John Rice Irwin proprietor of the Museum of Appalachia. [He was my American history teacher at Norris High School.] Mentions "scantling" dulcimers in Middle Tennessee, rarity and geographical distribution of dulcimers in Va., N.C. and eastern Ky. Jean Ritchie's role in popularizing the instrument.
____________________
Collecting Irish songs in Co. Galway
In 1952 and 1953 Ritchie landed a Fulbright scholarship to collect variants of her family's songs in Great Britain and Ireland. xxx
Jean Ritchie music in irish kitchens galway A musical gathering in the kitchen of Daibhi and Maura O'Cronin during a visit by Jean Ritchie. This is an excerpt from SEE HEAR the folk music video magazine. For information vsit JEANRITCHIE.COM [YouTube georgepickow]
Link to article in Galway Advertiser on May 16th 1996 on an exhibition of Jean Ritchie's and George Pickow's collection of material from their Fulbright research in Ireland during the 1950s in the Ritchie-Pickow Archive at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
This, excerpted from the NUI Galway webswite:
In 1996 the Ritchie Pickow Phototgraphic Archive was acquired by the James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, Galway, along with tapes of sound recordings. The photographs were taken and the recordings made by the husband and wife team George Pickow and Jean Ritchie on visits to Ireland in 1952 and 1953. Two exhibitions of the Ritchie Pickow Photographic Archive have been held at NUIG in 1992 and 1996. It was under the auspices of Dáibhín Ó Cróinín, lecturer in the History Department of the university and a grandson of one of the vocalists recorded by Jean Ritchie, that the collection was acquired for the Library Archives.
There's a little more ...
JSTOR has a review of a CD and book of Elizabeth Cronin's songs with background on the singer and the beginning of Jean Ritchie's recollections of collecting songs from her (before it goes onto the next page and behind JSTOR's paywall).
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RETRIEVED LATER AND POSTED HERE BECAUSE IT FITS THE SUBJECT MATTER - it reflects the way I heard "scantling" used when I lived in East Tennessee
... Finally, I really like the words scantling, but find the definition completely inadequate. Apparently, most people think a scantling is a small piece of lumber. To me, a scantling is clearly a toddler dressed only in a diaper. “The scantling ran through Wal-Mart like he owned the place.” Put some clothes on that kid, and change that diaper while you’re at it.
Here are some video clips to supplement our workshop from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 5, at New Salem. We'll meet at the desk in the Visitors Center and find a room.
I'm posting several YouTube clips that demonstrate basic technique ... watch for the way they silde the noter and strum across all the strings to maintain a drone. And below I'll post a couple of versions of the songs we'll cover Saturday, in case you're like me and the tab means nothing to you unless you have something to listen to. The songs are "Cripple Creek" and "Riddle Song (I Gave My Love a Cherry)" from Songs and Tunes of the Wilderness Road by Ralph Lee Smith and Madeline MacNeil, available for $11.07 from Amazon.com.
Clips on technique, and links to websites with more tips on technique, an online dulcimer community and more ...
Ben Seymour plays "Sheep Shell Corn" This song is a good introduction to pick-and-noter style playing. It's in a different tuning (a D unison tuning they use around Galax, Va., that fits with old-time string bands), but we can learn a lot from it. For one thing, the song is in our book - it's in a modal scale, and we'll get to it later, but it's a good old fiddle tune. Well worth knowing.
Mostly, just watch the way Ben slides the noter up and down the fretboard. Notice how he keeps his index finger on top of the noter -- that's the traditional Virgina style of holding it. He's playing a fiddle tune up to speed, and he's doing the same thing other players do with hammer-ons and pull-offs. That faint whistling sound is from the noter sliding over the metal frets. You want it! It's the authentic sound of the mountain dulcimer.
Then click on the Ferdot link and go to Ben's YouTube channel called (what else?) Ferdot. He has 37 uploads, more than half of them demonstrating instruments he's made. The Galax dulcimers and the scheitholts he plays with a noter. Click on the "see all" link and keep scrolling down to where he plays "Entre le Bouef" on Walnut Scheitholt (it's about seventh from the bottom out of 37). See how he's holding the noter, with his thumb on top? That's the Kentucky style. I started out Kentucky style (bought my first dulcimer in Kentucky, for one thing), but now I've switched to Virginia style. I prefer it. But how you hold it is entirely a matter of personal preference.
Brian and Lisa [Strumelia] play "Coal Holler" A fiddle-and-dulcimer duo with good Virginia-style noting on a Galax-style dulcimer. That's the same type that Ben played above. The tuning is different - partly because those high unison D's can be heard against other instruments - but her technique is worth studying. But that's not the only reason I'm posting her clip.
