July-September 1984 The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Volume VII, Number 3

Automated Archiving Conference

America's Harp

Federal Cylinder Project Catalogs

New Board Members

Penderlea Homesteads, a Farm Security Administration project near Willard, N. C. in 1937; photo by Ben Shahn. (Prints and Photographs Division) road to oblivion. As I have just il­ Virginia. Coming from a musical

FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS lustrated, one cannot now use the family within a musical community, word without quotation marks. Yet I he acquired his art' early in life and a quarterly publication of the think there is a case to be made for soon became known as an outstanding American Folklife Center keeping our antiquarian responsibili­ fiddler. Though he had a reputation ties clearly before us, untainted by throughout the region, amplified by at the condescension, and unencumbered by occasional appearances at fiddling Library of Congress quotation marks. contests and other festivals, he never The occasion for this outburst was made commercial recordings for the

Alan Jabbour, Director harmless enough_ For a week I have "hillbilly" record series of the 1920s and been writing annotations to a prospec­ 1930s. Around the time of his ap­ Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director tive documentary LP album to be pearance in August 1947 at an Arthur­ Elena Bradunas published later this year by West dale folk festival (in a West Virginia Carl Fleischhauer Virginia University Press. It will resettlement community Eleanor Roo­ Mary Hufford feature the fiddling of Edden Ham­ sevelt had patronized), Edden was Folklife Specialists mons, the legendary fiddler of a past recorded by Professor Chappell. He Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher generation of Hammonses in east­ was in his seventies at the time. The

Eleanor Sreb, Executive Assistant central West Virginia. My colleague resultant corpus of his playing totals Brett Topping, Writer-Editor Carl Fleischhauer and I had spent 26 field-recorded discs and 51 different Magdalena Gilinsky, Contracts Specialist time in the early 1970s documenting fiddle tunes-a few accompanied on Doris Craig, Administrative Secretary Lisa Oshins, Staff Assistant the Hammonses of Pocahontas Coun­ guitar by his son James, but for the ty, West Virginia-Burl Hammons most part unaccompanied, pristine Tel: 202 287-6590 (the outstanding fiddler ofthis genera­ solo fiddling in the old West Virginia tion), Sherman Hammons, and Mag­ style. Archive of Folk Culture gie Hammons Parker. Our LP-set The There I sat, transfixed. I listened Joseph C . Hickerson, Head Hammons Family (Library ofCongress again and again to the tunes for which Gerald E. Parsons, Jr., Reference Librarian AFS L65-L66, 1973) included their I was supplying annotations - aston­ Patricia M. Markland, Indexer-Secretary family photos, comments, and ished anew, as I labored to transcribe Sebastian LoCurto, Staff Assistant Michael Licht, Staff Assistant testimonies about their uncle Edden's two tunes in detail, at the elegance of artistry. All agreed that he was the Edden Hammons's intricate playing Tel: 202 287-5510 consummate fiddler of the previous style. He was a fiddler ofthe first order Washington, D.C. 20540 generation of Hammonses. But Edden and, through his playing, expressed died in the early 1950s, and though it something very beautiful and impor­ was believed he had been extensively tant about the older Central Appala­ Managing Editor: Brett Topping recorded by some professor years ago, chian culture he represented. Now he recordings of him were not available is gone; fiddling in his style is but to us during our work. rarely encountered; and in a pro­ Important new informatIon has a tracted seance in my office, through DIRECTOR'S way of engulfing the hapless author the medium of Edden's old recordings, who has just finished work on some­ I silently communed with this voice COLUMN thing. Thus I should not have been from the past, riveted by the power of surprised at the news that Louis W. its presence. We folklorists have important anti­ Chappell, who had been a professor at Then it occurred to me that I was quarian responsibilities! West Virginia University in the 1930s an antiquarian. I was by turns amused There, I have used that word "anti­ and 1940s and had reputedly recorded and irritated at the thought, but once quarian" with approval, and nothing folk music throughout the state, it had stolen into my mind there was has happened to me. How did the turned up in the 1970s with his very no eluding it. I was not only studying word manage to slip into such disfavor large collection of field-recorded discs the past, but was being swept up by amongst scholars and activists alike in intact. After long negotiations the the power and romance of its icons. our generation of specialists in folk West Virginia University Library suc­ Two conclusions finally emerged from culture? It is rarely used nowadays ex­ ceeded in bringing the collection this stream of thought: first, that my cept to allude to the giants ofour field home, and after further labor the col­ antiquarian impulse was perfectly in the last century-with perhaps the lection was duplicated onto tape and appropriate for a folklorist; and second, suggestion that they were a bit dry, meticulously cataloged. Included in it that in certain areas of culture it was dusty, and obsessive - or to reproach are 26 field-recorded discs of Edden not only appropriate but an actual one ofour contemporaries with being Hammons's fiddling. It is spectacular professional responsibility. too much like them. The term "anti­ fiddling. The propriety of folklorists' pursu­ quities," by the way, meaning the Edden Hammons was born in the ing antiquarian interests should need objects of an antiquarian's attention, 1870s and lived in the Allegheny no justification. Only in the present has traveled even farther down the Mountains in east-central West generation has it been an issue, and

