" For years fiddlers and folklorists have prized the old-time fiddle
tunes from Kentucky. Many of the most outstanding country music artists
hail from the state, including Bill Monroe, widely regarded as the
founder of bluegrass music. Even Aaron Copland lifted, note-for-note, a
Kentucky fiddler's performance of "Bonaparte's Retreat" for the
"Hoedown" section of his ballet Rodeo. That tune and nearly 200 others
are transcribed here, most for the first time. They are taken from
recordings of Kentucky fiddlers, many of whom were born before 1900,
practitioners of a style of playing now extremely rare. Jeff Todd Titon
places the tunes in their historical context, provides biographical
sketches of the performers, and offers suggestions for contemporary
fiddlers who want to use the book for performance. A compact disc of
recordings is also included.