Historical background
Two main groups of immigrants:
-
Early settlers: Anglo-Saxons known as Pilgrims, from British Isles,
Scandinavia, France and Spain
(16th & 17th-century). Scotland & England people came to
New England with the pilgrims–Calvinist religious foundation
- “Pilgrims, early English
settlers who founded Plymouth Colony, the first permanent settlement in
New England. They were originally known as the Forefathers or Founders.
Among the early Pilgrims was a group of Separatists, members of a
radical religious movement that broke from the Church of England during
the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1606William Brewster led a group
of Separatists to Leiden, the Netherlands, to escape religious
persecution in England. After living in Leiden for more than ten years,
some members of the group voted to emigrate to America. The voyage was
financed by a group of London investors who were promised produce from
America in exchange for their assistance. On September 16, 1620, these
Separatists were part of a group numbering 102 men, women, and children
who left Plymouth, England, for America on the Mayflower. On November
21, the Mayflower dropped anchor in the sheltered harbor off the site
of
present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts. They landed on the site of
Plymouth Colony the following December 21, a date that is celebrated in
New England as Forefathers' Day. The Pilgrims established a government
and created the Mayflower Compact, which served as a precursor to
constitutional law in America.” (Encarta, 2001)
- Later
settlers: Italy, the Balkan peninsula, and Eastern Europe (19th century)
Southern Appalachian Mountains
- Western borders of Virginia and
North Carolina, the eastern borders of Kentucky and Tennessee, and even
touch parts of Georgia and Alabama
- people of English, Scots-Irish,
and German extraction and were associated with a variety of Protestant
faiths
- complete isolation remained in
effect for more than one hundred years
- human values were taught at home
or within the larger family group
- gather together every day of the
week to play their instruments, exchange songs, and create new ones
- Appalachian stepdancing has been
part of European-derived dance traditions in the United States since
the
arrival of the earliest immigrants. Many variations are found in the
Appalachian Mountains.
Ballads:
Ballads are songs (poems) that tell
stories -- either fictitious or based on actual, and often tragic
events Video: Ballad,
"Topical song by Jean Ritchie
The Avondale Mine Disaster, Pennsylvania, PDF Audio
- a type of literature and music
that developed across Europe in the late Middle ages
- usually cast in the third person
- short narrative folk songs that
fixed on the most dramatic part of a story, moving to its conclusion by
means of dialogue and a series of incidents
- served as home-based
entertainment before the advent of recordings and remained in oral
tradition in Vermont and other rural areas into the 20th century
- two or three basic tune types
- solo song, longer than normal
songs but with short stanzas
Broadside Ballads:
A broadside referred to a single sheet of paper on which ballads were
printed and distributed. They were for sale on the streets and, in
effect, functioned as singing newspaper. Broadside Ballads tend to deal
with historical events more than to popular ballads.
“Broadside
ballads
are those that appeared, normally without music, on the broadsheets
that
printers sold as a form of early newspaper to capitalize on hangings,
battles, and other sensationalism. A printer who ran out of copy might
well put an old ballad on the sheet. Soon ballad printing became big
business, and printers hired ballad composers (the Anglo-Irish writer
Oliver Goldsmith once worked at this) and itinerant singers to write
and
hawk songs. Many of these songs, such as “The Broken
Token,” “The
Lexington Murder,” and “Brennan on the Moor,” became
popular enough to
enter the repertoires of folksingers. Broadside ballads flourished in
Britain from as early as the 1500s until they were superseded by modern
songbooks, sheet music, and records.” (Encarta, 2001)
Appalachian
folk Instruments
Chordophones:
Banjo Video
Banjo is a stringed
instrument of the lute family, with an open-backed round body
consisting
of a circular wood hoop over which is stretched a vellum belly
(formerly
nailed on, now held tense by a screw mechanism); a long, narrow,
fretted
neck; and metal or metal-wound gut strings. The strings run from a
tailpiece, over a bridge (a piece of wood that holds the strings off of
the belly of the banjo) held in place by their pressure, up the neck to
rear tuning pegs (machine screws on modern banjos). Five
strings are typical.
Lap Dulcimer
(zither) Video
The derivation of
th word dulcimer comes from the Latin dulce and the Greek melos,
literally means sweet melody. The lap dulcimer exists in many
shapes and sizes, essentially consists of three or four strings running
over a fingerboard mounted on the body. The standard dulcimer has two
treble strings and one bass string. The first treble is the melody
string and the second treble and bass serve as drone strings.
A dulcimer must be
played with the performer sitting on a stool or chair without armrests.
The noter and the pick are two essential accessories for playing the
dulcimer. Many dulcimer players believe that the best pick is a
traditional feather quill. The player plays strum or pluck all strings
with her left hand and picks individual strings with his/her right
hand.