2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Being interested in the past, then, gone on to other concerns. Prehistoric is certainly appropriate for folklorists, Indian sites are not where it's at now." however much their imagination is I might well reply (and here I imagine fired by experiences with culture in the myself waxing indignant), "Well, · if present. I find myselfwishing to push you don't take care of such things, who the argument a step further, however, will!?!" In fact, whatever new interests by asserting flatly that we folklorists and new areas of expertise may ac­ have a clear responsibility for things crue to archeology as a profession in past. The argument takes this form: 20th-century America, the profes­ Ifwe don't do it, who will? Let me give sional responsibility for the artifacts in an illustration. my garden remains. They have Suppose I were digging in my gar­ assumed - and the rest of society now den, and suddenly encountered a charges them with-the high respon­ cache ofartifacts that seemed to reflect sibility of that cultural custodianship. American Indian culture of a bygone Folklorists similarly have as­ era. I could of course simply plunder sumed- by being interested and by the site for geegaws to display on my becoming known for bei):lg inter­ mantel. But I know very well that the ested - a public responsibility for cer­ responsible thing for a citizen to do in tain expressions ofculture, past as well Edden Hammons. such a circumstance is to contact an as present. Members of other profes­ perhaps our generation's rebellion archeologist for professional advice. sions may share my interest in West against the preoccupation of our Archeologists are the people, I would Virginia history, or in West Virginia predecessors with the pastness of correctly assume, who know best how grassroots culture today. But it does tradition - our urge to de-emphasize to extract, care for, evaluate, and seem that I have a special responsibil­ our profession's longstanding interest interpret the meanings imparted by ity, a cultural custodianship, for those in the time-depth of traditional culture the cache of artifacts in my garden. old recordings of Edden Hammons. and to emphasize the ethnographic But what if the archeologist I con­ Not only should I know best, of the present - is already subsiding into a tacted said coolly, "We used to be in­ various professions who might be in­ more balanced attention to the time­ terested in that kind of stuff. But the terested, how to preserve and interpret factor as well as the group-factor in best and the brightest in our field have them, but I should care most that the tradition. preserving and interpreting gets done. Certainly the public thinks it ap­ Further, though Edden Hammons's propriate for folklorists to be interested BOARD OF TRUSTEES fiddling might seem solely an anti­ in old-timey things, as any folklorist quarian concern to most ofthe world, knows who deals with the public at all. Ronald C . Foreman, Jr., Florida, I am confident that for West Virgin­ In fact, the very words "old-time" or Chairman ians today the old recordings ofhis fid­ "old-timey" (they seem, incidentally, to David E. Draper, Louisiana, Vice dling will ring a responsive cultural be mainly American locutions in their Chairman chord, just as they have done for me. history and usage) offer a popular Edward Bridge Danson, Arizona Edden Hammons, long since dead, paradigm for the work of folklorists. Jeanne Guillemin, Massachusetts will become more powerful as a Americans may speak of the old-time Bruce Jackson, New York cultural force today, once the re­ fiddlers of yesteryear, but they also William L. Kinney, Jr., South Carolina cordings are out. Thus it is that custo­ (and, I believe, more characteristi­ St. John Terrell, New Jersey dians of the past serve the present as cally) speak of an old-time fiddler J. Barre Toelken, Oregon well. today. In other words, the word "old­ When all is said and done, there is time" describes a phenomenon occur­ nothing like a dose ofantiquarian zeal ring in the present, but with powerful Ex Officio Members to insure that I carry out effectively my links to the past. It thus neatly encap­ custodial responsibility to Edden sulates the time-depth and cultural Daniel J. Boorstin, The Librarian of Hammons and his cultural heirs continuity embodied in the word Congress today. "tradition." By bridging past and pres­ S. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the ent at a stroke, the popular term Smithsonian Institution should reassure us folklorists who har­ Francis S. M. Hodsoll,Jr., Chairman, bor an anxiety that when the public National Endowment for the Arts pigeonholes us in the past we will be William Bennett, Chairman, National separated from our simultaneous in­ Endowment for the Humanities terest in the ethnographic present. Alan Jabbour, Director, American This, I believe, is the very anxiety that Folklife Center has led us to shun the word "anti­ quarian."

