Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Biographical resources, William Carleton Summer School, Clogher, Co. Tyrone, 2016 catalog

"Perspectives." William Carleton Summer School, Clogher July 31st – August 4th 2016. William Carleton Society, Clogher, Northern Ireland. http://www.williamcarletonsociety.org/perspectives/.

Charles A. Read (1880)
William Carleton the Walter Scott of Ireland,’ as he was not unjustly called by O’ Connell was born at Prillisk, County Tyrone, in 1794. Several writers have placed his birth four years later, but the earlier date is the correct one. He was the youngest of fourteen children. His parents were in very humble circumstances; for they had to support themselves and their large family on a farm of but fourteen acres. Carleton, in fact, was born a peasant. His parents, however, though thus poor in material gifts, appear to have been rich in intellectual endowment, and to their early influence Carleton owed much of his after success. He himself has drawn the portraits of his father and mother; and though we may see the partiality of filial affection in the pictures, they bear, at the same time, the proof of fidelity to truth.

[Charles A. Read, 1841-1878, "was born to a landowning family near Sligo. He had a business in Rathfriland, County Down, but when it failed he moved to London, becoming a journalist."]

W.B. Yeats (1891)
The true peasant was at last speaking, stammering, illogically, bitterly, but nonetheless with the deep and mournful accent of the people. He at first exaggerated, in deference to his audience, the fighting, and the dancing, and the merriment, and made the life of his class seem more exuberant and buoyant than it was.. .As time went on, his work grew deeper in nature, and in the second series of Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry he gave all his heart to ‘The Poor Scholar’, ‘Tubber Derg’, and ‘Wildgoose Lodge’. The humorist found his conscience, and, without throwing away laughter, became the historian of his class.


"His Early Life." William Carleton Summer School, Clogher July 31st – August 4th 2016. William Carleton Society, Clogher, Northern Ireland. http://www.williamcarletonsociety.org/about/

William Carleton, the youngest of a family of fourteen children, was born in the townland of Prolusk (sometimes spelt Prillisk), near Clogher in Co.Tyrone, on 20th February, 1794. Although there is little suggestion that the Carletons were upwardly mobile, they did move house frequently within the Clogher area and were established at the townland of Springtown before William left the family home.

His primary education was got in the local hedge schools, of which he was later to write uproariously funny descriptions. In his teens he attended more formal, and rigorous, Classical Schools at Donagh and Glaslough in North Monaghan.

Following an abortive excursion in 1814 as a poor scholar aspiring to the priesthood, Carleton returned to his somewhat leisurely life in the Clogher Valley before leaving home permanently in 1817.

During the next year he wandered southwards, through the counties between Clogher and Dublin, picking up work where he could. Tutoring the children of the middle-classes he sometimes found happy and secure situations and at other times suffered humiliation and extreme wretchedness. For some months he experienced abject poverty and near starvation when he tried his hand as a hedge- schoolmaster.

His early life and the years until he arrived in Dublin are told, somewhat in the style of the Gil Blas adventures, in his lively autobiography.

In Dublin, after trying various occupations, he became a clerk in the Church of Ireland Sunday School Office in Dublin. It was during this time that he began to write professionally, influenced by a Church of Ireland clergyman, Reverend Cesar Otway. In 1820 Carleton married Jane Anderson, who bore him several children. Carlet

Hammered dulcimer in 1830s Ireland -- "Dandy Dulcimer on the High Road to Dublin" -- 2 of 2

Second of two excerpts from Chapter XIII of William Carleton’s Black Baronet (1857) that give detailed accounts of a strolling hammered dulcimer player in early 19th-century Ireland, at a time and place where the instrument was uncommon. For the first, see previous post, "Dandy Dulcimer: ‘Fond of a Jingle … in my Purse’."

Editor’s Note: Soon after he goes to work for the mysterious stranger whom he met in Ballytrain [see previous post for background], Dandy accompanies him on a night coach to Dublin. Sharing the coach are a spirited kitchen girl named Alice (Alley) Mahon whom Dandy will marry when all the loose ends of the novel's sprawling, convoluted Victorian plot line are tied up in the last chapter; the runaway daughter of the Black Baronet of Ballytrain, who has hired Alley as a servant and companion; and an affable but increasingly drunken grazier, or livestock farmer, named Jemmy Doran. The farmer is never mentioned again after they arrive in Dublin, but he serves a purpose as he shares his favorite Irish-language songs.

The scene is as unrealistic and contrived as anything in all of Victorian literature, with Dandy playing a hammered dulcimer on top of the stagecoach while the farmer sings within, but it has its comic moments as the farmer spars with the servant girl. And, most important for amateur musicians who are curious about the history of the hammered dulcimer, it gives us a window into the Irish vernacular music of the years just before the potato famine.

The farmer […], in truth, as we have said, he was naturally one of those men who wish to hear themselves talk. In this instance, however, he found, after having made three or four colloquial attacks upon the stranger, but without success, that he must only have recourse either to soliloquy or silence. He accordingly commenced to hum over several old Irish airs, to which he ventured to join the words—at first in a very subdued undertone. Whenever the coach stopped, however, to change horses, which it generally did at some public house or inn, the stranger could observe that the grazier always went out, and on his return appeared to be affected with a still stronger relish for melody. By degrees he proceeded from a tolerably distinct undertone to raise his voice into a bolder key, when, at last, throwing aside all reserve, he commenced the song of Cruiskeen Lawn, which he gave in admirable style and spirit, and with a rich mellow voice, that was calculated to render every justice to that fine old air. In this manner, he literally sang his way until within a few miles of the metropolis. He was not, however, without assistance, during, at least, a portion of the journey. Our friend Dandy, who was on the outside, finding that the coach came to a level space on the road, placed the dulcimer on his knees, and commenced an accompaniment on that instrument, which produced an effect equally comic and agreeable. And what added to the humor of this extraordinary duet—if we can call it so—was the delight with which each intimated his satisfaction at the performance of the other, as well as with the terms in which it was expressed.

"Well done, Dandy! dang my buttons, but you shine upon the wires. Ah, thin, it's you that is and ever was the wiry lad—and sure that was what made you take to the dulcimer of course. Dandy, achora [my friend], will you give us, 'Merrily kissed the Quaker?' and I ask it, Dandy, bekaise we are in a religious way, and have a [silent] quakers' meetn' in the coach."

"No," replied Dandy; "but I'll give you the 'Bonny brown Girl,' that's worth a thousand of it, you thief."

"Bravo, Dandy, and so it is; and, as far as I can see in the dark, dang my buttons, but I think we have one here, too."