Strumelia, as she calls herself online, administers Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer, a "fun online Appalachian dulcimer community" at http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/ and a Mountain Dulcimer Noter and Drone Blog at http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/. On her YouTube channel - click on the Strumelia link - she has a series of six- to ten-minute instruction videos on how to hold a noter, how to strum, how to play the traditional dulcimer ... and some more videos on traditional technique featuring "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." I can't recommend them highly enough.
Two Songs of the Wilderness Road we'll learn Saturday - posted here mostly so you can get the tune in your head ...
Mike Seeger plays "Cumberland Gap" At Wintergreen, Va., in August 2007. The tune has numerous variants, especially on the B part. here Mike Seeger, folklorist and member of the New Lost City Ramblers, plays it more or less as Ralph Lee Smith tabs it out in our book.
Mary O'Hara singing "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (Riddle Song) In concert during the mid-1980s. Mary O'Hara is an Irish soprano, sang a traditional Irish and classical repertoire, influenced Mary Black among others. (Check out "The Fairy Tree" and "An Maidirin a Rua (the Little Red Fox)", if you have any tolerance for art songs.) There are plenty of other versions of the "Riddle Song" on YouTube, including one by Sam Cooke, but O'Hara's is very close to the original(s) collected by Cecil Sharp in the 1910s. Ralph Lee has three variants of the tune, all three lovely.
Top of Cork Road Top of Cork Road Irish Fiddle Tune Traditional Mountain Dulcimer Kristin Gitler Acoustic Guitar David Goldman Central New York
Fiddlers' Companion has:
TOP OF CORK ROAD [1], THE (Mullac Botair Corcaig). AKA and see "Bonny Green Garters [1]," "Cork Road," "Father O'Flynn," "Rollicking Irishman," "To Drink With the Devil," "Trample Our Enemies," "Yorkshire Lasses [1]." Irish, American; Double Jig. USA; New England, southwestern Pa., southern N.Y. D Major (most versions): C Major (Howe, Joyce). Standard tuning. AABB. Bayard (1981) says that despite the Irish-ness of its title, English versions in print predate Irish ones. He reports that Moffat found no earlier Irish versions that 1798, while Kidson found English versions (as "The Yorkshire Lasses") from 1789 and 1781. The melody serves as the vehicle for Alfred Percival Graves’ song “Father O’Flynn,” published in 1874. New York researcher, musician and writer Don Meade says: “The title track of Tommy Peoples’ Shanachie LP The High Part of the Road is a back translation into English of an Irish translation of “The Top of the Road” (Ard an Bothar), which Breandan Breathnach in Ceol Rince na hEireann, vol. 1 mistakenly applied to the preceding jig in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, a two-part version of ‘The Blooming Meadows.’”
***
The tune was cited as frequently having been played for Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly). Perhaps the earliest recording is from 1905 by violinist Charles D’Alamaine, born in 1871 in England, who died in 1943. D’Alamaine immigrated to the United States in 1888, and by 1890 had established himself as “instructor on violin” in Evanston, Illinois; by 1910 he had removed to Yonkers, and in 1920 was a chiropractor in New York City (info. from Paul Gifford). Sources for notated versions: Hiram Horner (fifer from Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pa., 1960), Hoge MS (a fife MS from Pa., 1944) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 450A‑C, pgs. 429‑430. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 56. Harding's All‑Round (1905, 1932), No. 176. Harding Collection (1915) and Harding's Original Collection (1928), No. 87. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; pg. 19. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes); No. or pg. 17. S. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 6: Jigs), 1982 (revised 1989, 2001); pg. 13. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music) 1873/4th ed.; No. 48, pgs. 48-49. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; pg. 38. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 3; No. 189. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 4; pg. 22. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler’s Repertoire), 1983; No. 33. Moffat (202 Gems of Irish Melody), pg. 50. O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music), 1915/1987; No. 163, pg. 91. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1979; No. 1031. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1986; No. 244, pg. 54. Robbins, 1933; No. 127. Roche Collection, 1982, vol. 1; No. 97, pg. 42. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; pg. 85. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 198. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; pg. 48. White's Excelsior Collection, 1907; pg. 3.
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5018 Session - This song is first published in England as the "Yorkshire Lasses" in 1789. The earliest Irish version stems from 1798. It is also widely known as "The Rollicking Irishman" and the famous song "Father O'Flynn".
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And one that isn't in D (that I know of), and isn't played on a dulcimer ... Mary O'Hara on harp ... an Irish art song called "The Fairy Tree" ...
