From stride to regional pride? Cape Breton piano accompaniment as musical and cultural process

Abstract

During the twentieth century, piano accompaniment was introduced into the Scottish-based Canadian style of fiddling on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. This dynamic and fast-evolving form of extemporised accompaniment developed a distinct style and has influenced fiddle accompaniment elsewhere in North America. This article offers a brief history and stylistic analysis of Cape Breton piano accompaniment, and locates it within the tradition–innovation dialectic which remains important in Cape Breton’s fiddle scene. Through ethnographic interviews and archival work, I theorise the style as an outcome of ‘glocalisation’, where endogenous and exogenous elements are mixed and balanced both in the piano style itself and the discourse around it.