Cape Breton's Magazine

From Winston Fitzgerald's Classic Cuts A NEW COMPILATION FOR A NEW GENERATION Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald is the bridge between the traditional Cape Breton fiddler and the modem Cape Breton sound. He heard the old fellows, he went to the music books • and then he had the courage to make that music his own, creating tune settings and establishing medley groupings that set the standard, the challenge, to the fiddlers who came after. In recent years, Winston's music has just not been readily available. And when it was, the liner notes were not always correct, the format was not contemporary. With Classic Cuts, a one-volume compilation from the LP masters, we have a bright collection of clas? sic performances. The tune titles are accurate. The music has been digitally remastered in the studio for a good quality compact disc and cassette tape. And Paul Cranford: Winston learned "Crossing to Ireland" from Mary Gillis, a pianist who got it from the Simon Fraser Collection. Mary played it in F Minor (4 flats) the way it is written in the Fraser Collection and Winston adapted it to a really playable violin setting. Si? mon Fraser wrote that he "discovered this air in an ancient manuscript in the possession of his father, of some of the band music of the 78th regiment to which he belonged, raised by the late General Fraser of Lovat in the year 1757; it seems to be quick-march time, built upon Lord Kelly's strathspey...." transcribed by Dwayne Cote Crossing to Ireland Traditional as played by Winston f-