Subject: RE: The Fairy (Thorn) Tree From: Alice Date: 12 Jan 01 - 12:31 PM
THE FAIRY TREE Isabel Leslie, alias Temple Lane, Clogheen, Ireland
All night around the thorn tree, The little people play, And men and women passing Will turn their heads away. From break of dawn til moonrise, Alone it stands on high, With twisted springs for branches, Across the winter sky.
They'll tell you dead men hung there, Its black and bitter fruit, To guard the buried treasure Round which it twines its root. They'll tell you Cromwell hung them, But that could never be, He'd be in dread like others To touch the Fairy Tree.
But Katie Ryan who saw there In some sweet dream she had, The Blessed Son of Mary And all His face was sad. She dreamt she heard Him saying: "Why should they be afraid?" [O'Hara repeats "Why should they be afraid?"] When from a branch of thorn tree The crown I wore was made?
From moonrise round the thorn tree The little people play And men and women passing Will turn their heads away. But if your heart's a child's heart And if your eyes are clean, You'll never fear the thorn tree That grows beyond Clogheen
There's also a page, with local lore, put up by local authorities in Clogheen.
Lyrics on a CD by a Canadian singer named Calistia attributed to Temple Lane. She's Wiccan, leaves out the third and fourth verses on her website.
Good summary of folk hymnody in this headnote: Appalachian State. Hymnals and Hymnody in the Appalachian Collection -- A Bibliography
The Sacred Harp , Christian Harmony , Old Harp of Columbia , and Southern Harmony . Emphasis is placed on singing with emotion rather than a mastery of blend and vocal technique, although these tended to follow, the longer a group sang together. Many regions of throughout the South continued and further developed this tradition with its roots in New England. Out of the singing schools grew a tradition of "singing conventions" where people would bring their Harps or Harmonies and sing for hours and days at a time, usually after the crops were planted and before their harvest. Potlucks at the singing "dinner on the grounds" mixed socializing with the singings, and young singers fresh from recent singing schools were given an opportunity to try out their newly honed skills. Folk hymnody remains a rich and thriving form of folk music, but a field that is still little researched.
PRIMITIVE BAPTIST SINGING IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS Beverly Bush Patterson
Discography:
Old Hymns Lined and Led by Elder Walter Evans. [c. 1960] Recorded and produced by elder Lasserre Bradley. Sovereign Grace 6444 and 6057–6058. Two LPs.
Primitive Baptist Hymns of the Blue Ridge. 1982. Recorded by Brett Sutton and Peter Hartman; edited with booklet by Brett Sutton. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. LP.
Sacred Harp Mississippi State Convention 1997 The 69th Mississippi State Sacred Harp Convention, Antioch Church, near Sesbastopol, August 1997, as portrayed on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, December 1997. Interviews with Mark Davis, Warren Steel, Floyd Bennett, Regina Glass, Sharona Nelson.
Sacred Harp Singing: "Idumea, S.M." Shot with a Flip Video Ultra in a dimly lit 19th century church house. Not much to look at, but the idea was mainly to capture the haunting, beautiful sounds of the Sacred Harp singing. This singing was on the grounds of the Burritt Museum on Monte Sano in Huntsville, AL, on a chilly February night.
Idumea- Eliza Carthy/Tim Eriksen First song in the second set of "Murder, Misery and Goodnight" at the Sage Gateshead Summertyne Americana Festival last Friday. It was a lot of fun in a great venue, and lots of fun to play in the round with Kristin Hersch (Throwing Muses), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), The Handsome Family and "house band" David Coulter (musical director) and Neil Harland on bass. Shot by Magdalena Zapedowska Eriksen.
"Idumea" (arr. Bjella) - Millikin University Choir Rick Bjella's Arrangement of Idumea as interpreted by the Millikin University Choir. From their CD 'Hearts All Whole.' RB is director of choral studies at Texas Tech University, formerly Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Sent to members of Prairieland Dulcimer Strings list ...
Thursday, January 27, 2011 9:57 PM
Dulcimer Workshop Feb. 5 at New Salem
The February session of “Songs of the Wilderness Road in D Modal Tunings,” our off-season workshops on music of the 1830s, is from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 5, in the Visitors Center at New Salem. We had people who play guitar and fiddle as well as mountain dulcimer at our first session in November, and everybody is welcome. You don’t have to be an accomplished musician to attend these workshops. They’re for learning ABOUT the music as well as learning the music.
We had half a dozen participants at our first workshop before Christmas, and we decided to read Ralph Lee Smith and Madeline MacNeil's "Songs and Tunes of the Wilderness Road." It is a Mel Bay book, and it's available for $11.16 plus postage and handling at Amazon.com and for $15 directly from Ralph's website at http://ralphleesmith.com/ ...
