Fiddlesticks

When I was a child, I often heard my father exclaim, "Fiddlesticks!" at a point of frustration. I never thought to ask him what "fiddlesticks" meant and never bothered to find out. A wild guess would suggest it had something to do with a fiddle and some sticks, but what?

Here's an illustration of someone playing fiddlesticks—two light sticks used to tap out a percussive beat on the strings of a fiddle while the fiddle is being played. This musical style apparently developed in early American/pioneer/old time music settings -- but don't know much more about it than that. In a time when musical instruments were at a premium and folks were easily entertained, I guess it was easy to invent new ways of being musical.

And I still don't know why my father used it as an expression.