John Doherty (musician)

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John Doherty (1900 – 26 January 1980) was an Irish folk fiddler.

Biography

John Doherty was born in 1900 in

From the late 40s to the 1970s collectors sought him out. The Floating Bow contains recordings made between 1968 and 1974 by Professor Evans in the town-land of Glenconwell. This collection arguably comprises the most extensive collection of his music, and was made when some argue Doherty was at his peak as a musician. He played with much ornamentation, including bowed and slurred triplets, rolls, 'cuts', mordents (particularly on long 'first-finger' notes), double-stopping (based on standard western music principles, normally highlighting the tonic and third of a particular chord). Heavily influenced by the Scottish bagpiping tradition, he often replicated the sound of the pipes' drones, by either re-tuning the fiddle to an open tuning ('scordatura'), or by maintaining the fourth finger on the string below the pitch of the melody. According to Alex Monaghan in the magazine, "The Living Tradition", he was a significant influence on the fiddle playing of The Chieftains and Altan. Doherty was also a story-teller, and some of his tales appear on the liner notes to "The Floating Bow".^[citation needed]

Doherty sometimes did not carry a fiddle with him on his travels because he knew that, if needed, he was always likely to be provided with one when he visited "house dances" (folk music parties hosted by a family in their own house). The Floating Bow was played on a borrowed fiddle (owned by Professor Evans). He once travelled to Dublin to play in the Oireachtas Championships. He was first recorded in 1945 by The Irish Folklore Commission during one of his trips to Teelin in Southwest Donegal and later by the BBC (

• 1996 The Floating Bow (Claddagh Records – CCF31CD; recorded 1968–74 at a farmhouse in Glenconwell, Ardara, County Donegal by Alun Evans using an Akai reel-to-reel stereo recorder; John Doherty played Evans's fiddle, an eighteenth-century instrument)

Anthologies – Various artists

• 1961 Songs of Seduction
• 1961 Jack of all Trades
• 1990s? The Donegal Fiddle (RTÉ CD – undated; John features on three tracks: #35, #36, #37)
• 1997 Traditional Dance music of Ireland (Saydisc Records – CD-SDL 420; John Doherty appears on 10 tracks: #2, #7, #8, #13, #14, #15, #23, #24, #27, #28; including a real rarity, a John Doherty polka, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (track #27))

Documentaries

• 2012 John Doherty ar leirg na gaoithe Winner Torc Award Celtic Media Festival; "John Doherty ar leirg na gaoithe" produced by Éabhlóid

Literature

• Mac Aoidh, Caoimhín (1994). Between the Jigs and the Reels.
  ISBN 1873437080
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Doherty (musician).

• Mustrad
• The Living Tradition
• Comhaltas
• Irish Music Review