JULY-SEPTEMBER 3 AUTOMATED ARCHIVING CONFERENCE

Wayland Hand (L), Joseph C. Hickerson, and Richard S. Thill (R).

"A way station- not a stopping around the country that continue to be underlie any productive automation point," is how Richard S. Thill maintained manually in whole or in project. characterized the "Washington Con­ large measure. Wayland D. Hand of From this basis in manual retrieval ference on Folklife and Automated the University of California at Los systems the conference moved on to Archives," held at the Library ofCon­ Angeles discussed in some detail the consider different approaches to the gress on April 26-28, 1984. The development of his Index ofAmerican automated classification of folklore American Folklife Center served as the Popular Beliefs and Superstitions. materials. David M. Axler from the host of the meeting, funded by the L. Begun in 1944, it now has some two University of Pennsylvania discussed J. and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation. million cross-referenced card entries. bibliographic resources that are avail­ Thill, who chairs the American Folk­ Hand began his presentation by able to guide archivists seeking to ex­ lore Society's Archiving Section and noting that while automation repre­ plore the new frontier. Paul S. Smith heads the folklore archive at the Uni­ sents the incursion ofhigh technology of the University of Sheffield in versity of Nebraska at Omaha, orga­ into the world of the scholar, it is no England described an automated proj­ nized the conference. He concluded more frightening than the advent of ect to develop a hierarchical classifica­ his welcome with the remark, "If this other mechanical inventions: the type­ tion of English drama texts based on conference works the way I hope it writer, cylinder recorder, disc re­ statistical analysis. The project ex­ will, we will probably come away with corder, and magnetic tape recorder. emplifies his theory that the most more questions; I hope they are the He did, however, admonish confer­ effective approach to the classification right questions." ence participants not to entrust things of folklore material[ is the "tree" The meeting agenda opened with a to a machine that they are better approach - analyzing the materials panel that explored the history of capable of undertaking, specifically the themselves to discern their inherent several of the archival collections planning and design work that must interconnections and divisions. This

