They need people who play in the historic village to have the volunteer training, other than during festival weekends like the Traditional Music Festival in September, but [they have] boiled it down to one morning of orientation, from 9 a.m. till about 1 p.m. (it used to be three days)! The training gives an overview of the historical themes, frequently asked questions and things like emergency procedures, logging in (volunteer hours count as in-kind donations for grant applications), keys to the buildings, handling artifacts and reproductions, etc. I've taken the training, and it's really interesting. New Salem is kind of a magical place, and the magic gets stronger the longer I volunteer there and the more I know about it, so I think this is a real opportunity.
Several of us attended my off-season workshops this year in playing music of the 1830s in modal dulcimer tunings (mostly DAA and DAG), and we discussed this idea of jamming in the historic village in period dress. I think these trainings that Glen is willing to do for us will be a big step toward making that happen. While most of us in the workshops play mountain dulcimer, we had fiddle, banjo, autoharp and tin whistle represented, too, and I think just about any kind of acoustic instrument is appropriate in the historic village. (I've been looking for documentation of early Fender Stratocaster electric guitars on the Illinois frontier, but so far I haven't found any!) So I don't want to limit it to Appalachian dulcimers or to people who play with the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings. Any and all who are interested in playing at New Salem are welcome.
Also: We have the Summer Festival coming up the weekend of Saturday, June 11, and I'm recruiting musicians.
Here's what the New Salem website says about Summer Festival: "Come join New Salem interpreters as they will be demonstrating various crafts and trades throughout the village. Children will be able to participate in early 19th century activities such as butter churning, basket weaving, making corn husk dolls, quilting, broom tying, playing games and attending the 'blab' school. Musicians will be performing throughout the village to entertain visitors." It's a busy weekend, with the Dulcimerville workshops in North Carolina the week before and the Gebhard Woods Festival that weekend. But if you're going to be in the area Saturday, June 11, please let me know. We need musicians!
If you have questions, comments, suggestions or want to volunteer, please don't hesitate to get back to me. You can reach me any time at this address. I look forward to hearing from you.
And the following excerpt, from a later message, further explains why I think it's important for musicians to have some training as interpreters ...
Overall, I think it's important for all of us who play music in the historic village to have at least a minimal amount of historical background as well as a knowledge of emergency procedures, etc. ... a lot of visitors say they appreciate talking with trained interpreters in period dress, that it makes the history come alive for them. ... So when we play music in New Salem village, we're entertaining the visitors, but in a way we're also demonstrating historical arts and crafts on the same basis as the weavers, the blacksmiths or the ladies who demonstrate cooking in a dutch oven in the Rutledge Tavern. And very often we're talking about history with the visitors as well.
I hope this isn't getting too long-winded, but the reasons for wanting some level of training for people in the historic village are kind of hard to explain. Anyway, I really do believe New Salem is a magical place and the training is a big part of what helps us create the magic. ...
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