23
votes
Looking for music with creative or interesting or skilled violin or fiddle that are not the classics (cello or viola also)
Can be any style, just something you like and think is interesting or fun or moving. Edit, classical music is fine if it is relatively unfamiliar.
I recently went to a random benefit concert and found Kendall Dean, who started with classical violin, added fiddle skills, vocals, guitar, modern tech.
Here is an instrumental track, but other songs are in a variety of styles and some are covers.
The Woods
I used to play violin, and the first two artists I thought of were:
Lindsey Stirling
Yellowcard
I first found this woman's music while on acid and listening to Pandora, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I fell head over heels in love with a woman I've never seen and will never meet. The high notes during the chorus of Take Flight gave me goosebumps and put tears in my eyes.
I listen to a certain amount of traditional Scottish fiddling, especially Alasdair Fraser. He often plays with cellist Natalie Haas. Some other contemporary Scottish fiddlers of note include Paul Anderson, Natalie MacMaster, Hanneke Cassel, Elke Baker, and others. Really, there are too many to name.
As well as admiring these musicians' technical ability and musical personality, notice distinctive characteristics of Scottish tunes including the so-called "Scotch snap" in the strathspey. These musicians often play for social dances, which is how I'm familiar with them, but have an amazing repertoire in general.
I don't live in Scotland so I'm not as personally acquainted with Scottish-from-Scotland fiddlers as American ones, but there are plenty. You will also find an incredible amount of talent in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton, which has retained more Scottish cultural influence than the rest of the New World.
Perhaps Mahavishnu Orchestra might interest you - one of the seminal 70's jazz fusion bands, led by guitarist John McLaughlin, and featuring Jerry Goodman on electric violin. I think I'd probably most recommend their first album, The Inner Mounting Flame. Really high-flying, energetic music, though by today's standards some of it is a little cheesy. Nonetheless, I remember 'Dawn' and 'The Dance of Maya' both having some pretty sick violin solos.
One of my favorite bands, Kayo Dot, had a violinist throughout the earlier part of their discography. I think their album Coyote would be a good showcase for this - sort of avant-chamber rock, with the violin parts being more emotive and creative than technically impressive.
This starts with piano but builds into a rich, dense, sweep of strings: Luca D'Alberto - Her Dreams
Enjoyable pop nonsense: Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen
I know you said not classical, but here's some classical. I love the way the strings kind of slide all over the place and you can't quite pin them down, and there's lots of in nomine a 5s that di similar things Christopher Tye - In Nomine À 5, "Seldome Sene". See also Picforth - in nomine a 5
I don't know if it counts as classical or not, but I really like Penguin Café Orchestra and I think it's because I'm old so I was around before they got over-saturated in tv. I guess that stopped, and they're ready for a new audience? PCO - Rubber band and telephone
Hem - Half Acre folksy, and the strings feature, but there are probably better songs where the violins are more prominent. But I think this is lovely.
Maybe this doesn't mean much if you didn't watch Station Eleven (which is my favourite tv show of this century) but Wondering Under the Moon is joyful noise.
Colby T Helms has got some amazing song writing going on, and when he's with a band it really lifts.
Thank you. When I said not classics, I really meant not the 100 best known classical pieces or fiddle tunes. Your suggestions are amazing.
King Crimson's albums Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black features David Cross who does some stellar work. No, not the comedian.
Thank You Scientist feature electric violin in much of their music. Check out The Amateur Arsonist's Handbook
Imminence - Swedish metalcore band that uses violins (the lead singer is the violist for the band) and other string instruments that is not really used in metal and metalcore, outside of Neoclassical metal (classical mixed with metal). And some of the music that they do, they isolate the vocals and the strings and release that as it's own.
Not really what you are asking for but Apocalyptica uses cellos for their music. They are a Neoclassical band from Finland. They were originally composed of three cellists, who are classically trained, but around 2003 they added their drummer, who was originally a jazz drummer.
It's only 1 song, but a there's a late 90s Japanese song: Cocco - Utakata She's a great artist, with a wide variety of styles. This one just happens to be very strings heavy, and I'm a big fan.
Editing to add another album I thought of. Tori Amos - Night of Hunters
It’s an album either fully using or heavily inspired by the classics. But it’s a new expression on some classic songs you’re probably very familiar with already.
It's probably not exactly what you're looking for because it's not usually front-and-center and the skill on it is how sweetly it's played rather than difficult maneuvering, but most of Yuki Kajiura's music has violin in it.