"I thank you for the compliment, sir," said Alley, appropriating it without ceremony to herself. "I feel much obliged to you, sir; but I'm not worthy of it." "My darling," replied the jolly farmer, "you had betther not take me up till I fall. How do you know it was for you it was intended? You're not the only lady in the coach, avourneen [sweetheart]."

"And you're not the only gintleman in the coach, Jemmy Doran," replied Alley, indignantly. "I know you well, man alive—and you picked up your politeness from your cattle, I suppose."

"A better chance of getting it from them than from you," replied the hasty grazier. "But I tell you at once to take it aisy, achora; don't get on fire, or you'll burn the coach—the compliment was not intended for you, at all events. Come, Dandy, give us the 'Bonny brown Girl,' and I'll help you, as well as I'm able."

In a moment the dulcimer was at work on the top of the coach, and the merry farmer, at the top of his lungs, lending his assistance inside.

When the performance had been concluded, Alley, who was brimful of indignation at the slight which had been put upon her, said, "Many thanks to you, Misther Doran, but if you plaise we'll dispense wid your music for the rest of the journey. Remember you're not among your own bullocks and swine—and that this roaring and grunting is and must be very disagreeable to polite company."

"Troth, whoever you are, you have the advantage of me," replied the good-natured farmer, "and besides I believe you're right—I'm afraid I've given offince; and as we have gone so far—but no, dang my buttons, I won't—I was going to try 'Kiss my Lady,' along wid Dandy, it goes beautiful on the dulcimer—but—but—ah, not half so well as on a purty pair of lips. Alley, darlin'," he proceeded now, evidently in a maudlin state, "I never lave you, but I'm in a hurry home to you, for it's your lips that's—"

"It's false, Mr. Doran," exclaimed Alley; "how dare you, sir, bring my name, or my lips either, into comparishment wid yourself? You want to take away my character, Mr. Doran; but I have friends, and a strong faction at my back, that will make you suffer for this."

The farmer, however, who was elevated into the seventh heaven of domestic affection, paid no earthly attention to her, but turning to the stranger said: "Sir, I've the best wife that ever faced the sun—"

"I," exclaimed Alley, "am not to be insulted and calumnied, ay, an' backbitten before my own face, Misther Doran, and take my word you'll hear of this to your cost—I've a faction."

"Sir—gintleman—miss, over the way there—for throth, for all so close as you're veiled, you haven't a married look—but as I was sayin', we fell in love wid one another by mistake—for there was an ould matchmaker, by name Biddlety Girtha, a daughter of ould Jemmy Trailcudgel's—God be good to him—father of the present strugglin' poor man of that name—and as I had hard of a celebrated beauty that lived about twelve or fifteen miles down the country that I wished to coort—and she, on the other hand, having hard of a very fine, handsome young fellow in my own neighborhood—what does the ould thief do but brings us together, in the fair of Baltihorum, and palms her off on me as the celebrated beauty, and palms myself on her as the fine, handsome young fellow from the parish of Ballytrain, and, as I said, so we fell in love wid one another by mistake, and didn't discover the imposthure that the ould vagabond had put on us until afther the marriage. However, I'm not sorry for it—she turned out a good wife to me, at all events—for, besides bringin' me a stockin' of guineas, she has brought me twelve of as fine childre' as you'd see in the kingdom of Ireland, ay, or in the kingdom of heaven either. Barrin' that she's a little hasty in the temper—and sometimes—do you persave?—has the use of her—there's five of them on each hand at any rate—do you undherstand—I say, barrin' that, and that she often amuses herself—just when she has nothing else to do—and by way of keepin' her hand in—I say, sir, and you, miss, over the way—she now and then amuses herself by turnin' up the little finger of her right hand—but what matter for all that—there's no one widout their little weeny failin's. My own hair's a little sandy, or so—some people say it's red, but I think myself it's only a little sandy—as I said, sir—so out of love and affection for the best of wives, I'll give you her favorite, the 'Red-haired man's wife.' Dandy, you thief, will you help me to do the 'Red-haired man's wife?'"

"Wid pleasure, Misther Doran," replied Dandy, adjusting his dulcimer. "Come now, start, and I'm wid you."

The performance was scarcely finished, when a sob or two was heard from Alley, who, during this ebullition of the grazier's, had been nursing her wrath to keep it warm, as Burns says.

"I'm not without friends and protectors, Mr. Doran—that won't see me rantinized in a mail-coach, and mocked and made little of—whereof I have a strong back, as you'll soon find, and a faction that will make you sup sorrow yet."

All this virtuous indignation was lost, however, on the honest grazier, who had scarcely concluded the "Red-haired man's wife," ere he fell fast asleep, in which state he remained—having simply changed the style and character of his melody, the execution of the latter being equally masterly—until they reached the hotel at which the coach always stopped in the metropolis.

# # #

William Carleton describes hammered dulcimer in Ireland of the 1830s -- Dandy Dulcimer: ‘Fond of a Jingle … in my Purse’ -- 1 of 2

D R A F T

First of two excerpts from Chapter XIII of William Carleton’s Black Baronet (1857) that give detailed accounts of a strolling hammered dulcimer player in early 19th-century Ireland, at a time and place where the instrument was uncommon. For the second, see next post, "Dandy Dulcimer: On the High Road to Dublin."

William Carleton’s Black Baronet is as convoluted as anything in all of Victorian literature, and its literary merit is practically nonexistent, but we don’t have to pay attention to any of that to appreciate what it tells us about traditional Irish music of the early 1800s. Carleton's novels were pot-boilers at best, but he was from County Tyrone, in what now is Northern Ireland, and he wrote a "tapestry of the life of the country people of the north of Ireland before the families of the 1840s altered their pattern of existence forever," according to a local biographer writing for a William Carleton Summer School in Co. Tyrone.

And the two scenes excerpted here and in the next post tell us something we didn't know before about dulcimers. The first is set in Ballytrain, a fictional village in Ulster, where a mysterious stranger hires the musician, named “Dandy Dulcimer,” to accompany him on a mail coach to Dublin on a confidential mission. In this scene, when Dandy meets the stranger at the inn in Ballytrain, he tells how he was inspired by another itinerant musician, also named Dandy Dulcimer, after his family lost their farm and their livelihood.

On the evening of the same day the stranger desired Paudeen Gair [a servant of the innkeeper in Ballytrain] to take a place for him in the "Fly," which was to return to Dublin on that night. He had been furnished with a letter from [the village priest] Father M'Mahon, to whom he had, in Mr. Birney's [a local attorney’s office], fully disclosed his name and objects. He felt anxious, however, to engage some trustworthy servant or attendant, on whose integrity he could fully rely, knowing, or at least apprehending, that he might be placed in circumstances where he could not himself act openly and freely without incurring suspicion or observation. Paudeen, however, or, as we shall call him in future, Pat Sharpe, had promised to procure a person of the strictest honesty, in whom every confidence could be placed. This man's name, or rather his nickname, was Dandy Dulcimer, an epithet bestowed upon him in consequence of the easy and strolling life he led, supporting himself, as he passed from place to place, by his performances upon that simple but pleasing instrument.