This is one of the best short histories of the dulcimer available, and it has the music for more than a dozen songs that are appropriate for New Salem. Many early Illinois settlers, including Abraham Lincoln's family and several families who lived in New Salem, came down the Wilderness Road through Virginia and up through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky on their way to the lower Midwest. Ralph Lee also has an article "The Appalachian Dulcimer’s History: On the Trail of the Mountains’ Secrets," in the online magazine Mel Bay’s Dulcimer Sessions (July 2003).
We’ll focus our attention Saturday to the parts about the history of the dulcimer, ballads, modal and "gapped" scales, tonal range, etc., in southern Appalachian music, on pages 17-22, and two Ionian songs in DAA (on other instruments, D major):
1. “Cumberland Gap,” pp. 24-27. How to use a noter and a homemade plastic pick on a fiddle tune.
2. “Riddle Song” (I Gave My Love a Cherry), pp. 74-78. Three variants of a Child ballad collected by Cecil Sharp in southern Appalachia.
We'll meet again Saturday, March 5, and I hope to schedule one or two additional sessions so we can cover the most important parts of the book.
For more information, contact Pete Ellertsen at peterellertsen@yahoo.com.
Chet Atkins "Arkansas Traveler" This old standard, is played by Chet here with SEVERAL variations! True virtuosity!
Arkansas Traveler - flatpicked guitar learning video by Sean RayArkansas Traveler is one of those cheesy, nursery rhyme tunes that's instantly recognizable. Like Wildwood Flower it lends itself well to crosspicking. On guitar the tune is most commonly played out of the C position with the capo at the second fret (key of D). However Norman Blake's classic version is in the key of C while David Grier capos it to the key of E.
Wil Maring - Arkansas Traveler Wil Maring performs "Arkansas Traveler". This is a public domain instrumental that Wil wrote new words to.
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Very well researched article "Mammoth Cheese" on the Monticello.org website.
Poems by Thomas Kennedy -- http://books.google.com/books?id=tAFMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA85# --
p. 59 - poem - p. 63 - speech of Logan
85 [88 in pdf file] - 87 [90 in pdf] Ode to the Mammoth Cheese
Excerpt from Kennedy's bio in Maryland House of Delegates website:
From the very beginning of his legislative career, he demonstrated an interest in social issues. In the words of his granddaughter, he "took an active part in politics largely...because of his interest in religious freedom."
Because of this interest, he was, in 1818, placed on a committee in the House that was to consider removing the "political disability of the Jews."
At the time, there were only about 150 Jews in Maryland. Thomas Kennedy had never even met one, but he was outraged by the injustice of excluding an entire group of people because of their religious beliefs. For him, religion was "a question which rests, or ought to rest, between man and his Creator alone."
The bill reported out of the committee in January 1819 was entitled "An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by Christians." When it was defeated, Kennedy pledged himself to renew the fight. The following year, Kennedy reintroduced the bill and it was defeated again by a wide margin.
These efforts to secure religious liberty for the Jews brought him virulent attacks as "an enemy of Christianity" and a "Judas Iscariot" and, in the election of 1823, Kennedy was defeated by Benjamin Galloway, who had spoken out strongly against the "Jew Bill." Even while out of office, Kennedy declared his intention to continue the fight: "although exiled at home, I shall continue to battle for the measure, aye, until my last drop of blood."
Wikipedia account of the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese cites: Sylvanus Urban, "Correspondence of Sylvanus Urban: The Great Cheshire Political Cheese." The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume II, 1869.