4 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS he contrasted with the "bucket" ap­ proach which is to predetermine cer­ tain categories and then throw in "everything that looks or smells as though it may fit." Finally, several automation projects were discussed in detail. James T. Callow described the University of Detroit Folklore Archive that has 20,000 automated entries for spoken­ word material collected by students in the University's folklore classes. The system is set up to edit, classify, retrieve, and display entire entries. Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly B. Boggs outlined the development of an automated data-retrieval system for published LP-disc recordings carried out by the Folk Music Archive of the Carolyn H. Sung (L)from the Library's Research Services office, Mark Glazer ofPan American University of North Carolina. Their University, and Jerome Wenker (R) from Sperry Corporation. system was developed using the Uni­ of microfilm roles of some 2,270,000 of their collections? (2) How does one versity's main frame computer and is label and disc photographs, microfllm go about automating an archIve? As MARC-compatible (referring to the roles of 329,000 computer microform to whether the right questions were automated cataloging format used by pages of bibliographic entries, and a asked, one can only say perhaps. But, the Library of Congress). It catalogs MARC-tagged machine record ofthe as Frederick J . Stielow from the and indexes recordings of Anglo­ data. University of Maryland noted, the American ballads and religious music The two-and-a-half-day meeting did conference generated a feeling ofcom­ and has produced a master list of the indeed illicit questions of all kinds. munality for participants. It was a recordings, along with catalogs by Joseph C. Hickerson, Head of the forum for discovering that there are album title, item title, geographic loca­ Archive of Folk Culture, proposed as others out there experiencing the same tion, performer, and subject. While a discussion question, "Do you con­ difficulties, and some who have a few theirs is a fairly discreet cataloging tinue your entries into the automated of the answers. project - the master list has some system in the same forms used for the As Richard Thill noted at the begin­ 10,000 entries-Patterson and Boggs manual system, or start anew?" Build ning of the meeting, the Washington feel the system may be applicable to on proven systems, said most of those conference on automated archives is a cataloging ventures for other disc who responded to Hickerson's query. way station in the search for answers. recordings and is expandable. Jean Herrmann, who presented a A number of regional conferences are Perhaps the largest automation paper on her work to refine and com­ scheduled to take up where the Wash­ project represented at the conference plete an automated data base using ington conference left off, starting with was the Rigler and Deutsch Record some 4,000 Child ballad tunes col­ one at Pan American University in Index. As described by Elwood lected and analyzed by Bertrand Bron­ December 1984. For further informa­ McKee, the index provides "sub­ son from the University of California tion on the regional automated archiv­ minimal" bibliographic access and at Berkeley, asked rhetorically what ing meeting in December, contact control for approximately 615,000 pre­ the utility of such an automated data Mark Glazer, Pan American Univer­ LP commercial disc recordings in the base is. She went on to explain that it sity, Edinburg, Texas 78539; tel. (512) collections of the Library of Con­ can be used to characterize in part 381-3321 or 381-3319. gress, the Rodgers and Hammerstein or in whole British and American The Archive ofFolk Culture issued Archives of the New York Public melodic traditions - habitual melodic the revised reference aid Folklije Library, the Belfer Laboratory and schemes, the preference for one and Ethnomusicology Archives and Related Archive at Syracuse University, the melodic phrase over another, the iden­ Collections in the United States and Canada Yale University Collection of Histori­ tification of tune "families," and (LCFARA No.2) coincident with the cal Sound Recordings, and the Stan­ possibly the migrations of whole "tune "Washington Conference on Folklife ford Archive ofRecorded Sound. The populations." and Automated Archives." The find­ discs indexed were photographed with Two overarching questions seemed ing aid and The Use of Computers in high resolution film and the informa­ to connect many of the papers and Folklore and Folk Music: A Preliminary tion contained thereon -label name, remarks during the conference: Bibliography are available free of charge matrix number, issue number, com­ (1) How do archives communicate from the Archive of Folk Culture, poser or author, title, performer-was between themselves, not only about Library of Congress, Washington, manually entered into the automated how to handle certain aspects of D.C. 20540. data base. The index currently consists automation, but about the subst-ance

