Oliver Schroer (1956 to 2008) was Canada’s most adventurous fiddle composer. He wrote more than 1,000 pieces, recorded ten albums of his own in 14 years, and played on or produced more than 100 records for other artists. His 2006 album Camino was recorded in churches along the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail in Spain. Three months after his death, his album Hymns and Hers won two Canadian Folk Music Awards, and the awards now give a Pushing the Boundaries prize in his name.
Why Schroer matters
Schroer wrote his own tunes by the hundreds and stretched what a fiddle tune could be. He started with jigs, reels, and waltzes from the Ontario tradition and then wrote what he called prayers, incantations, and fractal reels. For a jam fiddler, he is proof that the instrument can carry a whole concert alone, and that a tune you write today can stand beside the old ones.
Life and career
Schroer was born on June 18, 1956, and grew up in Vandeleur, a small farming community near Markdale in Grey County, Ontario. He took violin lessons as a boy and graduated from Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton in 1974.
University did not suit him. He moved to Toronto and busked in the subway, playing guitar. After several years he picked up the violin again, this time as a fiddle rather than a classical instrument. His first album, Jigzup, came out in 1993 on his Big Dog Music label and was nominated for a Juno Award for Best Roots or Traditional Album. He recorded with Loreena McKennitt, James Keelaghan, Sylvia Tyson, Jesse Cook, Don Ross, Great Big Sea, and Spirit of the West, and his collaborations drew three more Juno nominations in 1999, 2000, and 2001.
In his last seven years he taught and mentored young fiddlers in Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, and in Smithers in northern British Columbia. He built youth groups he called the Twisted String and took them to festivals across Canada. He wrote a piece for each of his 59 students in Smithers and recorded them with pianist Emilyn Stam for the double album Smithers in 2007.
In 2004 he walked 1,000 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago with his wife and two friends, carrying a fiddle wrapped in a sleeping bag in his backpack and portable recording gear. Big Dog released Camino in 2006. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2007. He gave a farewell concert on June 5, 2008, and died on July 3, 2008, at age 52.
Playing style
Schroer’s playing fused Ontario fiddle traditions with the string-crossing, architectural lines of Bach’s solo violin music, a description Toronto critic Robert Everett-Green gave it. He played alone often, and his solo pieces use the whole instrument: double stops for harmony, open-string drones, and natural and artificial harmonics for high, glassy tones.
On Camino the fiddle plays against church bells, birds, and the voices of monks. His dance tunes keep an Ontario old-time pulse, but his later pieces slow down and open up. He described them as prayers, blessings, and mysteriosos rather than entertainment tunes.
Influences and legacy
Schroer came out of the Ontario fiddle tradition and the Toronto busking scene. His biggest legacy is his students. Emilyn Stam and Chelsea Sleep led the Twisted String students at his 2008 tribute concert, and fiddler Jaron Freeman-Fox played at his last concert. The Canadian Folk Music Awards named their Pushing the Boundaries award after him. Borealis Records released Freedom Row in 2010 and Enthralled, a duo album with Irish flute player Nuala Kennedy, in 2012.
Signature tunes and songs
Field of Stars Silence at the Heart of Things Poised.
Essential recordings
Jigzup (Big Dog Music, 1993) Camino (Big Dog Music, 2006) Hymns and Hers (Big Dog Music, 2007) Smithers (Big Dog Music, 2007) Enthralled, with Nuala Kennedy (Borealis, 2012)
Awards and honors
Juno nomination, Best Roots or Traditional Album, Jigzup Juno nomination, Best Instrumental Album, Celtic Dance with John Herberman as Casadh An tSúgáin (1999) Juno nomination, Best Instrumental Album, The Piper’s Legacy with Rob Crabtree (2000) Juno nomination, Best Instrumental Album, Celtic Devotion (2001) Canadian Folk Music Award, Pushing the Boundaries, Hymns and Hers (2008) Canadian Folk Music Award, Solo Instrumentalist, Hymns and Hers (2008) Canadian Folk Music Award nominations, Instrumental Group and Ensemble of the Year, Enthralled (2012)
Watch and listen
Schroer plays his solo piece Field of Stars. Listen for the harmonics and the space between phrases.
A mid-1990s documentary on Schroer, with footage of him playing and talking about his music.
What to learn from Schroer
Learn Field of Stars. It is slow, it is solo, and it teaches you to hold a room with one fiddle and no chords behind you. The technique to steal is his use of natural harmonics. Touch the string at the octave and fifth points without pressing, and work them into a slow air as bell tones. Then write a tune. Start with a plain jig in D and change one thing about it. Schroer wrote a thousand pieces that way.
Sources
Oliver Schroer, Wikipedia Late fiddler Oliver Schroer leads Canadian Folk Music nominations, CBC News Award archive, Canadian Folk Music Awards Juno Awards of 1999, Wikipedia Juno Awards of 2000, Wikipedia Juno Awards of 2001, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more players. Schroer came from the same Ontario tradition as Graham Townsend and April Verch. Calvin Vollrath is the other Canadian fiddler best known for the size of his tune catalog, and Natalie MacMaster took Canadian fiddle to the same world stages in the same years.