The Fiddle at Sea: Tradition and Innovation Among Shetland’s Sailors since the Eighteenth Century

Among Shetlanders the fiddle has been the best represented instrument since it was first introduced to the islands by Hanseatic traders from Northern Europe in the early 1700s.1 By 1809, it was commented by Arthur Edmonstone that in Shetland ‘among the peasantry almost one in ten can play on the violin’, and by 1920 most households on the islands were believed to own a fiddle.2 Today there are believed to be approximately 340 tunes in the traditional Shetland fiddle repertoire.3 Until the early twentieth century and the introduction of pianos, melodeons, and pedal organs or harmoniums, the fiddle was the dominant instrument in use among islanders. Due to its portability, it was often taken aboard sailing ships and other vessels for musical entertainment.4 The necessity of music among whalers was described by David Proctor as follows: The men who undertook expeditions to Polar regions were perhaps those who needed music most, in order to maintain their morale during the long dark hours of winter when their ships were caught in the ice or they were living in huts, separated by vast distances from their homelands. This was especially true in those periods when wireless communication and aircraft, that might bring relief, did not exist.5