested Crackpot Theories on Tuning the Cape Breton Upright
• A list of recordings selected for the piano player

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