The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #31740 Message #3944172
Posted By: Lighter
15-Aug-18 - 03:13 PM
Thread Name: Opinionated Civil War Music Article
Subject: RE: Opinionated Civil War Music Article
Julia and Jack,
While Howe's collection and others may be chock-full of Appalachian fiddle tunes under different (presumably Hiberno-British) titles, nobody has shown this to be the case. From my own limited experience, I'm extremely skeptical of this idea. I'm somewhat more familiar with O'Neill, and over the years have noticed almost nothing identifiably American in his books, except, if I recall correctly, a few international hits of the late 19th century like "Turkeys [sic] in the Straw," "Arkansas Traveler," and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again."
But I'd defer to someone who's actually examined the question.
The burden is on the many writers in the past who asserted, on scanty evidence and a lot of assumptions, that American fiddle tunes were imported from Britain in great numbers. In the absence of actual analysis, the reasoning seems to be that it could be true, so it's probably true and therefore really is true.
Levels of folk-music scholarship have varied wildly.