The TSF is a national organisation based in the UK that brings together those interested in the research, collecting and performance of Traditional Song. Our aim is to be inclusive of all the traditions found in the British Isles although the majority of Forum members are interested in the songs originating in these islands. For a fuller explanation please have a look at our AIMS. Although forum members are serious about their interests, the style of the organisation is informal and we are determined not to get stuffy or bureaucratic
Quoted in Love and theft: blackface minstrelsy and the American working class. By Eric Lott
The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century
I heard a humourous balladist not long ago, a minstrel with wool on his head and an ultra-Ethopian complexion, who performed a [N]egro ballad that I confess moistened these spectacles in a most unexpected manner. They have gazed at dozens of tragedy-queens, dying on the stage, and expiring in appropriate blank verse, and I never wanted to wipe them. They have looked up, with deep respect be it said, at many scores of clergymen in pulpits, and without being dimmed; and behold a vagabond with a corked face and a banjo sings a little song, strikes a wild note which sets the whole heart thrilling with happy pity. (187)
IONIAN CUMBERLAND GAP CUMBERLAND GAP [1]. AKA ‑ "Tumberland Gap." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; Arkansas, southwest Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, western North Carolina, Alabama. G Major: A Major: D Major (Tommy Jarrell). Standard, DGdg (Harvey Sampson) or ADad (Tommy Jarrell/Bruce Molsky) tunings. ABCC'DD (Phillips): AABB (Thede): AABBCC (Brody). The Cumberland Gap is a pass in the Appalachians between upper Tennessee and Kentucky. It is through this passage in the mountains that Daniel Boone in 1773 led a group of pioneers into Kentucky along his famous Wilderness Road, an event famous in American history that association with may have helped to popularize the melody (or, rather, populaize the title for a fiddle tune, as there are several different tunes that are called “Cumberland Gap”). The tune is very wide-spread throughout the upland South and many variants exist, along with some unrelated tunes that bear the same title. Alan Jabbour has written that it dates “well back” in the 19th century, and, while it bears melodic resemblance to some Irish reels in part, its derivation is yet to be determined. Mike Yates (2002) says that Bascom Lamar Lunsford maintained that “Cumberland Gap” was a speeded-up version of the ballad “Bonny James Campbell” (also rendered as a southern fiddle tune) while Yates finds the Niel Gow’s “Skye Air” carries a “faint suggestion” of the Appalachian standard. Still, Yates admits there seems to be no early printings of the tune.
***
Various verses have been set to the tune. Banjo player Dent Wimmer of Floyd, Floyd County, Virginia, sang:
***
My and my wife and seventeen chaps,
Walked all the way to Cumberland gap.
***
Cumberland Gap’s an awful dry place,
You can’t get water to wash your face.
***
Jabbour found 32 recordings of tunes with the title “Cumberland Gap” in the Library of Congress sound archives, while Bruce Greene and John Harrod’s field recordings of Kentucky fiddlers alone yielded fifty-two performances of the title. One of the earliest versions was recorded on an Edison Bell cylinder by Allen Sisson. The tune was played by Rock Ridge, Alabama, fiddlers c. 1920 (Devil’s Box, Vol. 17, #2, pg. 20). It was in the repertoires of Fiddlin' Cowan Powers 1877‑1952? (Russell County, southwest Va.) who recorded it in 1924 for Victor {though it was unissued}, and African-American fiddler Cuje Bertram of Kentucky’s Cumberland Plateau region (Bertram recorded it on a 1970 home recording made for his family, see “Cumberland Gap [4]"). Also in repertoire of J. Dedrick Harris, from eastern Tennessee, who fiddled regularly with Bob Taylor in his run for Governor of the state in the late 1800's. Harris moved to western North Carolina in the 1920's and influenced a generation of fiddlers including the Helton brothers, Manco Sneed, Bill Hensley, and Marcus Martin. In the Round Peak region of western North Carolina the melody was known by the title "Tumberland Gap" for many years until the isloation of the area broke down. Near Round Peak, Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell (d. 1986) remembered the tune "came around" the region when he was a young man, around 1915, and was not known before then. The tune was mentioned by William Byrne who described a chance encounter with West Virginia fiddler ‘Old Sol’ Nelson during a fishing trip on the Elk River. The year was around 1880, and Sol, whom Byrne said was famous for his playing “throughout the Elk Valley from Clay Courthouse to Sutton as…the Fiddler of the Wilderness,” had brought out his fiddle after supper to entertain (Milnes, 1999). The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Sources for notated versions: Luther Strong [Phillips]: Walter Fenell (Latimer County, Oklahoma) [Thede]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 62. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 114. Augusta Heritage Recordings AHR-004C, Harvey Sampson and the Big Possum String Band – “Flat Foot in the Ashes” (1986/1994. Learned by Calhoun County, W.Va. fidder Harvey Sampson from his father). Broadway 5118‑A (78 RPM) {1924} and Library of Congress AFS 4804‑B‑3 {1941}, Osey and Ernest Helton (Asheville N.C.). Cartunes 105, Bruce Molsky and Bob Carlin – “Take Me as I Am” (2004. Sourced to Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham). Conqueror 8239 (78 RPM), Doc Roberts. County 723, Cockerham, Jarrell, and Jenkins‑ "Back Home in the Blue Ridge." County 2702CD, “Tommy and Fred.” Document 8040, “The Hill Billies/Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 2” (reissue). Document DOCD-8040, The Hillbillies (reissue, originally recorded 1926). Document DOCD-8057, The Skillet Lickers (reissue). Marimac 9008, The Lazy Aces String Band ‑ "Still Lazy after All These Years" (1986. Learned from the playing of Arthur Smith). Musical Traditions MTCD 321-2, Dent Wimmer (et al) – “Far in the Mountains, Vols. 1 & 2” (2002). Rounder 1005, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers‑ "Hear These New Southern Fiddle and Guitar Records." Rounder 0058, Corbit Stamper and Thornton Spencer ‑ "Old Originals, vol. 2" (1978). Rounder 0089, Oscar and Eugene Wright (W.Va.) ‑ "Old‑Time Fiddle." Vocalion 14839 (78 RPM, 1924) Uncle Am Stuart (b. 1856, Morristown, Tenn). Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling." Yodel-Ay-Hee 05, The Wildcats - "On Our Knees" (1992).