"Pat," said the stranger in the course of the evening, "have you succeeded in procuring me this cousin of yours?" for in that relation he stood to Pat. "I expect him here every minute, sir," replied Pat; "and there's one thing I'll lay down my life on—you may trust him as you would any one of the twelve apostles—barring that blackguard Judas. Take St. Pettier, or St. Paul, or any of the dacent apostles, and the divil a one of them honester than Dandy. Not that he's a saint like them either, or much overburdened with religion, poor fellow; as for honesty and truth—divil a greater liar ever walked in the mane time; but, by truth, I mane truth to you, and to any one that employs him—augh, by my soul, he's the flower of a boy."

"He won't bring his dulcimer with him, I hope."

"Won't he, indeed? Be me sowl, sir, you might as well separate sowl and body, as take Dandy from his dulcimer. Like the two sides of a scissors, the one's of no use widout the other. They must go together, or Dandy could never cut his way through the world by any chance. Hello! here he is. I hear his voice in the hall below."

"Bring him up, Pat," said the stranger; "I must see and speak to him; because if I feel that he won't suit me, I will have nothing to do with him."

Dandy immediately entered, with his dulcimer slung like a peddler's box at his side, and with a comic movement of respect, which no presence or position could check, he made a bow to the stranger, that forced him to smile in spite of himself.

"You seem a droll fellow," said the stranger. "Are you fond of truth?"

"Hem! Why, yes, sir. I spare it as much as I can. I don't treat it as an everyday concern. We had a neighbor once, a widow M'Cormick, who was rather penurious, and whenever she saw her servants buttering their bread too thickly, she used to whisper to them in a confidential way, 'Ahagur [a personal term of endearment – see Note 1 below], the thinner you spread it the further it will go.' Hem! However, I must confess that once or twice a year I draw on it by way of novelty, that is, on set days or bonfire nights; and I hope, sir, you'll admit that that's treating it with respect." "How did you happen to turn musician?" asked the other.

"Why, sir, I was always fond of a jingle; but, to tell you the truth, I would rather have the same jingle in my purse than in my instrument. Divil such an unmusical purse ever a man was cursed with than I have been doomed to carry during my whole life."

"Then it was a natural love of music that sent you abroad as a performer?"

"Partly only, sir; for there were three causes went to it. There is a certain man named Dandy Dulcimer, that I had a very loving regard for, and I thought it against his aise and comfort to ask him to strain his poor bones by hard work. I accordingly substituted pure idleness for it, which is a delightful thing in its way. There, sir, is two of the causes—love of melody and a strong but virtuous disinclination to work. The third—" but here he paused and his face darkened.

"Well," inquired the stranger, "the third? What about the third?"

Dandy significantly pointed back with his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of [the baronet’s mansion at] Red Hall. "It was him," he said; "the Black Baronet—or rather the incarnate divil."

"That's truth, at all events," observed Pat corroborating the incomplete assertion.

"It was he, sir," continued Dandy, "that thrust us out of our comfortable farm—he best knows why and wherefore—and like a true friend of liberty, he set us at large from our comfortable place, to enjoy it."

__________

Note 1: “Ahagur” appears to be a personal term of endearment, perhaps a dialect synonym for jewel used in Carleton’s youth. I am unable to find it in Irish-English dictionaries, but a Google keyword search turns up several instances of its use – most of them in Carleton’s fiction, and each in a direct quotation in which one of his characters is addressing a friend or relative. In a sketch titled “The Poor Scholar,” he quotes and translates the following bit of dialogue about a country priest’s sermon:

Ellish, avourneen, gho dhe dirsha?” – Ellish, my dear, what is he saying?”

Och, musha niel eshighum, ahagur – ta sha er Purgathor, ta barlhum.” – Och, I dunna that, jewel; I believe he’s on Purgatory.”

Perhaps related is the usage in “The Blind Beggar’s Daughter,” a song in the Inishowen Song Project in County Donegal. In that ballad, as sung by Mary Ann Canny, one of the girl’s wooers calls her “his jewel his joy his machree” [heart]. The tune, incidentally, is the same as “Sweet Betsy from Pike.”

# # #

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Misc. sources on Vachel Lindsay's fiddle player in 1912

"Music of the 1860's: Patriotic Songs of the Era" Civil War Trust http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/on-the-homefront/culture/music/music.html

Songs and music of the Civil War covered every aspect of the conflict and every feeling about it. Music was played on the march, in camp, even in battle; armies marched to the heroic rhythms of drums and often of brass bands. The fear and tedium of sieges was eased by nightly band concerts, which often featured requests shouted from both sides of the lines. Around camp there was usually a fiddler or guitarist or banjo player at work, and voices to sing the favorite songs of the era. In fact, Confederate General Robert E. Lee once remarked, “I don’t believe we can have an army without music.”

* * *

References

• Bernard, Kenneth A., Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 1966.
• Currie, Stephen, Music in the Civil War, Betterway Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1992.
• Harwell, Richard B., Confederate Music, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1950.
• Heaps, Willard A. and Heaps, Porter W., The Singing Sixties: The Spirit of Civil War Days Drawn from the Music of the Times, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., 1960.


Sage Snider "Fiddling the Civil War" O Say Can You See: Stories from the National Museum of American History. Jan. 24, 2013. http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2013/01/fiddling-the-civil-war.html.

"My Civil War project started with my belief that the best way to make musical history "come alive" for visitors would be to let them experience this music first-hand in a way comparable to how soldiers would have listened to and created music. Drawing on my own old-time fiddle repertoire as well as my readings on Civil War music and history, I chose a variety of songs that would be historically informative and yet relevant and entertaining. I also researched different lyrics that people might have sung to the same melodies (e.g., southern vs. northern soldiers, civilians, colored regiments, etc.) and used them to create my own "songster" for visitors to read and sing from. After learning the history and how to play the fiddle tunes, instrumental and vocal versions of the songs, and accompaniment parts to allow visitors to sing, I sat down with my songster in the exhibit and began fiddling. ...

* * *

Not only was it incredible to learn more about history behind the music (and country) I unconsciously interact with all the time, but I especially loved being able to share the joy of fiddle music with many people who had never heard it before. I got to show visitors of all backgrounds, from babies to professional music teachers, how music is learned orally, how complex, beautiful, and fun American fiddle music can be, and how important a part of life this music was during the Civil War and can be today."

