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III. The Story of
American Folk Music
Before Radio and Records
A. Introduction
1. Two significant events
in the history of
American folk
a. Development of
electronic media
Radio and phonograph
[1920s]
b. Folk revival [1950s into
early 1960s]
Folk festivals and Bob
Dylan!
A. Introduction
2. Not easily related in strictly chronological
order because the stories of many music
genres are included in the history of
American folk music and need to be related
B. Formative Decades
1. American folk music is regionally different
a. various blendings of contributing styles and
instruments
b. Ballads from Europe [Scotland and Ireland]
c. African call and response
blending between traditions
Ex. “Stagolee” and “John Henry”
2. East of the Mississippi
formed early 19th Century
culture
B. Formative Decades
3. What was the norm?
a. Physical and intellectual isolation Illiterate
Little or no formal education
Month-old newspapers
Unpaved roads
Family members and neighbors knew each other cradle to grave
Rural electrification programs of 1930s Roosevelt’s New Deal
Interstate highways after World War Two
personal telephones not until 1950s!
b. Isolation = diversity
C. European Contributions
1. Instrument Contribution
a. Europeans Introduced the fiddle
[lightweight and cheap]
b. Pianos
America leads piano sales; sturdy and cheap
Used in country dances, churches, and in parlors
2. Scotts-Irish Tradition
a. Dance tunes: jigs and reels (dances)
b. Non-dance tunes: story-telling ballads
Ex. “Barbara Allen” and “Black Jack Davie”
C. European Contributions
3. Ballads
a. Impersonal in tone
b. Compress their action/focus on highlights
c. Consequential action
Ex. Murder from “Matty Groves”
d. Told objectively (without opinions)
e. Themes: love, work, death, various tragedies,
etc.
D. African-American Folk Post-Emancipation
1. Jim Crow laws segregate society a. Created pre-slavery conditions
2. “Black” folk becomes diverse a. Gospel, Blues, Ragtime (jazz) become distinct genres
3. Many became songsters a. great vocal performer who can play multiple genres and
countless songs i. Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt are examples
4. Music stayed isolated and regional until documentation by people like the Lomax’s
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