Mike Seeger plays "Cumberland Gap" At Wintergreen, Va., in August 2007.
RIDDLE SONG Mary O'Hara singing "I Gave My Love a Cherry" Mary O'Hara (born ca. 1935) is an Irish soprano and harpist from County Sligo. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_O
MIXOLYDIAN
SHEEP SHELL CORN BY THE RATTLING OF HIS HORN. AKA and see "Fuller's Reel." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; Virginia, Arkansas. A Major ('A' part) & D Major/A Major ('B' part). Standard tuning. AB (Silberberg): AABB (Kuntz, Phillips). The title (as "Sheepie Shell Corn") appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Brad Leftwich calls the melody "Fuller's Reel" after his source, who had no name for it.
***
Never seen the like since I was born,
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn.
***
Corn's in the cupboard and the butter's in the churn,
Never seen the like since I was born.
***
Sheep shell corn by the rattle of his horn,
Never seen the like since I was born.
***
Sheep shell corn by the rattle of his horn,
Swing that gal with the red dress on. (Highwoods)
***
African-American collector Thomas Talley (born c. 1870) printed a song called “Sheep Shell Corn” in his 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes (set to a completely different tune), that contains the first line of the Highwood’s song, but introduces a supernatural element to the lyric: ***
De Ram blow de ho’n an’ de sheep shell co’n;
An’ he sen’ it to de mill by de buck-eyed Whoppoorwill.
Ole Joe’s dead an’ gone but his Hant blows de ho’n;
An’ his hound howls still from de top o’ dat hill.
***
De Fish-hawk said unto Mistah Crane;
I wishes to de Lawd dat you’d sen’ a liddle rain;
Fer de water’s all muddy, an de creek’s gone dry;
If it ‘twasn’t fer de tadpoles we’d all die.
***
When de sheep shell co’n wid de rattle of his ho’n,
I wishes to de Lawd I’d never been bo’n;
Caze when he Hant blows de ho’n, de sperits all dance,
An’ de hosses an’ de cattle, dey whirls ‘round an’ prance.
***
Yonder comes Skilled an’ dere goes Pot;
An here comes Jawbone ‘cross de lot.
Walk Jawbone! Beat de Skilled an’ de Pat!
You cut dat Pigeon’s Wing, Black Man!
***
Take keer, gemmuns, an’ let me through,
Caze I’se gwinter dance wid liddle Mollie Lou.
But I’se never seed de lak since I’se been born,
When de sheep shell co’on wid de rattle of his ho’n! ***
Sources for notated versions: Emmet Lundy (Grayson County, Virginia) and the Highwoods String Band (N.C.) [Kuntz]; Walt Koken & Bob Potts with the Highwoods String Band [Phillips]. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 357‑358 (two versions). Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994; pg. 217. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; pg. 142. Heritage 056, Highwoods String Band‑ "The Young Fogies" (various artists). In the repertoire of Luther Davis, Galax, Va. Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert & Shoofly ‑ "Forked Deer" (1986).
Bruce Hornsby/Ricky Skaggs - Sheep Shell Corn (clogging) Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, and Kentucky Thunder live @ the Ferst Center in Atlanta, GA on Mar. 29th, 2008.
Ben Seymour playing an inlaid Cherry Galax Dulcimer Ben Seymour playing "Sheep Shell Corn" on a fancy inlaid Cherry Galax Dulcimer built by him at Kudzu Patch Productions. He uses a popsicle stick on this tune :)
AEOLIAN
SHADY GROVE
SHAD(E)Y GROVE [1]. Old‑Time; Breakdown and Song Tune. USA, North Carolina. A Minor. Standard tuning. AA. There are towns called Shady Grove in Virginia or Kentucky, though the title may refer to a place.
***
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove I know Shady Grove, my little love, bound for the Shady Grove.
***
Cheeks as red as the blooming rose, eyes the deepest brown,
You are the darling of my heart, stay til the sun goes down.
