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