Ethnomusicology

[Kenneth Moran]

Folks:

I have had an extensive interest in the Smithsonian Folkways (Moses Asch), WPA Recordings and other Ethnomusicologist who roved through southern Appalachia. I have a particular fondness for the folk revival of the 50s and 60s that took place in NYC. The work of Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley and Tracy Schwarz is simply amazing.

My question for those novice ethnomusicologist is while a majority of the above work seems to date from the turn of the 19th century through late-Prohibition can anyone recommend some specific recordings of songs/music with a known provenance to the early/mid-19th? It is difficult for me to determine since the history has been muttered through the oral traditions however listening to the album "High Atmosphere" I have to think much of this has really early roots. I know the recordings will most likely to be from the 20s or 30s but will be only a generation or two removed from how they would have sounded in the Civil War era.

Curious to hear your thoughts, opinions and insights.

Regards!

[Silas]

Re: Ethnomusicology

Click on the covers to the minstrel songsters found at this link : http://www.milfordmusic.com/Banjo%20Audio.htm The music found here represents an effort to play minstrel music in the style as noted in the period songsters. You won't find any steel stringed banjos here.

[Kenneth Moran]

Re: Ethnomusicology

Thanks Silas for the website recommendation. I have yet to come across that one. Took a quick glance but reckon my co-workers would not appreciate banjo tunes blaring from my computer speakers. I'll give it a full go tonight at the house.
Do you have any "non-minstrel" recommendations? Looking for oral traditions type stuff.....high lonesome, mountain music, or a host of other titles it has been given. Unfortunately country music has ruined a lot of the original stuff. The new generation of Appalachia is now influenced by the radio and other mainstream media outlets thus diluting the oral tradition, in most cases unknowingly. Thanks much!

[Silas]

Re: Ethnomusicology

Cannot help you on that score.

[J. Donaldson]

Re: Ethnomusicology

This might be of interest. The American Folklife Center has made the liner notes to about thirty years worth of albums available on their website. Here's the link. There should be some good information there for your search.

[Kenneth Moran]

Re: Ethnomusicology

Thanks Bob for the website. I have a great deal of Lomax recordings at the house but have not seen these linear notes....appreciate it. For any of those interested I see that some years back Lars Prillaman posted this link:

http://www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/default.asp

The audio archive for Berea College is outstanding.

[Old Cremona]

Re: Ethnomusicology

The impact of minstrelsy cannot be under-estimated, in my opinion, in the popular culture of the Civil War era. "High Lonesome" is a Bluegrass term, definitely 20th century. Mountain music of the Civil War era-- I'm not sure, I haven't spent much time with that, but I personally don't trust post-war "folk" recordings as representing the early banjo sound. Fiddle, maybe more so, but the banjo evolved so much after the war that the only really solid evidence we have are the period method books. Also, of course, as the importance of minstrelsy faded in the late 19th and early 20th century, we really began to evolve away from the "Sibah Waw" sound.

[Kenneth Moran]

Re: Ethnomusicology

Excellent points Herr Carl and no debating you there. However, when one delves into the Lomax and WPA recordings.....which pre-date the term "Bluegrass" coined in the 1950s by some 30 years.....one cannot help but imagine that the voices in those recordings were born around the time of the Civil War or shortly thereafter. As such, they learned their techniques from folks very much alive and kickin during the era. My problem is the history and provenances of the tunes in the recordings seem to be lacking. The liner notes link Mr. Welch has provided seem to be the best attempt at documenting the history I have seen.

When I listen to many of the recordings I cannot help but imagine (especially the really early stuff from the teens and 20s) that the voice and playing techniques have not changed much since the Civil War. Lomax and his pards traveled the far depths of the South to areas relatively untouched since the Civil War to find these folks which would leave me to believe the music had been equally uninfluenced by the outside "expanding" world.

[joewhitney]

Re: Ethnomusicology

"..specific recordings of songs/music with a known provenance to the early/mid-19th.

Wow, that covers a lot of territory! It depends on what type of music you're talking about. The songs and music of the Appalachians in the 19th century were often much different than what would be popular with people in the big cities or on the coastline. In all parts of the country there were minstrel/African influences, but also Scot-Irish, German, English, opera, political and religious influences.

Of course, there were no Alan Lomaxes in the 19th century able to go into the field and record what people were singing, but from written descriptions and published music, we have a pretty good idea of what songs and tunes the typical person back then would have known and liked. Being more remote, changes in Appalachian music would have been slower, with many British Isles songs from the 1700's still popular.

Joe Whitney

[Nathan Dodds]

Re: Ethnomusicology

As far as Fiddling goes, the music I have studied from my part of Arkansas comes in strains. Fiddling was a skill sometimes handed down through over four generations. Some is a little smoother than regular Southern fiddling, with a heavy Celtic influence, such as the Morrisons, who traced their heritage back to Scotland. When their music did have a heavy beat it tended to be in relation to military marches. Wild haunting marches such as Lee's Retreat and Going Back to Dixie (a tune brought back by a Morrison to Arkansas in 1865) . Then there were Ozark clans that were influenced by blacks. There music can be more rythmic. Nonetheless, minstrel style had little or no influence on fiddling, although it may have effected banjo. There was none of that watered down thin sounding violin playing in the Ozarks during the 1860's. Music was wild, archaic, and used drones heavily.