***
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove my darlin/
Shady Grove, my little love, I'm going away to Harlan.
***
Went to see my Shady Grove, she was standing in the door,
Shoes and stockings in her hand, little bare feet on the floor.
***
From Jean Ritchie's Singing Family of the Cumberlands (1955) (condensed):
***
Dad remembered for us the first day he ever heard the fiddle played. He was about nine years old and going to school to old man Nick Gerhart... when Maggard Ritchie came in.
"He'd been off somewheres, courtin in Virginny, and he'd brought a feller home... and they had come to the schoolhouse to visit with Nick. Nick told us not to look up while they talked... But you know that stranger had a fiddle in his hand, and pretty soon he propped it in the cradle of his arm and begun to play that thing. Lordie! It was the prettiest sweepingest music. ... I just couldn't stand to sit still on that log bench and that tune snaking around so.
No sir, that was one tune that didn't stay in one place no time at all. ... I thought I was going plum crazy. You could hear feet a‑stomping all over the house, benches a‑creaking, young uns a‑giggling...
"Finally I let out a yell and lept off'n that bench and commenced to dance and clog around.... some of the other boys jumped up too.... .... after a while they left, and the teacher tried to settle us, back to our books, but I couldn't even see the print. I kept seeing that old fiddle bow race around on "Shady Grove." We around there had always sung that tune middling fast, hopped around to it a little bit, but that fiddle had tuck out with that'n like the Devil was after her. ... I kept laughing and wiggling in my seat, and saying the words to "Shady Grove” instead of my lesson.
Cheeks as red as a bloomin rose,
Eyes of the deepest brown,
You are the darlin of my heart,
Stay till the Sun goes down.
Shady Grove, my little love,
Shady Grove I know,
Shady Grove, my little love,
Bound for the Shady Grove.
(more verses).
***
These verses have also been heard at various times:
***
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove my darling
Shady Grove, my little love, I'm going back to Harlan
(or)
Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove I know
Shady Grove, my little love, I'm bound for Shady Grove
***
When I was a little boy, I wanted a Barlow knife Now I want little Shady Grove to say she'll be my wife
***
Cut a banjo from a gourd, string it up with twine
The only song that I can play is "Wish that gal was mine"
***
Apples in the summer time, peaches in the fall
If I can't have the girl I love, I don't want none at all
***
I've got a big fine horse, and corn to feed him on
All I need's little Shady Grove to feed him when I'm gone
***
Johnson (The Kitchen Musician: Occasional Collection of Old‑Timey Fiddle Tunes for Hammer Dulcimer, Fiddle, etc.), No. 2, 1982 (revised 1988, 2003); pg. 4. Rounder 0113, Trapezoid ‑ "Three Forks of Cheat" (1979. Learned from Kilby Snow). Tradition TLP 1007, Mrs. Edd Presnell ‑ "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956).
X:1
T:Shady Grove
S:Jean Ritchie's 'Singing Family of the Cumberlands'
Q:45
M:2/4
L:1/8
N:”Very lively”
K:Em
E/E/ E/E/4E/4|F/E/ D|E/E/4E/4 F/A/|\
B3/2 B/|d3/4d/4 B/B/|A/(F/4E/4)D|\
E/F/4F/4 A/F/|E2||E/E/E|\
F/E/4E/4D|E3/4E/4 F/A/|B2|d3/4d/4B|\
A/F/4E/4D|E/F/4F/4 A/F/|E2|]
X:2
T:Shady Grove
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:A Dorian
E2|A2 AA A2 AA|BcBA G2 GE|A2 AA B2d2|e3 d e2 ee|
g2 gg e2 ee|dB A2G2 GG|A2 BG d2B2|A3G A2||
David Holt and Doc Watson: Shady Grove David Holt and Doc Watson perform the song "Shady Grove on December 5, 1998 at the Valborg Theatre on the campus of Appalacian State University. Daivid asks Doc about the song as a courting song. Doc talks about the days he sourted Rosalie, his wife of 62 years.
the chieftains & tim o'brien - shady grove
DORIAN
OLD MAN AT THE MILL
The Dillards - Old man at the Mill The original Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Probably the last time they came to Europe to play.
OLD MAN ... [clawhammer bajo] Guy Wolff playing Old Man At the Mill learned from Clint Howard and Clarence Ashley . Sawmill tuning gDGCD lowered to F sus 4 on a Ramsey Banjo Dobson Neck
THREE BABES (CHILD 79, WIFE OF USHER'S WILL, LADY GAY)
Three Babes Cath & Phil Tyler at the Barrles Alehouse, Berwick-upon-Tweed, June 17 2009.