The soundtrack to Rule of Rose is entirely made by a string quartet, and I think that may be more of what you're looking for. It's one of my favorite string quartet albums, actually. I'm not really in a place to look up links but I kind of had to play this after thinking about it, so here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRoJiu3K_1w
Take a look at Kenji Bunch, a violist and composer who writes interesting pieces notably for scordatura viola (non-standard tuning). His music draws from folk and fiddle music but is still quite rooted in the classical tradition. Here’s a Spotify link to one of his albums and in particular check out “Until Next Time” and “The 3 Gs”. I am a violist in music school right now and playing his music has been more fun and rewarding than most of the standard repertoire.
I'm on mobile and can't link right now, but the two that come to mind are:
Not sure if any of this will be up your alley, but here are a few artists I enjoy who feature violin heavily:
Andrew Bird: Sort of indie/folky sounding, and takes a playful somewhat experimental approach to music. Violin is one of his main instruments. He's been around for a long time, but his latest album is, I think, my favourite.
Emancipator: chill electronic artist who weaves his violin playing as a strong foundation to his sound.
David August x Deutche Symphonie set: An unbelievable mashup between electronic and classical styles. Im not sure where else to find it other than youtube.
If any others come to mind, I'll add to this list below...
...
Karolina Cicha: traditional polish music, with many collaborations including stringed instruments. TBH, I found her work through another Tildes thread, and Im not knowledgeable on the genre, but this may offer a gateway into eastern european fiddle styles.
There was a string trio led by Aleksey Igudesman called Triology that did a bunuch of fun stuff around at the start of the 2000s.
Here's their take on Ennio Morricone's classics, for example
Sadly most of their music is only available on CD, if you're lucky enough to find them.
The One Mic series on Youtube has this song from the David Grisman Quintet. There is a fiddle player in the group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FCyzZXTVA
Indie band I was really into for awhile, The Dreamscapes Project.
Their ensemble includes 12-string guitar, sax, and cello.
My favorite violin artist is Nash the Slash. He was initially with FM and then went solo. It isn't conventional violin by any means. (After leaving FM, he was replaced with Ben Mink, who was more conventional). All worth looking into.
First one to pop to mind is Kishi Bashi. His debut album 151a is short list material for the finest compositions of the last century. He does things with strings I have no words to describe. His best live sets thus far were with the Nu Deco Ensemble. He loves electronic experimentation as well, just watch what he does solo using loop pedals. You will probably fall in love with Violin Tsunami. If it's specifically his acoustic action you're after, Audiotree has that covered.
I'll second Andrew Bird, one live show is all you need to see. I dig Marty O'Reilly & The Old Soul Orchestra in part because their violinist Chris Lynch is an absolute beast. You'd undoubtedly dig on 2Cellos, I like them better with the full orchestra. Next check out Punch Brothers which is a bit proggy for folk music. Ben Sollee is another good one, and a rare thing - lead singers don't usually have the cello as their main instrument. I'll also plug Trampled By Turtles for creating the 'thrashgrass' genre. My fingers couldn't take that kind of punishment. :P
You might also find the genre of dark jazz interesting. The genre in general makes heavy use of strings, but only in more ambient-leaning ways to haunt the listener. It's probably the furthest from the normal use of strings you'll find out there. I think you might find Takenobu interesting as well, he does a lot of live looping and mixing on the cello.
https://app.idagio.com/albums/last-leaf?trackId=27524609
Is the intro then
https://app.idagio.com/albums/last-leaf?trackId=27524704
For the piece.
The song "Totems of the Grizzlemaw" from the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King soundtrack is one of my all-time favorites for fiddle music. The fiddle starts about halfway through -- it's almost like a different movement within the song -- and man, it is beautiful. Has that old Irish-American folk sound to it, and the rest of the orchestra complements it perfectly. Worth a listen, though it can be tricky to find (I don't think the soundtrack is on Spotify, for instance).
Edit: I was wrong - the whole album is there! Huzzah!
The Dirty Three are an Australian trio featuring drums, guitar, and violin. Warren Ellis' violin is definitely not classical, and has a haunting and immense sound. Definitely worth checking out.
The drummer is phenomenal too.
Yndi Halda
https://yndihalda.bandcamp.com/album/enjoy-eternal-bliss-remastered-15th-anniversary-edition