[She has a bit about Solomon Conn's fiddle -- see entry below -- and a well researched playlist, or songster, on her page.]


Alexis VanZalen "Finding music in unexpected places": By NMAH, October 25, 2011." O Say Can You See: Stories from the National Museum of American History http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2011/10/finding-music-in-unexpected-places.html.

"... There is a violin in the collections used for another purpose: as a war diary. Solomon Conn, a Civil War soldier with Company B of the 87th Indiana Volunteers, recorded a list of his travels and battles on the back of his "Greffuhle” violin, turning the instrument into a unique document of his adventures and military record."

[pix of fiddle -- purchased in Nashville, Tenn., 1863 ... etc.]


"Gallery: Battle of Pea Ridge, 37th Illinois Band Horn." Trans-Mississippi Theater Virtual Museum. Springfield-Greene County Library System, 2011. http://www.civilwarvirtualmuseum.org/1861-1862/pea-ridge/37th-illinois-horn.php

"This over the shoulder tenor saxhorn was played by Samuel Burg of the 37th Illinois Infantry Regimental Band. ... Regimental bands played an important role in the Union army in boosting soldier morale. As the 37th Illinois crossed the Missouri-Arkansas border in February 1862, for instance, the regimental band struck up the tunes “Out of the Wilderness” and “Arkansas Traveler,” much to the delight of the invading Union Army of the Southwest." http://www.1stbrigadeband.org/index.php/band/54-1st-brigade-band. band of the 1st Brigade, 3d Division, 15th Army Corps -- website of reenactors' 1st Brigade Band, Watertown, Wis.

"Brigade History: Off to War Again!" [band from Brodhead, Wis., had been mustered in, in 1861,

"... Once again [in 1864] the band rode the cars headed for the war. This time things would be different. Cheap boyhood glory seeking was replaced with the determination to be men and do their part. Three vital changes would separate this term of service from the last. First was to purchase their own instruments and NOT to rely on government issue. The best available were from D.C. Hall of Boston and a full set of horns and percussion were secured. Second would be uniforms. These were tailored for them by Smith & Bostwick of Janesville, Wisconsin. Third would be the music. Their brown leather-bound part books contained some sixty-two selections that included patriotic music, dance tunes, funeral dirges, serenades, popular songs and classical music from grand opera. ... "

[from a diary] "Huntsville, Monday, May 16.....A band of twenty men arrived from Brodhead Wisconsin, last evening to be assigned to 1st Brigade, 3d Division, 15th Army Corps. Early in the evening they opened in front of 12th Battery headquarters, formed a circle, and in the gentle twilight played numerous airs, patriotic and melancholy; the sweetest of all, "Home Sweet Home". The green was covered with soldiers, lying at full length, dreamily enjoying the sweet music, forgetful of all the past, in blissful forgetfulness of all things real. The instruments were of German silver, making a very good appearance. May they serve us such a treat often." (Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Private, 6th Wisconsin Battery - An Artillaryman's Diary - pg. 210 )

* * *

"Towards the end of the month, the band found itself boarding a gunboat off on a reconnaissance of the Tennessee River. The warship was about to round the bend to begin shelling a small rebel fort when Kimberly asked to have the band let ashore. No one is quite sure who opened up on the fort first - the gunboat with its cannon, or the band blasting "Yankee Doodle" with its horns. In any case the greybacks gave up the fort with the band continuing to taunt them with national airs as they retreated."

* * *

On February 17thColumbia, the capitol of South Carolina, fell to federal forces. The city was set a fire, probably by the retreating Confederates. As it burned, the 1st Brigade Band was one of 12 bands gathered to play at what one player described as "full blast." They all struck up together The Anvil Chorus from Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore".

The army continued it's march out of the Palmetto State and into North Carolina. By early April they had a bit of a rest in the vicinity of Goldsboro. In a letter of April 7th, 1865, {band member Edwin Oscar} Kimberly described what must have been the proudest moment of his life:

"Last night, according to previous notice, we repaired to Sherman's headquarters for a serenade. A new song, composed by prisoners [Lt. H. S. M. Byers of Iowa, who wrote the song while a prisoner of war in Charleston, S.C.] is in my possession, entitled "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea." After some rehearsing, I was the first one to sing it before our old hero, Billy T. [Sherman] and his entire staff, after which I sang another and rec'd a very high compliment from Sherman. After playing several pieces the crack band of the army made it's appearance, namely the 33d Massachusetts and played several pieces. After all this we played another piece and returned to camp, assured we had done honor to ourselves at least. After getting in camp our Brigadier [Clark] came with a compliment from Sherman to our band, stating we were the model band of his entire army. This, said by a Gen'l of such wide world renown is certainly a big thing!-a great feather in our caps. The Massachusetts Band spoken of has always had the name of being the best band in Sherman's Army - pronounced by Sherman himself at Savannah. Not wishing to boast I will say of ourselves - we are not afraid of any Band in this Dept. of Tennessee or Georgia. During the campaign we done considerable playing and [were] spoken of very highly as good players and a band of gentlemen. We have strived to live up to and merit a continuance of that good name."


Some good resources on sawmills at http://www.thesawmillmuseum.org/history-corner.html -- Sawmill Museum website, Clinton, Iowa

About The Sawmill Museum -- Once known as the “Lumber Capital of the World,” Clinton, Iowa’s pivotal role in the lumber industry and expansion of the West makes it ideally suited to host the lumber museum and learning center. The museum’s permanent exhibit will house some original pieces from the Struve Mill which was operational from 1860′s – 1980′s in Hauntown, Iowa. This exhibit is important because it tells the story of how lumber was processed from living tree to finished product which was then used locally for commercial and residential purposes. The equipment has been generously donated by Mrs. Helen (Struve) Cotton. The museum also houses an early 20th century working saw mill.


"A Brief History of Portable Sawmills" By Jim Philp. Reprinted with permission from the Oct/Nov 1997 issue of Independent Sawmill & Woodlot Magazine. Woodweb.com. - See more at: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_Brief_History_of_Portable_Sawmills.html#sthash.KRXOtOlF.dpuf

Portable sawmilling used to be two slaves carrying their owner's bronze pit saw into the woods, hoping to saw a single log in a day. Today a modern woodlot owner or logger can save up to buy a versatile, powerful portable sawmill that can produce 2,000 or more board feet of lumber on a good day-all for the price of a new pickup truck. - See more at: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_Brief_History_of_Portable_Sawmills.html#sthash.XtUyidmx.dpuf

* * *

The circular sawmills were the portable ones. They were usually steam powered, although some had a mill pond and water turbine power. In later times, such mills have been powered by gasoline and diesel engines, electricity and farm tractors. The Frick, American, Lane and Corley mills are good examples of the type. These mills were made in modules with wooden frames and were assembled into a complete mill. The three modules were; husk, containing the saw arbor and carriage feedworks; log carriage, and tracks. A fourth module was the power supply, but this was the responsibility of the owner and was not supplied with the mill. A majority of these mills also included a board edger, available from the mill manufacturer, but many got by edging on the big saw. Portability was a matter of perspective. A crew of six to eight men could dismantle and reassemble one of these "portable" mills in about four days depending on how far they were moving. It was generally considered that a minimum of one-half million board feet of timber was required to justify moving a mill.

