Tune Req: New England Folk Music

Subject: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: LilyFestre
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 12:32 PM

Hi All,

   I am looking for fiddle tunes from the northeastern part of the United States. Do you know any specific tunes with lyrics to be shared with elementary aged students?

   I don't know if there is a specific collection of music for this area. My thinking is that much of it would be Irish from when Irish folks started coming to this country and settling in the Boston area. There has to be more, there just has to!

Thanks!

Michelle

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:02 PM

I'll come back later after painting the house but....There's plenty of Traditional New England tunes & a strong Contra Dance music following here. The song tradition is a good bit weaker & someing I don't follow much but I'll come back later & see if I can't find out more. Mar great MacArthur was a great collector of New England songs & she wpould be the 1st place I'd start then there are other collections.

Barry

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:52 PM

Michelle,

Barry's right, Margaret MacArthur's recordings are a great resource for songs traditional in New England, and since she worked doing school programs for many years, much of it is particularly appropriate (there are also recordings of new songs written by her and kids from old stories).

I'm kind of surprised that her website, which I've linked doesn't refer to her death this year. I'm sure her recordings are still available through the site though, or Camsco.

Margaret got much of her material from the collections made by Helen Hartness Flanders, of Vermont, housed at Marlboro College. Look for any of her books, too.

Debra Cowan recently did a recording, Dad's Dinner Pail of Irish material from the Flanders collection.

There's a another classic book of New England stuff that I've seen a number of times -- I don't have it and am struggling to remember its name. It was from the 30s or 40s and some of the scholarship was slightly iffy, but there was a good variety of stuff in it.

The New England maritime tradition - sea chanteys and other sea songs - is of course another very rich and very accessible set of stuff, and much of it is great for kids. There have been some recent threads on sea songs that are clean enough for school use.

Brave Boys, New England Traditions in Folk Music is a fine collection on cd that's available from Folk Legacy or Camsco.

From the music collected by Frank and Anne Warner, look for material from Lena Bourne Fish, of New Hampshire. Arising from that, check in with Jeff Warner, their son, who's based in Portsmouth. His recordings have both northern and southern material.

Have fun!

~ Becky in Tucson
(whose heart is in the northeast)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 02:02 PM

THE RIENDEAU FAMILY (County - still in print?) has good ones.

Frank Ferrel specializes in New England tunes. He has some records out, not sure if they are still in print or not.

From Canada, both JOE CORMIER, on Rounder, and JEAN CARIGNAN (Folkways and other labels) play a lot of good New England tunes together with their Canadian stuff.

And for a real treat, check to see if any of MELLIE DUNHAM'S ORCHESTRA 78s have ever been reissued. Dunham, a snowshoe maker from Maine, was one of Henry Ford's finds -- Ford was a great fan of fiddlers -- and one of the best fiddlers of his time. His "Hull's Victory" is one of the loveliest dance tunes ever recorded. Someone on this thread know if any of his stuff is available now? I'd like to hear it again myself.

Bob

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 02:59 PM

The book I was trying to think of was B.A. Botkin's "A Treasury of New England Folklore" 1947, reprinted in 1965. If you're in New England, shouldn't be hard to find in a library or used book store.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Effsee
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 03:26 PM

Check out this site! www.greatmeadowmusic.com
Sorry, can't do the clicky thing.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 08:24 PM

Hi Michelle

You said

"I am looking for fiddle tunes from the northeastern part of the United States. Do you know any specific tunes with lyrics to be shared with elementary aged students?"

Are you looking for only 'fiddle tunes' with lyrics or tunes & songs too?

Bob McQuillen's a pianist and accordion player who aside from playing New England Contra Dance music also writes & composes dance tunes in the same style. Rodney Miller's, a fiddler is another great one who plays in this style both are fantastic & have CD's you can listen to. A fine song from the witch trials, the words were an actual transcription from the trial & set to music by Claudine Langille formerly of the group Touchstone & it's recordedon their "The New Land" lp, is 'Susanna Martin' don't know if it been rereleased as a CD. Marrgaret has plenty of CD's & any would be a fine choice for New England songs.

I think Botkin's "A Treasury of New England Folklore" may have just been reprinted.

See this tread on Irish songs of Old New England. I believe Nancy Jean, hopefully she'll see this thread,helped on this CD of Dan's (Liam's Brother) & Deb C's CD too, she's a greathgranddaughter of Helen Hartness Flanders, mentioned above.
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=61200#852663 Lena Bourne Fish as DD mentioned the Warner Collection which Jeff has plenty of beautiful examples of songs collected from her.
Good luck

Barry

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: LilyFestre
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 08:31 PM

Wow, you guys are great! Thanks for the links and information. I knew it was out there but didn't know where to start! I am looking for music I can play on my violin for my class that have lyrics so they can sing along. They seem to really enjoy doing that and I'm happy to oblige!
Thanks again for the information and links!

Michelle

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 10:44 PM

I think you would find a lot of French Canadian/Franco American in the far northeast states...mg

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: GUEST,Pamela in Ithaca
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 07:01 PM

Barry mentioned Rodney Miller, and someone else mentioned
Great Meadow Music - but you should *definatly* find the
New England Fiddler's Repertoir (one and two, I believe)
by Rodney's brother Randy. There are also great resources
through the New England Dancing Master's productions out of
Brattleboro, VT. Any of these are available through CDSS.

And yes, there's Irish derivative and French Canadian music
there - as well as "home grown" New England music. The
NEDM material has tunes and dances. So, your fiddle students
could play music for each other's dancing - that way they'd
get the tunes in the context for which they were written.

Back to Bob McQuillen - he's written hundreds of dance tunes,
and has been designated a regional treasure. Most, if not all
of these tunes are available in self-published books, and many
of them would be accessible for beginning fiddle students.

Dudley Laufman (Two Fiddles or laufman.org) from around Peterboro NH also has great resources for New England fiddle/dance music,
and songs as well.

There is indeed a wealth of material out there.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 08:24 PM

The Boston area was a magnet for people from Cape Breton Island and they brought a lot of their traditional music with them.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 08:27 PM

Lots of samples here:

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1156315/a/Full+Circle:+From+Cape+Breton+To+Boston+And+Back:+Classic+House+Sessions

Subject: RE: Tune Req: New England Folk Music
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Nov 06 - 06:31 PM

The book I was really meaning to refer to was Folk Songs of Old New England by Eloise Hubbard Linscott.

~ Becky in Tucson