Folklorists
generally believe that when English and German colonists migrated to
the
New World, the rebec (medieval English instrument), and
scheitholt
(t German) were merged into one instrument, which was quickly absorbed
into American culture and became thoroughly identified with the
Appalachian mountain people. (Armstrong, 1980)
Autoharp Video
The autoharp,
invented in 1881, is zither-family instrument. Chords are made by
pressing down bars (with the left hand) that block out some strings and
allow the strings in a particular chord to vibrate. Pickow strums with
the thumb (wearing a plastic pick) and fingers of his right hand.
Fiddle: Video
An instrument from
a widespread family of bowed lutes consisting of one or more strings
stretched the full length of a fingerboard terminating in a soundbox.
Fiddle is also the colloquial name given to instruments of the violin
family. The fiddlers have been a vital part of Appalachian folk music
ever since the first white settlers entered the region.
Hammer dulcimer
(santur) Video
The hammer dulcimer
emerged in Europe in the 15th century and came to the New World
with the early white settlers. It was very popular in New England in
the
1850s. The lineage of the
hammered dulcimer goes back at least to 11th century Persia. It s
immediate ancestor is the psaltery, and it, in turn, is a precursor of
piano. The hammer dulcimer is usually played horizontally, consists of
ten or more courses of two or more strings stretched across a
trapezoidal frame and shallow sounding box. One or two bridges
subdivide each course of strings, providing different pitches on each
side of the bridge. The strings are struck by a pair of small wooden
hammers.
String Band Video: Alabama Jubilee String Band
String bands, which
usually consisted of various combinations of guitar, fiddle, banjo,
mandolin, and string bass, also known as a double bass. The white
setters picked up additional tunes and instruments from traveling
musical troupes and medicine shows, gradually compounding them into
old-time string band. To this day, the Appalachian ear is partial to
sting music, and the ability to play a fiddle or pick a banjo is still
held in high esteem in mountain communities. (Brown, 1983)
Dance Video:
Limber/Jumping Jack
Contradance
is a traditional group social dance found in rural communities,
primarily in New England, since the 19th century, the dance is
performed
by two facing lines of dancers, generally one of men and one of women,
although sometimes men and women alternate positions in each line. This
dance is performed with a lively walking step, which individual dancers
sometimes embellish with fancy patterns
Square Dance,
principal form of American folk dance. Square dance is normally
accompanied by the traditional string band music. The dancers –
four
couples– , arranged in a square, cooperate to execute various
figures,
moving with a smooth, somewhat shuffling step. The square dance
developed about 1825-50 out of the then fashionable cotillion and
quadrille, stately French dances in square formation. To simplified
figures from these dances were added elements from the faster-moving
contra dances of New England and “running sets” of
Appalachia. Also came
the introduction of the caller, who generally does not dance and stands
near the musicians. He was free to improvise the order of the
figures. The caller's prompting soon developed into rhythmic patter
calls with a characteristic, wry vocabulary and, by the 1870s, into
singing calls. Typical figures included the allemande (a quadrille
term), dosido (French dos a dos,”back to back”), birdie in
the cage
(from the running set), and star (from contras, quadrilles, and running
sets).
In the 1860s the
fast swinging of partners in ballroom dance position added further
interest. Square dances developed regional variations in figures and
style of calling, and in Canada similar dances developed with French,
Scottish, and Irish influences.
Play party (PDF)
Play-party: Video: Play Party, "Pop goes the
weasel"
Play-party derived
from the British Isle. It has a distinct type of American style, and
was
outgrowth of square dancing, the Appalachia running set, and the New
England contra dances. In 1830's, the frontiers were prohibited to
dance
by many religious leaders of early America. As a result of
“unending
conflict between the natural desire to dance and be merry, and the
stern
religious prohibitions of all worldly pleasure,” square dances
were
modified to evade the word “dance.” Thus, the word
play-party was used.
A distinctive American play-party feature is the dancers must use
primarily walking steps, some times skipping was note even allowed. In
place of instruments, the dancers sang, using words and syllabus.
Links:
American Children Folk Song
Collection - Holy Names University, CA
References:
Encarta
Encyclopedia, 2001.
Armstrong R.
(1980). The adaptable Appalachian dulcimer. Music Educators Journal. 66
(6), 38-41. Reston: MENC.
Brown, T. (1983).
Sugar in the gourd: Preserving Appalachian tradition. Music Educators Journal. 70
(3), 52-55. Reston: MENC.
Forcucci, S. L.
(1984). A folk song history
of America (Chapter 2, 3 & 6). Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall.
Nettl, B. (1990, 3rd edition). Folk and traditional music of the
Western Continents (Chapter 4 & 11). New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
