Classical Principle Weekly
April 11, 2023
The Classical Principle and Love: Part 1
The Classical principle is not limited to the boundaries of what is known formally as classical music. It is a Principle of Love.
Emily Tuck was a 17 year-old student in Nova Scotia who was killed in a school shooting on April 18, 2020. Nova Scotia, and particularly Cape Breton Island have struggled to keep the tradition of the Scottish Highlands, and of highland fiddling alive, long after it was cleared out of the highlands itself. For that reason they have North America's only Gaelic College, and the "Big Fiddle" in Sydney.
Highland fiddling is a masterful tradition, and Natalie Macmaster is one of the best. Natalie and her daughter Mary decided to join a recording of Emily's playing, and thus create a fine performance which never existed in real time, but lives forever, in what might be termed "The Simultaneity of Eternity."
It is important to immortalize individuals in such a way, so that they do not simply "slip between the cracks". Natalie helped Emily to become what she surely would have become, if given half a chance.
