What was the most common/widely known tunes?

[Danny]

Re: What was the most common/widely known tunes?

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was not born instantly in a vacuum, but born in an extended traditional family whose heritage was available to her. Her parents were in the thick of Antebellum life, and she created "Pa" as a fiddle player drawing upon her experiences with a not-much-older generation.

Dan Wykes

[Sue]

Re: What was the most common/widely known tunes?

You have a point there.

But remember, if Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867, that means her dad was born probably around 1830? 1835? 1840? but in any event Pa did learn most of his fiddle repertory before the outbreak of the Civil War. This fact, of course, is not enough to designate the Little House books a musical primary source, but they have indeed inspired people, such as Dale, to index the tunes Laura mentioned and trace their histories by using reputable primary sources. Not surprisingly, what he has discovered is that Pa played from a very-much-traditional ("aural" or "oral") fiddle repertory, some of which did indeed date back to the Civil War (and some even earlier). Taking this one step further, I find some of these tunes in the surviving period fife repertory as well. So, while the value of the Little House memoirs lies beyond the Civil War, I would indeed recommend Dale Cockerell's work to anyone who is interested in a better understanding of the fiddle tunes mentioned therein.

Regarding Danny's post below, I am fascinated by oral repertories, especially the fife repertory, and understand the problems inherent in tracing the tune histories, which, difficult as it is, I believe has to be done before one can reliably tap this rich musical resource. I would love to hear how Danny and others approach this.

Susan Cifaldi
(oops, almost forgot!)

P.S. This was supposed to answer Silas's post and then reference Danny's, but now I see Danny made 2 posts (sigh) I am so confused.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: What was the most common/widely known tunes?

Getting back to the original question, I'd like to recommend Louis Moreau Gottschalk's journal. It's an interesting look at music actually played during the war years, with some amusing descriptions of various venues and audiences. It's only part of the picture, but it probably tells us a bit more than we can learn from trying to guess: http://books.google.com/books?id=QzY...page&q&f=false

Other sources would include soldier's journals and letters as well as contemporary newspaper stories (and ads for sheet music). We're fortunate in that a lot of sheet music has survived, including popular songs and band arrangements. We're less fortunate in the fact that even some of the most popular songs of the era, like "Lorena" and "Just Before the Battle, Mother," get less playing time than Irish bar music and 1960's folk tunes with no civil war provenance.