Shetland-Music.com

Better known in Unst as "Freedie da Fiddler", Shetland's most renowned 19th-century fiddler and composer was named after his grandfather, a German sailor who deserted his ship at Burrafirth in 1743 and settled on the island.

Freedie led the normal life of a Shetland man of the era, with spells at the Greenland whaling and the haaf fishing. He learnt the fiddle at an early age, and came to be regarded by his contemporaries as 'The finest fiddler in all Shetland in the first position". Many of the distinctive tunes he composed were passed down through his family into the present day. Freedie's talents were regularly sought by the local gentry, as a contemporary account of his music-making at a Yule night dance held by the laird of Buness in the 1830s relates.

'When all were assembled ... Fredamen Stickle, a very prince of fiddlers, summoned from over the hill for the occasion, was elevated on a chair on the top of the dresser in the ample kitchen, and dancing began. Freedie was a born musician, and handled the bow with admirable ease, grace and spirit. I have a vivid memory of Freedie sitting on his elevated perch, his head thrown back , his light-blue eyes sparkling, and his handsome, mobile and expressive face beaming with smiles of delighted excitement, while his right hand swept the strings with well-rosined bow, and his right foot beat loudly the splendid time like a drumstick. The man's spare but lithe and sinewy body seemed to be transformed into a musical machine; and the music was the most inspiring of its kind I have ever listened to . . .

Of his compositions, the best-known are the un-named slow air known today as Friedie's tune, and the jig Da Brig.