Re: Is it really possible to make a mandolin sound like a fiddle?
This is a fascinating discussion, albeit some of the discussers are talking past each other.
In western New York, a dance band of a 150 years ago was likely to be two fiddles, one "chording" (playing rhythmic double-stops) and the other playing the lead. A third instrument might well be a hammered dulcimer or a piano, and if there were to be "bass," likely a cello.
Seventy-five years ago, a band playing exactly the same role -- community dances, local events -- would likely have had a fiddle, possibly a saxophone, an accordion, a tenor banjo, an amplified guitar, and often drums and bass fiddle.
In either case, the ensemble would have played a mixture of traditional dance tunes (Opera Reel, Money Musk, Red Wing were big). The later group would have had a strong mixture of "singing" square dance calls, and would have added some "round dances" (non-figured waltzes, foxtrots etc.).
The point is that what we're calling old-time is a sub-genre of traditional dance music, based in the mountain South mostly. In the Appalachians "fiddle and banjo [may have been] it," but in New England, fiddle and piano were more likely to be "it," and in Michigan and western New York, fiddle and hammered dulcimer could have been "it." (Henry Ford's Old-Time Dance Orchestra, based out of Michigan, had a fiddle, hammered dulcimer, piano and tuba).
So where does mandolin "fit in"? Wherever you can make it fit. You can't make it sound exactly like a fiddle, and what's the point in trying? Nor is it just an inferior form of clawhammer banjo. Play to its strengths -- ability to combine melody and chords, fiddle-like range of pitch, percussive and tremolo potential -- and seek creativity rather than being a reflection of another instrument that will play its own role better than a mandolin could.
Now, down off the soapbox...
Allen Hopkins
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