JULY-SEPTEMBER 5 AMERICA'S HARP

Harmonica, mouth organ, French harp, harp - there are dozens of names in American English for this simple instrument, evidence of the local and regional level of its BRASS BAND. widespread appeal. The ubiquitous lit­ ALL WITH HEAVY BRASS, 1IIICKEL·PLATED COVERS. tle music maker may seem homely compared with more cultivated species, but the hardy perennial has taken firm root in our musical land-· scape, and has been owned and played by more Americans than any other in­ strument. This wildflower has long been mistaken for a weed by the arts establishment; consequently, there has been little scholarly writing about it. Like many familiar domestic blooms, the harmonica is an Old World transplant. The ancestral From a dealer's catalog published in 1900 by C. Bruno & Son of New York. rootstock of the free-reed family, to which the mouth harp belongs, comes He named a later version the"Aeola," else, when set in motion by moving from Asia where, according to myth, and was not the first to link the free air. As the vibrations offree reeds are the Chinese female sovereign Nyn­ reed with the popular Romantic-era unhindered, the resulting sounds are Kwa invented the sheng or mouth image of the aeolian harp, a relation­ dense with overtones, producing a organ about 3000 B.C. Written ship which survives today in the "harp" timbre alternately described as warm descriptions of the instrument date names for the harmonica in many or irritating, according to the taste of from two thousand years later, and ex­ languages. Within ten years of its in­ the listener. amples and representations of sheng vention the European mouth organ The harmonica has a separate reed have been found at grave sites in cen­ was being produced commercially in for .each note, permitting several to be tral China dating from the fifth cen­ Austria, Switzerland, and the German played simultaneously as chords or tury B.C.! Similar instruments are kingdom of Saxony. By the 1830s the double stops. Most modern har­ known throughout Asia; some scholars German harmonica industry was monicas have two reeds in each cell­ believe that free-reed instruments firmly established in the state ofWiirt­ one played by blowing and the other originated in Southeast Asia rather temberg, where the small town of by drawing-making mouth organs than China.2 Trossingen soon established itself as the only wind instruments played on European travelers apparently the harmonica capital of the world. So the inhale. Reeds are generally made rediscovered the original Asian free­ it remains to this day, though signifi­ of brass or bronze, and an astute 19th­ reed instruments several times before cant numbers of instruments are now century observer described this the principle finally caught on in the made in Brazil, East Germany, India, technology as producing "musical West. An instrument resembling the Japan, and the People's Republic of sounds from metal springs." 3 Thai khen was pictured and discussed China. The compact and inexpensive har­ by the French author Mersenne in In reed instruments such as the sax­ monica came to North America as 1636-1637, and ranks of free reeds ophone or oboe, a flexible sliver of early as 1830 and was soon carried as were incorporated into bellows-blown reed is vibrated against something. far as Mexican Texas and the Cana­ European organs later in the century. The reed of a saxophone vibrates dian prairie. Even in the days of bad Although its invention has been against the side of the mouthpiece, roads, before extensive railroads, mail­ credited to several people, the first while the oboe has a split reed, the two order catalogs, and rural free delivery, patent for the familiar mouth har­ parts of which vibrate against each the mouth harp was a familiar fixture monica was filed by Christian other. Once the reed is vibrating, the among the "sundries and novelties" Friedrich Buschmann in Berlin in length of a resonating column of air carried by the crossroads "general mer­ 1821. This was followed by an 1829 is varied to produce different pitches. cantile" store. It seems to have patent for a button-keyed instrument Free-reed instruments, like the har­ replaced the jew's harp in the Indian resembling today's melodica by the monica and concertina, have reeds trade by mid-century. Reed plates English inventor Charles Wheatstone. that vibrate without touching anything found at many late 19th-century

