A few weeks back I managed to squeeze some time to drop in on a book launch held the Sydney’s Cedars Club. This wasn’t just any book, but a new book of original music by pianist Pat Chafe.
Pat is the daughter of violinist Winnie Chafe and has grown up surrounded by the music and culture of Cape Breton. She began performing at an early age and has been composing tunes for years, with many having been recorded by Celtic musicians, Cape Breton and otherwise.
Titled Bits & Pieces, this collection of marches, strathspeys, jigs, reels and more contains over 200 of her own compositions, some new, but many well known to most players. For example: Stella's Trip To Kamloops was recorded by Jerry Holland (and by many others since it was written in the 1980's); Glasgow House and Compliments to House Piper Ann Boozan were both recorded by John Allan Cameron on his Glencoe Station CD; Carl MacKenzie's Hornpipe was included by Carl on his Fiddle Medleys recording in 1996.
There are tunes written for fellow musicians, tunes written for friends, tunes written for special occasions or locations, and tunes that were just written because they had to be written. As you go through the book, many of these tunes are followed interesting notations that give their history, a little something that makes the whole work special.
The new publication also contains something extra, forty-plus tunes written by Doug MacPhee and his late mother Margaret. This is the first time that their total collection of music has been contained in one book.
The book launch was a grand party, with a full house of musicians who traveled from as far away as New Brunswick to be there. In addition, a portion of the book sales at the launch was given to Every Women's Centre, a charitable organization in Sydney.
Pat states that Bits & Pieces is likely just the start. Since she already has over 600 compositions under her belt, she has enough for several more books.
Until next time!
Dan
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