At the new location, the mill was reassembled on a prepared foundation, frequently poles set into the ground. The alignment and leveling of a portable circular sawmill were critical if good quality lumber was to be produced, and realigning and releveling was needed at least twice a year. This was necessary because wooden foundations tend to move with the frost. Unfortunately, this necessity was too often not understood, or perhaps ignored. The portable circular sawmill, and its mismanagement, was largely responsible for the aphorism "Thick and Thin Lumber Company." Those sawmill operators who could not produce consistent lumber were quickly tagged with the thick and thin label, something modern sawyers try to avoid at all costs. - See more at: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_Brief_History_of_Portable_Sawmills.html#sthash.KRXOtOlF.dpuf

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Misc. links -- (1) article on Luther's view of church and state; (2) geneological website on John Armstrong, mentioned in Edgar Lee Masters' "The Sangamon"

D R A F T

Portal on Andrews University Seminary Studies website (if URL for PDF doesn't take you anywhere): http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/auss/vol8/iss2/2/.

Erwin R. Gane. "Luther's Views of Church and State," Andrews University Seminary Studies 8.2 (1970): 120-43 . https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1970-2/1970-2-02.pdf


Picture of John Armstrong and unidentified woman (wife Caroline?) on Illinois Ancestors Presents Menard County website at http://www.illinoisancestors.org/menard/1872bios/pg55a.html -- -- It appears to be from a centennial history booklet called They Left Their Mark In Oakford, 1872 Also pictures of Oakford, including a Fourth of July celebration that Armstrong helped organize. Details at:

http://www.illinoisancestors.org/menard/1872bios/pg32.html.

Jeanie Lowe, Illinois Ancestors Presents Menard County http://www.illinoisancestors.org/menard/: "My name is Jeanie Lowe and I'm your host for Menard County. Janine Crandell is the webmaster and performs the updates to the site. We're a volunteer organization whose mission is to provide free genealogical data for all researchers. ...

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Bowing a psalmodikon, Part 2: "Den blomstertid nu kommer"

Link here to Part 1: "Some videos on how to make, tune and bow a Swedish keyed psalmodikon, also an American psalmodikon by Music Makers of Stillwater, Minn." --

It's all in the bowin'. -- Don Pedi, mountain dulcimer player, Madison County, N.C.

Gisli Olsen plays "Den blomstertid nu kommer" on restored psalmodikon

More tips on bowing the psalmodikon --

A couple of days ago Gisli Olsen, a psalmodikon player and builder in Sweden, posted a video that showed him playing a psalmodikon duet in a comment on my Facebook feed. I was interested in the way he held the bow, and I asked him about it. He replied with a clip of "Den blomstertid nu kommer" (the time of flowers has come now) an old Swedish psalm that is now traditionally sung at the close of the school year and the beginning of summer. He said:

On this clip you can see how i hold the bow. I think most psalmodikon-player´s do so. Here i have a children´s bow, the lenght is 470 mm. I have recently done some repair´s on an old psalmodikon and on the clip I tested the sound. Maybe the first sound for a very long time for this old instrument. Here I am playing a well known old Swedish Hymn, lyrics by Israel Kolmodin 1694. Best regards to you all.

I'm reposting it here so I can watch it while I practice bowing my psalmodikon.

Link here for tutorial on American psalmodikon -- http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2016/04/bowing-keyed-psalmodikon.html. bowing from 1:10 to 3:35 -- also a demonstration by Gisli Olson of a keyed psalmodikon he made. Sort of like a nyckelharp, keyed diatonically.

The American psalmodikons are Norwegian style, with "transposition sticks" marking out diatonic scales on a chromatic fretboard. They're made by Musicmakers, a luthiers' in Stillwater, Minnesota, and one of the transposition sticks matches with a mountain dulcimer tuned to DAD. (More information on their website linked to the blogpost above.

Bowing the Icelandic langspil

Hildur Heimisdóttir, a cellist from Rekjavik, wrote a study Langspil and Icelandic Fiðla: The history, construction and function of the two Icelandic folk-instruments, for here candidate studies project in violincello at the Jyske Musikkonservatorium, Aarhus, Denmark. She had this to say about bowing:

The bow grip is different from what a cellist is used to, since the direction to stroke in is not the same. A cellist strokes the bow to the left and the right but while playing langspil, one has to stroke forward and back. Therefore, the langspil player has to hold the bow in a hand position that reminds of how people hold pencils. (17)

I'm not sure what she means by that, but I thought I'd better include it here.

Den blomstertid nu kommer

Abc notation (in C) here: http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/mirror/musicaviva.com/denmark/den-blomstertid-nu-kommer/0000.

It was N:o 394 in Svenska Psalmboken of 1819, and I have it the 1892 Chicago edition, but it didn't get into the Augustana Synod's English-language hymnals. Singable English translation in Pierre Radulescu, "Den blomstertid nu kommer," UpdatesLive 18 Dec. 2010 http://updateslive.blogspot.fi/2010/12/den-blomstertid-nu-kommer.html.

This arrangment, by Swedish pop artists Lill Lindfors and Nils Landgren is a lot of fun:

"Den Blomstertid ..." i en underbar blues/soul version med Lill Lindfors & Nils Landgren

Thursday, May 19, 2016

"Jug of Punch"

"The Jug Of Punch," Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Altan

From a thread at http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=21562 on the indispensable Mudcat Cafe forum:

Mudcat Cafe thread at Subject: Lyr Add: THE JUG OF PUNCH
From: GUEST,M
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 09:03 AM

For GUEST,guest of 4 Nov
The Jug Of Punch
As sung by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh on Island Angel by Altan

Bein' on the twenty-third of June, as I sat weaving all at my loom,
Bein' on the twenty-third of June, as I sat weaving all at my loom,
I heard a thrush, singing on yon bush, and the song she sang was the Jug of Punch.

What more pleasure can a boy desire, than sitting down beside the fire?
What more pleasure can a boy desire, than sitting down beside the fire?
And in his hand a jug of punch, and on his knee a tidy wench.

When I am dead and left in my mould, at my head and feet place a flowing bowl,
When I am dead and left in my mould, at my head and feet place a flowing bowl,
And every young man that passes by, he can have a drink and remember I.

