Fiddler Uses Music to Promote Local Food

By DEBORAH SAYER

Fellowship, food, fiddling and fun are the things that fuel the artistic side of Topsham resident Hope Hoffman.

The music teacher and performer spends her days rosining up a bow to give fiddle lessons and performances of traditional folk music.

At 32, Hoffman has made it her life’s work to use music as a tool to bring people together while supporting shared community contributions. And these days that focus is on farming and food.

"Once I realized how important local food and community were, I wanted to have some sort of celebration or souvenir for people to have to connect local food with local music traditions," said Hoffman, who recently released a CD of fiddle music. A portion of sales from that work benefit Free Grange Productions, a partnership of local food producers, retailers and musicians she helped organize.

"The Free Grange mission is to promote and support local food and traditional music," said Hoffman, noting that farmers’ markets offer the perfect venue to achieve that goal. The music draws crowds and helps stimulate the local economy with sales of produce and other items.

Hoffman’s daily routine harkens back to a time when consumers depended on local farmers for their daily sustenance. The bulk of her diet comes from produce harvested locally, which Hoffman says helps her to eat healthily while supporting local agriculture and saving money. It’s a practice Hoffman feels is worthy of lauding and provides the inspiration for the music on her CD.

‘"Infinite Winter Squash: New Maine Fiddle Music’ is a celebration of a winter farm-share I had one year from the Goranson Farm in Dresden," said Hoffman of the program that supplied her with a seemingly limitless supply of squash and other vegetables last winter.

"It is very cost effective for the consumer and the farmer," said Hoffman of the program. "You pay $150 for six months’ worth of vegetables. This particular year, there was an abundant supply of squash, so much so that I ran out of ways to put it to use."

What Hoffman lacked in recipes she made up in musical creativity. She turned out a compilation of traditional instrumental tunes featuring contradances, hornpipe, waltzes and jigs.

"By traditional music, I mean newly written material because that is how a tradition lives on," said Hoffman, a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University who has an extensive education in music and dance that was heavily influenced by jazz music.

"It had a big influence on my fiddle playing. The flow of improv seemed very natural in those old jazz recordings. I encourage my students to play expressively. If they have an idea of a way to vary a traditional tune, that feels right and sounds good and would be understandable to their fellow musicians when playing in a group, I encourage that."

Hoffman’s progression in folk music was inspired by fiddlers she’s seen play since she moved to Maine in 2000.

"There are a lot of wonderful traditional fiddlers in Maine who have been doing this for decades, and over the last few years fiddle music seems to have become more popular," said Hoffman.

"I started playing the fiddle in 2001 after having classical training for 10 years. When I started learning fiddle music, I listened to these Maine fiddlers at dances or events. I’m indebted to them for inspiration and for the nuts-and-bolts knowledge they’ve given me – little logistical things like how much time you need to set up a dance hall and progressions of the music. There are a million things that are specific to this profession that longtime fiddlers know and that I’ve been emulating at contradances."

For more information on Free Grange performances or to hear samples of Hoffman’s CD, go online to www.freegrange.org or www.hopehoffman.org/winter squash.htm.

Staff Writer Deborah Sayer can be contacted at 791-6308 or at:

dsayer@pressherald.com

Originally published by By DEBORAH SAYER Staff Writer.

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