"Donegal Fiddle" RTCD, 196 (63 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1311 "The Brass Fiddle": traditional fiddle music from Donegal

Ceirnini Chladaigh, CC44CD (45 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1421

The Fiddle Music Of Donegal Volume Cairdeas, CNF001 (67 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1531

This slew of releases is proof, such is needed, that Donegal fiddle music is no longer confined to the northern fastnesses. In every sphere of traditional music activity from session to concert stage, from commercial album, to field recording, from doctoral data, to master class, the Donegal fiddle style - and repertoire - is a growth area. Sadly, though, between the 21 or so fiddlers represented above, from Seamus Ennis's earliest, field recordings in 1949 for Radio Eireann to the recordings made in 1995 by Cairdeas na bhFidileoiri for The Fiddle Music of Donegal album, there is not even one woman included.

Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh did, it must be said, provide her painting of a fiddle for the cover illustration of the RTE CD and tape. These three albums consequently could be viewed as representing an exclusively male activity as much as they do Donegal fiddle playing. Within the context of rural society in Donegal in the late 1940s and 1950s, when the material for The Donegal Fiddle was recorded by Ennis and Mac Mathuna, this is not so surprising. Many of the musicians featured here were born at the turn of the century, notably Francie Dearg and Mickey Ban O'Beirn from Kilcar - and the three Dohertys, Mickey, Simon, and the more widely-known John. They were exponents of a style of fiddle playing and bearers of a repertoire which had not been subjected to widescale standardisation as had happened elsewhere. Perhaps because of its remoteness and relative inaccessibility, Donegal's traditional music retained many of its distinctive particularities.

These comprise a complex and highly evolved playing style involving double stopping, droning, staccato bowing, and sometimes fiendishly difficult technique like playing on the second string only while sounding a constant drone on a tuned-down third string. Octave playing in duet was another feature and there are many fine examples on The Donegal Fiddle, one of the most memorable being the O'Beirn brother's playing of Ri na nGlor, Much of the technique harks back to piping. an older tradition again.

In 1983 and 1986, when The Brass Fiddle was recorded, Francie Dearg O'Beirn was still playing and younger players like Vincent Campbell and James Byrne were taking their places in an unbroken line of Donegal fiddlers. This pattern is repeated in the Cairdeas na bhFidileoiri album with, players like Martin McGinley, Peter Tracey and Paul O Shaughnessy.

The crowning glory of Donegal fiddle music is its repertoire of striking and unusual dance tunes and dance types; mazurkas, germans, Highlands and so on. From Martin McGinley's visceral rendering of two waltzes, Con Cassidy's/The Speaking Waltz, on the Cairdeas album to Con Cassidy himself playing the strathspey Miss Drummond Of Perth on The Brass Fiddle, to Jimmy Lyons version of Moneymusk recorded in 1949 - it seems as though the repertoire is endlessly renewable. If anything, the more unusual tunes are a feature of the more recent recordings; a good sign for the future. The diversity of individual styles is also remarkable, each player adding another colour to the palette of subtleties and nuance that the music so splendidly calls forth.

Dervish: "At The End Of The Day"

Whirling Discs, WHRL 003 (61 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1641

Sligo-based band Dervish stand in the mainstream of contemporary traditional ensemble playing. Their milieu - and, indeed, raison detre - is the session, and At The End Of The Day is true to its source. Fiddle, flute, accordion, combine with bouzouki, guitar, mandola and mandolin across a range of dance music and songs sung by Cathy Jordan. The opening pacey brace of reels sets the tone for hearty rousing session fare before moving into a slightly leadranach version of Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi and on to more reels. An Spailpin Fanach is more successful and is complemented by a graceful arrangement of whistle guitar and strings. Things clip along at a spanking pace until, as in all good sessions, they wind down with the charming Josefin's Waltz.