Wife of Ushers Well - Lecture and Discussion stacyhm - semi-retired and Professor Emiritus for Barstow College ... "CollegeThese videos are casual mini lectures (usually a few minutes long) to make a single point or two. They are also an attempt to give the feel of the kind of informal class you might take as an elective on a Tuesday afternoon. They are posted for the benefit of my college students and for anyone else interested in these subjects.
Jerry Barton plays dulcimer outside the Colony Store during Midsommar Music Festival at Bishop Hill, Illinois, with Swedish-style psalmodikon in foreground. The instrument is a replica of the psalmodikon in the Steeple Building Museum across the street from the Colony Store.
On YouTube, an Episcopal church in New Jersey with Vaughan Williams' tune FOREST GREEN to another Advent text ...
Advent Evensong Processional Hymn, "Forest Green" Advent Evensong Processional Hymn "O Promised One of Israel", Tune: Forest Green 3rd stanza descant, David Willcocks camcorded live 07 December 2008
1) O promised one of Israel by prophets long foretold, We wait in urgency and hope to see God's will unfold. The dark of night and cold predawn arouse our anxious fears. Help us to see the light ahead through trials, doubts, and tears.
[2 more verses]
Church of the Redeemer, Episcopal Morristown, NJ, USA
LATER (May 2014). Guitar arrangement with slightly different translation of the Benedictus uploaded by YouTube user Maureen Perez. The song of Zachary (Zechariah) is the Benedictus in the Gospel according to St. Luke. We used to sing it at commencement at Benedictine University Springfield, and it's one of my favorites.
As in Erick Pontoppidan, the 18th-century Danish theologian and bishop of Bergen. Pietist. Author of Pontoppidan's Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism (numerous editions from 1737 in Danish, Norwegian and English) and Pontoppidan's Salmebog (1740).
Not exactly a household word.
But Dictionary.com has it (in the entry for another Danish author, Henrik Pontoppidan who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1917 for his realist novels set in the Danish countryside) as [pon-top-i-dahn]
Valdis Muktupāvels, "Musical Instruments in the Baltic Region: Historiography and Traditions" (excerpt below). Muktupāvels is a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Latvia in Riga
An instrument whose origins are strongly linked to musical practices in northern Protestant countries is the monochord (moldpill, laulupill, laulukannel, harmoonik EE, ģīga, ģingas, džindžas, manihorka, meldiņu spēle, akerdonis LV, manikarka LT). It is said to have been reinvented by the Swedish Lutheran pastor Johannes Dillner in 1829 based on the Greek monochord. Swedish authorities approved the monochord’s use as a simple and easy-to-make instrument in parishes that did not possess their own church organ. Since it aided the learning and accompaniment of sung psalms, it was named “psalmodicon.” The instrument was actively propagated from the 1830s to the 1860s, and it spread, in addition to Scandinavia and Finland, throughout Estonia, the Lutheran regions of Latvia and the western Lutheran region of Lithuania. The psalmodicon was above all a church musical instrument, but apart from that context, it also turned out to be good for use in secular musical activities such as choral singing, music education and even to produce dance music.
Valdis Muktupāvels has a 2-CD set called Muktukokles / Tradicionalas Kokles featuring a traditional Latvian psaltry. Blurb in CD Roots website:
The first solo record by the most eminent Latvian ethnomusicologist, composer and multi-instrumentalist is an ode to the kokle or box zither, a traditional Latvian folk instrument. It's a double CD. MUKTUKOKLES, the first CD, consists of original tracks by Valdis Muktupavels. The second CD - TRADICIONALAS KOKLES (Traditional Box Zithers) - contains authentic kokle melodies from the Kurzeme and Latgale districts of Latvia. All commentaries in the folder are also available in English.
ADDED LATER (Sept. 6, 2012): Brief entry, English version, with pix on Ģīga
(trans. Monochord in folklora.lv website on Latvian folk music: "The monochord has been created in Sweden in 1829 for accompaniment of spiritual singing. Probably through the Lutheran parochial schools, monochord has got to the Latvian peasants, and they have begun to play on it, to make it and to improve it (the same instrument, but with two strings has been developed)."
This is an introduction to ancient Greek theory for A Survey of Music History and Literature. It includes a brief look at Pythagoras' ideas about perfect intervals and the tetrachord structure of scales. -- Dr. Margaret Hontos, Santa Barbara City College
Ceili House comes from Hartnett's Bar in Castleisland, Co. Kerry and features a host of local musicians and singers, including the legendary accordion player, Jimmy Doyle.
-------
Robert Fludd, Musik & Harmonik & Monochord & Einsaiter 1624
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