According to the notes to the album "this version of the popular song is from the singing of Edward Quinn from Castlecaulfield, Co. Tyrone."

None of the lyrics available on line have attempted the lilting between verses>Even Mudcat has only this: "Has anyone sorted out the "nonsense" lyrics altan sings at the end of each verse[?] They start out something like / Pa da da da day."

* * *

Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music (https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/ajugofpunch.html) has lyrics from A.L. Lloyd and Martin Carthy, plus this background:

A.L. Lloyd sang A Jug of Punch in 1956 on the Riverside album English Drinking Songs. He wrote in the sleeve notes:

This is probably an Irish importation, brought to East Anglia by migrant potato-lifters. A brief song, it opens politely and proceeds on a rapid downhill slide into maudlin defiance, resembling a gent with sprigged waistcoat and churchwardens pipe striving to shore up his dignity while the world is slipping out of focus and into a happy haze.

And Martin Carthy and chorus sang Jug of Punch in a much happier tone on Songs from ABC Television's “Hallelujah”.

Mainly Norfolk website refers to catalog no. Roud 1808 in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London, which has sheet music and recordings from Ireland (several), Northern Ireland (Belfast [4] and Londonderry, several from 1960s-1990s in N. Ireland) chapbooks published in Newcastle, London [ Burdett's London Comic Songster for 1854-5 pp.10-11], New York [O'Conor, Irish Com-all-Ye's (1901) p.154; Six Hundred and Seventeen Irish Songs and Ballads [c1898] p.37; ], Michigan [Rickaby, Ballads & Songs of the Shanty-Boy (1926) pp.110-112].

Ballad Index, https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/K278.html, Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle, Fresno State. Says it is found in Ireland and Canada (Maratime Provinces), cites a variant from Nova Scotia.

Fiddlers Companion has four reels and this:

JUG OF PUNCH [4]. Irish, Air (9/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning. One part. “An air formed on that called Brigid astore” (Stanford/Petrie).
***
I spied a thrush on yonder bush,
And the song she samg was a jug of punch.
***
Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 353, pg. 89.

At least two published sources:

  • Lyrics and music (in G) in Davidson's Universal Melodist: Consisting of the Music and Words of Popular, Standard, and Original Songs, &c. Arranged So as to be Equally Adapted for the Sight-singer, the Performer on the Flute, Cornopean, Accordion, Or Any Other Treble Instrument ed. George Henry Davidson. (London: G.H. Davidson, 1853) Google Books. p 426. Davidson has this note: "Sung by Mrs. Fitzwilliam, in Buckstone's Drama of the 'Green Bushes' -- Published by Buckstone."

    Says Wikipedia of Buckstone -- For the Adelphi, he wrote The Green Bushes and The Flowers of the Forest, both in 1847. And this: "According to director Nigel Everett and stagehands at the Haymarket Theatre, Buckstone's ghost has often been seen at the theatre, particularly during comedies and "when he appreciates things" playing there. In 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that the actor Patrick Stewart saw the ghost standing in the wings during a performance of Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket."

  • Lyrics in chapter titled "The Shebeen House" in Barney O'Rierdon, Or, the Adventures of an Irishman, by Samuel Lover. Philadelphia: Garrett, Dick & Fitzgerald, 1844 pp. 50-51.

    Wikipedia has this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Lover:

    Lover was born at number 60 Grafton Street, Dublin and went to school at Samuel Whyte's at 79 Grafton Street, now home to Bewley's Café. By 1830 he was secretary of the Royal Hibernian Academy and lived at number 9 D'Olier Street. In 1835 he moved to London and began composing music for a series of comic stage works.[1] To some of them, like the operetta Il Paddy Whack in Italia (1841), he contributed both words and music, for others he merely contributed a few songs.

    Lover produced a number of Irish songs, of which several – including The Angel's Whisper, Molly Bawn, and The Four-leaved Shamrock – attained great popularity. He also wrote novels, of which Rory O'Moore (in its first form a ballad), and Handy Andy are the best known, and short Irish sketches which, with his songs, he combined into a popular entertainment called Irish Nights or Irish Evenings. With the latter, he toured North America during 1846-8. He joined with Charles Dickens in founding Bentley's Magazine.

    "When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen." — Samuel Lover

    Lover's grandson was composer Victor Herbert whose mother was Lover's daughter Fanny. Irish-born and German-raised, Herbert is best known for his many successful musicals and operettas that premiered on Broadway. As a child he stayed with the Lovers in a musical environment following the death of his father.

  • Irish Folk Songs: The Words by Alfred Perceval Graves, the Airs Arranged by Charles Wood. London: Boosey & Co., 1897. Google Books. p. 120- "The words and air of this old Song were supplied to us by Dr. Joyce. Samuel Lover has a version of his own, but it seemed to us that both the old ballad and Folk-tune needed fresh treatment." AIR: The Robber 121. 120-26.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Key signatures for Dorian, Mixolydian and minor modes in the most common trad Irish fiddle keys

This chart is from the Small Circle Tune Learning Session's old website. The SCTLS, a slow jam that formerly met in Colorado, had some excellent material on trad Irish music -- almost every bit of which also applied to old-time American string bands -- but they stopped meeting and their website went dark several years ago.

I have copied parts of it in the past to Hogfiddle (links below) for non-profit educational purposes. Here is their explanation of the modes most often encountered in trad Irish music:

Jason Amini's chart follows. I can't make heads or tails of it, but I don't understand the Circle of Fifths. If I did, I suspect I'd feel differently. So here it is, for those who relate to that kind of thing:

Other excerpts from the Small Circle Tune Learning Session on Hogfiddle. They overlap, but the context for each is a little different:


Also parked here, so I won't lose the link and the cite:

Ron Powers, Mark Twain, on Google Books -- Old Woman of Our Town

Monday, May 16, 2016

German chorale melody (?) on a Pennsylvania German folk zither

D R A F T

What may be a Mennonite hymn "Ubermal der Tag Verslossen" played on a Pennsylvania zither to a variant of a melody by Joachim Neander (at least it sounds like a vernacular chorale variant) ... this YouTube clip was shared on the Nordiska Psalmodikonförbundet's Facebook feed the other day. Like the psalmodikon, the instrument called a "scheitholt" here is played on one string.

Förbundet members, who are knowledgeable about the history of the Swedish instrument, were fascinated with the construction of the Pennsylvania Dutch instrument. (The discussion is in Swedish, but you can get the gist of it by clicking on "Translate All" under the comments.) And there was just enough information about the hymn to whet my interest.