6 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS archeological sites indicate that har­ dismiss the small instrument as a ing and baying of the hounds, monicas were played by a broad cross childish toy instead of recognizing it their yelps as they approach their section of Americans from the South as the basis of a musical experience quarry, and the fading of the to the Aleutian Islands. As some shared by millions of Americans. It is sounds as the pack disappears in­ models retailed for as little as five cents easy to overlook the numbers in­ to the distance. The fox chase well into the present century, many volved, since most of the music motif has also been a favorite children received mouth harps as produced has been private and non­ among white harmonica players. 6 birthday gifts or found them nestling professional, played in parlors, in the toes of their Christmas schoolyards, lumbercamps, and on Train whistles and fox chases per­ stockings. porches across the continent for over vade the recorded harmonica reper­ In the second half of the 19th cen­ 150 years. Small and cheap, the har­ tory. I have located information on tury, German manufacturers began monica has been the instrument of over one hundred commercial and the mass production of harmonicas choice not only for children, travelers, field-recorded renditions to date, and, with an eye to the huge export and working people, but also for beginning with the first "hillbilly" market, applied English-language in­ buskers who have played their music recording session by Henry Whitter in scriptions to the reed covers, such as on street corners, at tobacco auctions, 1923. They were no fad of the 1920s, "Happy Children" or "Our Newsboys." and at factory gates for public dona­ however; W . C . Handy recalled simi­ They also named models after musical tions. Mouth harps have always been lar performances from his Alabama celebrities of the day such as Caruso played by people from all walks oflife, childhood around 1880: "Sometimes and the U .S. Marine Band. Some but the social status of the most visi­ we were fortunate enough to have a German instruments carried the some­ ble harp players has not encouraged French harp on which we played the what misleading inscription "French the attention of students of "serious" fox and hounds and imitated the harp," a term for the instrument from mUSiC. railroad trains - harmonica master­ the southern United States which, I Fortunately, critical neglect has not pieces." 7 The performances are re­ believe, uses "French" as a generic prevented harmonica players from markable portraits in sound which synonym for "European." Towards the making good music, much ofit unique interpret the aural environment of end of the century German harmonica to the United States. Harmonica tune rural America up to a century ago­ factories were producing up to ten books from the 1920s suggest that the sounds of the steam locomotive million instruments a year, and more the instrument's repertory embraced and the nocturnal hunt in which the than half were sold in the United familiar dance tunes, popular songs of hunters "can tell every hound by his States. The instrument was featured the day, and sentimental favorites of bark, and from the kind of bark just on the popular stage in the "dutch acts" the preceding half-century. We have how the chase is developing." 8 They of"German delineators," much in the few written descriptions of the actual are a kind of "radio drama" which way the banjo was used in the "Ethio­ repertory and playing styles of per­ preceded broadcasting by at least four pian" minstrel show. Popularity of the formers from 1830 to 1923, but the decades. These pieces also make use instrument peaked again between the instrument is well represented in of several instrumental techniques world wars, when it was used for recordings of downhome blues and which mark some of America's most music education in public schools, on country music since then. Prominent dramatic musical styles. the vaudeville stage, and on early among early recordings are entertain­ The standard ten-hole Richter pat­ blues and "hillbilly" recordings. In the ing solo pieces which, while not tern harmonica, such as the "Marine late 1940s electric "city" blues bands unique to the harmonica, were already Band" model, arranges the diatonic featured amplified harmonicas as lead closely associated with it. As Harold scale (the familiar "do-re-mi," seven­ instruments, and their records, though Courlander describes them: note scale) in such a way that blowing less popular in black communities out anywhere on the instrument pro­ since the mid-1960s, continue to be a Harmonica virtuosos are able duces the tonic chord, based on the strong influence on popular music to play the sounds of animals­ first degree of the scale, and drawing both here and abroad. goats, sheep, cows, dogs, cats, in produces the dominant 7th chord, With millions of mouth organs im­ chickens, and birds - and of cry­ based on the fifth degree of the scale. ported each year for over a century, ing babies, electric pumps, and In the railroad numbers, steam­ it seems clear that the harmonica has railroads. There are few ex­ whistle effects are played by drawing been the most popular musical instru­ perienced country Negro har­ in. Since the train pieces usually rely ment in our nation's history. A 1967 monica players who do not take on the chugging rhythms of alter­ estimate that over forty million living pride in their railroad tunes, nating chords rather than a melody Americans knew how to play mouth which reproduce the puff and line, they can be as easily resolved to harps seems equally valid today.' surge of engines, the clacking of the draw chord as the blow chord, and Why, then, the dearth ofliterature on wheels over track joints, and the most recordings and performances end the harmonica? The harp's association locomotive's whistle .. . . One on the draw. Playing the harmonica with children may bring into play popular excercise is the fox in the key of the drawing chord is the what Brian Sutton-Smith calls the chase, in which the harmonica is basic principle behind the "cross-harp" "triviality barrier." 5 We tend to called upon to imitate the pant­ Continued on overleaf

