Pennsylvania Dutch folk music

Subject: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: Marion
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 07:07 PM

Hello all. As I mentioned in another thread ("What was sung in Ontario..."), I'm looking for a gig at a pioneer re-creation village that has some Pennsylvania Dutch heritage.

Does anyone know any old songs or fiddle tunes that would be characteristic of the Pennsylvania Dutch?

Also, I thought that Pennsylvania Dutch was synonymous with Mennonites/Amish, but the person I spoke to said that the original village founders were "Pennsylvania Dutch Lutherans." As I understand it, Anabaptists and Lutherans are historically quite separate religious strains. Do you think this person just had it wrong? Or does Pennsylvania Dutch mean more than Mennonite/Amish?

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 09:28 PM

Quote: Although Lancaster Amish are Pennsylvania Dutch, all Pennsylvania Dutch are not Amish. The Pennsylvania Dutch are natives of Central Pennsylvania, particularly Lancaster and its surrounding counties. Unlike the Amish, they are not all one religion. Instead, their common bond is a mainly German background (Pennsylvania Dutch is actually Pennsylvania Deutsch, or German). They also have Welsh, English, Scottish, Swiss, and French ancestry. Enquote

I believe that the 'plain people', in addition to the Amish and the Mennonites, also include the Hutterites, the Moravians, the Brethren and the Dunkards. There may be more.

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From:
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 12:47 AM

Dear Marion,
My name is Sam Hilt, living in Australia last 30 years. Am Penna Dutch, raised Mennonite, worked with Amish into late teens. Involved with folk musicin OZ since 1975. Am sociologist/ethnomusicologist.Also a vet, and work almost exclusively, these days, in a variety of civl-military relations; institutional values. Yes, it does seem at odds with pacifist background.
Have a wide variety of Pa Dutch, Amish, Mennonite songs, and song books dating from the late 1700's.
My address is 1247A, Mogo Rd Wollar, 2850, NSW Australia,,phone number is Inter code 61, area code02, 6373-4257...Australia is about 12 hours ahead, depending on time zone in N.A.(well, S.A also!)Best to get me after 7am here, through to 8.30pm, here.
Friend sent me your chat location...don't visit, or have time to participate in 'chats', but happy to help you in any way I can if you contact me rather than posting on the Net...You won't get through to me there.
All the best
Sam
([e-mail]
PS I also work through Professor Lydia Fish www Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 02:31 AM

Look for "Pensylvania Songs and Legends" edited by George Korson (Univ. of Penna. Press, 1949), a classic work. Also, Sing Out! Vol. 42 #1 has an article, "Alde Deitsche Lieder, the Pennsylvania German Folk Music Tradition" by Rich Kerstetter.

~ Becky in Tucson
(Mom was a Kreidler, her father came from Yoe, PA, east of York.)

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: cetmst
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 07:09 AM

Ruth L. Hausman, Sing and Dance With the Pennsylvania Dutch, has hymns and secular songs of Germans in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Deutsch were comprised of a number of German Protestant sects including Amish, Mennonite, Moravian, German Reformed and Lutheran who settled in Pennsylvania where the Quaker founders were more tolerant than in some of the other colonies. They were so populous that around the time of the Revolution German narrowly missed becoming the official language of Pennsylvania. Some interesting background can be found in Walter Knittle, Early 18th Century Palatine Emigration, Henry Harbaugh, Lives of the Fathers of the German Reformed Church in America and J.I. Goode and W.J. Hinke, Minutes and Letters of the Coetus of the German Reformed Congregations in Pennsylvaniam 1747-1792 (Be careful of the spelling in that one; it's not what it sounds like).

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: M.Ted
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 12:37 PM

As a recent emigre from the Pennsylvania Dutch country, I can tell you that there are still a few fiddlers around that play the old music, though mostly, I think, for various German folk festivals(don't remember any names right off)--the indiginous music tends heavily toward polka bands these days--I only can remember the names of one or two dance songs, Johnny Schmoker, and We'll Swim Across the Schuykill(a frightening thought, at least for the Philadelphians among us), but I think that those were play party songs, and not typically fiddler stuff--

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:28 AM

Thanks everyone.

Marion

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:37 AM

Another denomination: I think the Shakers were from that area. I say "were". They prohibited sex for their members. They aren't around any more. Nuff sed.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: Burke
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 06:30 PM

The Shakers got started in the US with Mother Ann Lee near Albany. They had a number of communities near there in eastern New York & Western Mass. They also communities in other parts of the eastern US, but not particularly connected with PA. Several of the old villages are now museums. You could start finding out more Here

There's still a Shaker Community in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 02:25 PM

If you know any German, please see this thread: Singing in German. I've found a few PD songs and am looking for help in pronouncing them.

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: Pennsylvania Dutch folk music
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Dec 12 - 09:15 PM

anyone have info on PA Swab's Dutch Band from Millersville area? My grandfather used to play the Sousaphone in the band and I'd like to find some info on the band. Would be around 1958 timeframe.