"Ubermal der Tag Verslossen" on Scheitholt Pennsylvania folk zither

Published at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkOynD9q38yJJ5x0OAxt0Sg on Aug. 23, 2013, by YouTube user wherligig. He also has a clip of an Icelandic langspil. This note says:

The scheitholt, a member of the zither family, was brought over to the fledgling United States by German immigrants in the 1700s. Used primarily by the Pennsylvania Germans, the scheitholt soon traveled with them down the East Coast wagon trails as the settlers moved further south and west. That which went into the mountains as a scheitholt later came out as an Appalachian dulcimer through cross-cultural contact between the Germans and Scottish and Irish settlers to the New World.

The instrument in the video is a replica of a scheitholt made by the Mennonite teacher Henry Lapp sometime in the 1870s. (Replica made in 2012 by Ken Koons.) Lapp, who taught English and German in Bucks County, PA, played his scheitholt for classes called "spelling bees" during the day. At night he accompanied himself singing German hymns. His original instrument currently exists in the collection of the Mercer Museum (mercermuseum.org). In the early 1900s, the museums founder, Henry Mercer, interviewed Henry Lapp's son, who remembers his father singing the hymn "Spar Dein Buse Nicht" among others. A convoluted trail led to the melody played in this video. It was fairly common practice to mix and match hymn melodies with hymn texts; the hymn that Lapp played in the 1800s combined the melody here (composed by von Neander in 1680) with the alternative text, "Spar dein Buse Nicht." This performance uses the original hymn text, "Ubermal der Tag Verslossen."

Tracing this hymn melody proved difficult, and we are very grateful to musicologist Mitchell Morris for his help in tracking it down. We are also very grateful to historian Ralph Lee Smith, who has been responsible for piecing together the story of the scheitholt in the United States.

Recorded Aug. 22, 2013 at the World Community Productions Studios. Recording Copyright (C) 2013 Ken Koons and Ryan Koons.

Another webpage with a clip of the same video, titled "The Scheitholt: An Early Pennsylvania German Instrument," by Mark Hagenbuch on a Hagenbuch family history & genealogy website, says Henry Lapp was a Mennonite. His zither is in the Henry Mercer Museum and is mentioned in Dr. Mercer's 1923 article (for a download, link to http://www.zither.us/?q=zithers.pennsylvania.germans or do a keyword search on the citation: Henry Mercer, "The Zithers of The Pennsylvania Germans" Bucks County Historical Society, 1923).

Mark Hagenbuch has another webpage:

"Music of Andreas Hagenbuch’s Time"

Posted Dec. 2, 2014 on Hagenbuch's website: "Music of Andreas Hagenbuch’s Time" -- speculative, since there is no information about music the family actually listened to in the 1700s, but very informative, with YouTube clips of music of the period. Andreas, 1711-1785, was born in Lomersheim, in in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and settled in Berks County, Pa.

Some excerpts:

Andreas Hagenbuch and his family were Lutherans, as were many Germans in that region [in Baden-Württemberg] after the Reformation. They undoubtedly attended church and were exposed to a vast repertoire of sacred music.

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) was a prolific writer of Lutheran hymns. “Put Thou Thy Trust in God” (Befiehl du deine Wege) can be found in a German 1759 hymnal published in Germantown, Pennsylvania. It is likely that the Hagenbuch family heard and sang hymns such as this.

[click here for video embedded in original]

And this:

Once the Hagenbuch family left the city [Philly] for the wilderness of Berks County, they would have been in frontier areas primarily populated by Germans. We know very little about the music from here during the early 18th century. Though, Rufus Grider gives us some tantalizing insights from the nearby town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania which was founded in 1741 by Moravian missionaries from Germany.

According to Grider, an attack by American Indians in 1755 was averted by playing a dirge on trombones. Grider also notes that the first organ was installed in a Bethlehem church in 1751. Benjamin Franklin wrote to his wife that “he heard very fine music in the church; that flutes, oboes, French horns, and trumpets, accompanied the organ.”

New Bethel Church – where the Hagenbuchs attended in Albany Township, Berks County – likely began as a log structure and lacked an organ for many decades. As was common during that time, hymns would have been sung without accompaniment.

Additionally, Andreas Hagenbuch’s 1785 will makes no mention of any instruments. Given the value of something like a violin, it is reasonable to assume that if the family owned something like this it would have been listed.

Yet, we know that frontier families had instruments in their possession. Grider describes that Bethlehem farmers as far back as 1746 “…never failed to carry along besides (sic) their sickles, also their flutes (dauces,) and French horns, drums, cymbals, &c.” Even if the Hagenbuch family was without these instruments, they certainly knew people who owned and played them.

http://www.hagenbuch.org/music-of-andreas-hagenbuchs-time/.

* * *
Scheitholt or zitter?

The vernacular German box zither from which the Appalachian dulcimer developed has been called the "scheitholt," which means block of wood, since the early 17th century. But the reference is literary, dating to a catalog of instruments compiled in 1618 by the court and church musician Michael Praetorius, and American mountain dulcimer players beg to differ. See, for example, the discussion at:

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12010&start=12.

Consensus in the Appalachian dulcimer community is that the folk instrument in Pennsylvania should be called a "zitter," which is the Pennsylvania Dutch word for a zither.

A 23-minute audio file on the Koons brothers is available on the Hearts of the Dulcimer website at http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/003.html

Friday, May 13, 2016

Contemporary service -- Pentecost -- Peace Lutheran Church

Holy and Anointed One+Be lifted high(Praise)+Hunter Thompson+Bethel Church

[According to Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethel_Church_(Redding,_California), "Bethel Church is a non-denominational charismatic church that was established in Redding, California, as an Assemblies of God congregation in 1954 and broke with the AofG in 2006. The Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry was founded by the church in 1998." They have an extensive TV ministry.]

This week's email from Michelle:

Greetings, team!

I hope you are all doing well. Here is the music that is planned for this weekend. Pastor Paul begins his interim ministry with us this weekend, and it is Pentecost.

Gathering/Call to Worship: "God With Us" (Adam)

Worship Set:

Creed: "Because We Believe" (our old one)

"Lord's Prayer"

Sending Song: "You Are Good" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR_i1M5gfi4

Donald Duck discovers Pythagoras, the monochord and the diatonic scale (and you can, too, by watching this 1959 educational video)

Donald mathjam.png
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4391277

It's all there in the first seven minutes of Donald in Mathmagic Land, a 27-minute film released June 26, 1959. According to Wikipedia, "The film was made available to schools and became one of the most popular educational films ever made by Disney" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_in_Mathmagic_Land). It transports Donald Duck back to ancient Greece, explains Pythagoras' contribution to math and even features Donald jamming with ancient Greek cartoon musicians, as shown above.

You can watch it on YouTube by clicking here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ZHsk0-eF0

I wish they'd had it out when I was struggling with math in elementary school!