JULY-SEPTEMBER 7 AMERICA'S HARP Coleman, who recorded in the 1920s. Singing guitarists like Whitter and Continued from previous page Henry Peterson ("the Kentucky Won­ or "choked" style of blues harmonica. derbean") demonstrated "the art of The origins of this style, one of the self-accompaniment," by playing most strikingly creative devices of the mouth harps held near their faces by Afro-American tradition, will never be wire racks. Many jugbands, "hillbilly" known; but several country harp ensembles, and blues bands used the players have told me that they were mouth harp as a lead instrument in the able to figure out the "cross-harp" style period before World War II; artists for themselves after older musicians such as Buddy Moss, Sonny Terry, taught them elements of their train Hammie Nixon, Noah Lewis, Gwen pIeces. Foster, the Crook Brothers, and Dr. Other virtuoso pieces make use of Humphrey Bate have left a legacy of "note bending" or "choking" to make 78-rpm records which offer ample sounds and play pitches which are, in proof that the little harp can hold its theory, impossible to play on the in­ own in a duo or band. That Musical Pal 01 Mine· strument. This technique, as yet unex­ The airwaves became fIlled with the Happiness, friendship, inspiration, po~ plained by acoustic physicists, makes sound of French harps as weekend larity-all these and more are the .result possible the distinctively fluid phras­ "bamdance" shows began broadcasting of music. No wonder millions of happy people affectionately refer to the Hohner ing and wailing sound ofthe blues har­ in the 1920s. To paraphrase Henry Harmonicaas"That Musical Pal ofMine"• monica. It seems to occur because Whitter, hardly a Saturday night went Anyone can quicklylearn to playa Hohner there are two reeds in each harmonica by without someone playing a fox with the aid ofthe Free Instruction Book. You don't have to tune it; it is always hole - one activated by exhaling and chase over the radio. 9 In their tuned. You can't make a mistake as to tone the other by inhaling- and the reed analysis of the 1928 logbook of for the tone is fixed. You merely breathe into it the song that is craving expression not being played somehow affects the Nashville's venerable Grand 01' Opry, and out come the cheering strains of an pitch of the played reed. When the Richard Peterson and Paul DiMaggio opera, symphony or popular melody. course of the airstream flowing into a found that, while fiddle-led string Get a Hohner today and ask for the Free Instruction Book, illustrated with charts, hole is altered by opening the back of bands predominated, pictures and favorite musical selections. the throat more widely, drawing or If your dealer is out of copies, write M. Hohner, Inc., Dept. lSI, New York City. blowing harder, or otherwise deflect­ harmonica players, Humphrey Leading dealer. eveTywheTe sell ing air with the mouth, the higher­ Bate and Herman Crook, fronted Hohner Hannonicas - SOc up. pitched tone can be bent flat, almost two of the most frequently to the value of the lower-pitched reed. appearing "string" bands. The This IS probably due to some khid Of importance of the harmonica is phase-interference phenomenon which suggested by the fact that in ad­ subtracts the difference in frequency dit~on to DeFord Bailey [the between the vibrations of the two black "Harmonica Wizard" who reeds. In the lower holes the draw reed usually opened the show], six A 1925 advertisement for Hohner har­ produces a higher pitch than the blow solo or duo harmonica per­ monicas from Popular Mechanics reed, while in the upper holes the formers appeared during 1928, Magazine. reverse occurs, so bending is achieved while drawing through the lower holes and blowing through the upper holes. The end holes of the instrument pro­ duce a greater variety of bent pitches because they make up a gapped scale. Since the blow and draw notes are wider apart in holes two, three, and ten, they can be bent through a greater span of intermediate pitches. Bending even enables the harmonica to talk in simple phrases like "uh huh" and "I want my mama." Bending and other folk blues style techniques were employed by early solo performers such as Henry Whit­ ter, DeFord Bailey, W; W. MacBeth, George "Bullet" Wiliiams, William An early 20th-century catalog illustration for Ludwig harmonikas from Germany. (Courtesy McCoy, El Watson, and Jaybird of Peter Kassan)

