Symphony veteran takes on folk fiddle

Violinist Paul Patterson

By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Cincinnati Post, November 15, 2005

Violinist Paul Patterson has been a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras many times.

But usually not on the violin.

A member of the CSO second violin section, the Clifton resident has played mandolin with the CSO and five-string banjo, bouzouki and guitar for the Pops. He is heard on more than 30 CSO and Pops recordings.

This week he will step out on his primary instrument.

Literally. As fiddle soloist in Incidental Music from Grieg's "Peer Gynt," he will begin offstage, then walk on and play from a position next to the percussion section.

The concerts, to be led by CSO music director Paavo Järvi, are at 7:30 pm Thursday, 11 am Friday and 8 pm Saturday at Music Hall.

Järvi's version of "Peer Gynt" (a CSO premiere) uses 11 of the 26 numbers Grieg wrote for the Ibsen play, arranged in roughly chronological order. The two oft-heard suites comprise only four numbers each, without regard to chronology.

Also on the program are Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Concerto for Orchestra by Zoltan Kodaly.

Patterson will play an authentic hardanger fiddle owned by composer/folk musician Grey Larsen.

Named for the region around Hardanger fjord, the hardanger fiddle is the national instrument of Norway. Slightly smaller than a violin and intricately decorated, it has two sets of strings, the ones upon which the violinist plays and a row of "sympathetic" strings beneath the fingerboard.

Larsen's fiddle, made in 1979 by Janne Danielssonn in Sweden, has four sympathetic and four principal strings. The body of the instrument (spruce and maple) is ornamented with leafy pen and ink drawings. The ebony fingerboard and tailpiece are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and the scroll is a carved dragon like those on the prows of Viking ships.

"It has a very distinctive sound," said Patterson, "much more hollow and resonant than Italian violins, which have a center to them like a voice. I would call it haunting. When you get this interaction with the resonating strings underneath, it rings more."

Grieg's score contains his most familiar and popular music, including "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Morning Song." The fiddle solos - usually played by the concertmaster and principal violist in lieu of a fiddle - symbolize the rakish Peer, whose adventures take him from the land of the trolls to Arabia and back.

A native of Clifton and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Patterson is celebrating his 20th season with the CSO. He has been a versatile musician from youth.

"My mom was a very fine pianist. Everybody in my family (six kids) took piano, then switched to violin, viola or cello at about nine. My parents had an idea that music education was important to the general workings of the mind. I went to the symphony since I was 5."

Patterson's father, a UC geology professor, was the folk influence. "He was self taught (on accordion) and loved music. When I was 13, I bought a banjo, a mandolin, a guitar and we got a sitar. Also an electric violin. I've been playing all sorts of stuff and making recordings forever." (Patterson plays jazz violin with the Faux Frenchmen Monday evenings at Tink's restaurant in Clifton.)

Patterson and Larsen grew up in Clifton and were in a band called Melange at Walnut Hills High School. "We were certainly a mixture. We did folk, Renaissance, bluegrass, country, rock and roll. Grey went to Oberlin and got a composition degree."

After CCM, Patterson played jazz violin for about a year with bassist David Friesen and guitarist John Stowell. "We toured the West to the East Coast, hitting various jazz clubs."

At the end of the year, he and his wife Sylvia Mitchell, also a violinist, heard about openings at the CSO.

"She got a job (in the first violin section). Then a year later, I got one."

The couple met playing strolling violin.

"We were at CCM and were hired to play the same gig. It was the opening of 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Playhouse in the Park. We were hired separately by people who didn't know each one had hired somebody. We played together and that was it."

The two are a familiar duo locally. They will play banjo and fiddle in a piece by Raymond McLain (arranged by Mitchell) on a CSO Young People's Concert Nov. 29 at Music Hall.

The hardanger fiddle is designed for "fast response," said Patterson. "It's got a short string length so it's smaller and easier for your hand. My regular symphony violin has a big dynamic range so it has more resistance and you push more effort into it to make it louder."

However, hardanger fiddlers make much greater use of polyphony, i.e. playing more than one line simultaneously. The instrument has a flatter bridge and fingerboard to make this easier.

"I'm sure Paavo wants the guts of the folk fiddle feel and that's what I'm going for," said Patterson. "I like to play American fiddle music and it has to have some kick to it."

Playing hardanger fiddle is a tradition in Norway going back 300 years. "Along with it comes the whole of Norwegian culture," he said.

To view the "tip of the iceberg," visit the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America at www.hfaa.org.

Paul Patterson plays hardanger fiddle in Grieg's "Peer Gynt" with Paavo Järvi and the CSO at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall. For tickets, call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org.