Hat tip, BTW, to Göran Carlström of the Nordiska Psalmodikonförbundet in Sweden for getting me off on this tangent by referring to the psalmodikon as the "oldest musical instrument" on Facebook. The psalmodikon, a one-stringed Swedish box zither, is a type of monochord -- and Pythagoras is credited with inventing the monochord. From FB, I Googled the monochord and found a reference to the Disney film.

The rest, as they say, is history. Or math.

Friday, May 06, 2016

Links and background -- joint Lutheran-Catholic commemoration of the Reformation in Lund, Sweden, in November 2016

Something for the futures file? (If so, it better be in the pretty @##%! near future, considering the lead time for an article.) But it might pair up nicely with some of my notes from the Augustana Synod founders' day last year in Andover and that Reformation Cantata that Ernst Olson wrote at Augie in 1917 --

The Lutheran World Federation has a at press release up on Facebook today with a statement by the presiding bishop of the National Bishop Susan C. Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the Canadian counterpart to ELCA, and -- more importantly? -- links to background on the upcoming Joint Ecumenical Commemoration of the Reformation co-hosted by LWF, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden in November 2016 in the Swedish cathedral city of Lund.

First, today's press release:

Canadian National Bishop Susan C. Johnson says the October 2016 joint Lutheran - Catholic commemoration of the Reformation “is a wonderful sign of the work of the Holy Spirit… calling us into the unity of the Church.” The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Vice-President for North America spoke to Lutheran World Information about the church’s commitment to sponsor 500 refugees, provide 500 scholarships to schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, plant 500,000 trees, and raise CAD 500,000 [Canadian dollars] for the LWF Endowment Fund in marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

It's part of the build-up to this year's commemoration of the 499th (!) anniversary of Martin Luther's posting the 95 Theses to the cathedral door in Wittenberg Oct. 31, 1517, which, of course, is in turn part of the build-up to the 500th next year. Most important, to my purposes, it has links to background on the festivities in Lund.

Portal is on the LWF website at https://www.lutheranworld.org/lund2016 under the headline "Event: Joint Ecumenical Commemoration of the Reformation to be held in Lund." LWF's overview:

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Roman Catholic Church will jointly hold an ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation on 31 October 2016 in Lund, Sweden.

Co-hosted by the Church of Sweden, the event will highlight the solid ecumenical developments between Catholics and Lutherans and the joint gifts received through dialogue, particularly in anticipation of the 500th Reformation anniversary in 2017. It will include a symposium and communal liturgy based on the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue report From Conflict to Communion - Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.

The liturgical guide, also known as the "Common Prayer" for the ecumenical commemoration, is the latest outcome of a long dialogue process, and it is now available in English and Spanish. Versions in German and French will become available shortly.

The Lutheran - Catholic dialogue has yielded ecumenical milestone outcomes of which most notably is the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), which was signed by the LWF and Pontifical Council on Christian Unity (PCPCU) in 1999. The JDDJ, affirms the consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification.

Another milestone was the 2013 Lutheran-Catholic publication From Conflict to Communion – which is the first attempt by both dialogue partners to describe together at international level the history of the Reformation.

* * *

Links abound, both in the text quoted above [they have been omitted on Hogfiddle] and in several directories below on the LWF page.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Contemporary service, Peace Lutheran, May 7 (Easter VII)

Newsboys performing "We Believe" (c) 2014. Newsboys, Inc.

Service is at 4 p.m. the Saturday before the 7th Sunday after Easter (see https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Worship/Lectionary/YearC#Easter. Peace Lutheran is a blended congregation incorporating Atonement, Faith and Luther Memorial churches in Springfield.

Worship Songs:

  • Holy is the Lord https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIwMYktdBg8

  • Shout to the Lord https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I71XhjqoHvs

  • For These Reasons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycY6Xths2A8

We'll do the new creed (We Believe by Newsboys) and Lord's Prayer.

Closing Song:

  • Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycY6Xths2A8

Monday, May 02, 2016

"Down the River I Go, Uncle Joe" -- a D Mixolydian fiddle tune for this week's sessions at Peace Lutheran and Clayville

Rolling into town with less than a day to go before our first Prairieland Strings session and my head full of Appalachian dulcimer master Don Pedi's fiddle tunes, I decided to introduce one of them. It's called "Down the River I Go," and tab is available on Don's website. Here's a YouTube clip that shows him playing it at a weekly festival in downtown Asheville, N.C. (the second tune is "Rose in the Mountain"):

Don Pedi plays "Down the River" at Shindig on the Green, July 5, 2014

We have two Clayville-Prairieland Strings sessions coming up this week:

  • From 7 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, May 3, at Peace Lutheran Church (formerly Atonement, Faith and Luther Memorial), 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.

  • From 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, May 7, at Clayville Historic Site, Illinois 125, Pleasant Plains. Exact location TBA. Ask around. They'll know where to find us.

Don has a lead sheet with dulcimer tab at http://www.donpedi.com/tabs/dulcimer-tabs-Down-The-River-I-Go.htm.

I know the tune from Don's dulcimer arrangement in D Mixolydian, which he attributes to the Rev. T.H. Hendricks, of McDowell County, W.Va. If you're not into modal harmony, don't worry about the Mixolydian stuff. If you are, look at all the C naturals in the tab -- or, better yet, listen for them in the video. They're in those flatted, vaguely bluesy "mountain minor" riffs, especially at the beginning, that give the tune its down-home southern Appalachian feel.

But there's also a fine bluegrass version or two making the rounds.

Some YouTube clips:

Foghorn Stringband w/ Hubie King- Down the River [Live at WAMU's Bluegrass Country]. The band, of Portland, Ore., tours internationally (details on their website at http://foghornstringband.com/). WAMU's Bluegrass Country is a member-supported public radio station dedicated to bluegrass and American roots music. 105.5 FM Washington, D.C.; and 93.5 FM, Hagerstown and Frederick, Md.

We Banjo 3 - Down The River I Go Uncle Joe. From a BBC broadcast of the Hebridean Celtic Festival 2014. We Banjo 3 is an Irish band (website at http://www.webanjo3.com/), that according to Wikipedia, "plays a blend of traditional Irish, old time, and bluegrass music they call Celt Grass."

Down the River I Go, Uncle Joe & Big Eyed Rabbit-Medley. The Danish old time band Big Hungry Joe, of Copenhagen, practicing 1. march 2011. From the left Peter Lorichs on banjo, Jesper Deleuran on guitar and vocal, Lasse Høi on harmonica and harmony, Mathias Enevoldsen on bass and Tobias Enevoldsen on fiddle. (Check out their website at https://www.reverbnation.com/bighungryjoe.)