8 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS equalling the number of solo fid­ guitar amplifiers. Not only does this pIe over fifty years under disparate dle players appearing during that make the sound louder, it dramatically circumstances, except to say that the year. JO alters attack, sustain, and timbre, differences in style between individuals de-emphasizing high overtones and is stronger than most regional char­ Charles Wolfe feels the abundance of adding an edge ofelectronic distortion acteristics. There is an intimate rela­ country harmonica in the late 1920s which complements the electric guitar. tionship between player and harp; the was peculiar to Middle Tennessee;" The harp can solo like a saxophone or resulting music reflects experience, as the early country music of other trumpet and play chords like a full outlook, and even mood more than regions is not as well documented, horn section. Many recordings of most instruments. While limited in however, it could also indicate a small Chicago-style blues quartets range, the harmonica can speak with broader national pattern. sound much like big 'jump" bands. a very personal voice, a voice familiar The "hillbilly" players tended to con­ Occasionally, players used the larger as an old childhood friend's. Perhaps centrate on the high end of the instru­ chromatic harmonica, but treated it as its versatile adaptability is the real key ment, playing melodies and ornamen­ if it were a large diatonic instrument, to the small instrument's large role in tal figures in the songs and fiddle tunes playing in another variant position the musical life of America. favored by these bands. They played often called "second cross" or "third almost entirely in the "straight-harp" position." Of the hundreds of players - Michael Licht style (rarely bending and then only on who have recorded in this style over the higher notes), and seemed to favor nearly forty years, the most influen­ 1 Liang Ming Yueh, "Observations on birdcall-like trills played by alternating tial has been Marion Walter ("Little Recent Archaeological Findings on Music in rapidly between two holes. A some­ Walter") Jacobs, for whom the word China, Neolithic to 2nd Century B.C.," in what similar style is often heard on genius is not a bit too strong. International Musicological Society: Report of the jugband recordings, though "cross­ A listing of famous virtuosos such Twelfth Congress, Berkeley 1977, eds. Daniel harp" appears on them as well.The as Sonny Terry, Walter Horton, or Heartz and Bonnie Wade (Basel, London: early Crook Brothers band featured Gwen Foster- Paganinis all-cannot Barenreiter Kassel, The American Musicological Society, 1981), pp. 848-51; Terry Miller, "Free­ twin harmonica numbers, a technique help us know the kind ofmusic played Reed Instruments in Asia: A Preliminary later made popular by Wayne Raney by the millions of typical performers. Classification," in Music East and West: Essays in and Lonnie Glosson. An examination of the information on Honor of Walter Kaufmann, ed. Thomas Noblitt Blues players of the 1920s used the commercial recordings reveals that, in (New York: Pendragon Press, 1981), pp. 63-99. "choked" style more heavily, and em­ addition to blues and country music, 2 Sybil Marcuse, A Survey of Musical In­ phasized the lower and middle notes religious music and French-Canadian struments (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), ofthe instrument. In some solo record­ dance tunes have been played on the p. 731. ings the player sang a line, then used mouth organ. The Archive of Folk 3 "On the Production of Musical Sounds the mouth harp to play an improvised Culture field recordings at the Library from Metallic Springs," Penny Magazine, October instrumental response. This practice of Congress offer a more represen­ 19, 1939. Reprinted courtesy ofSteve Gradham in Free Reed: The Concertina Newsletter, Number continued in early duo and blues band tative sampling of American har­ 15 (September/October 1973), pp. 21 - 23 . recordings, though solo harp choruses monica styles and repertory. While • Gordon Gaskill, "Never Underestimate the and continuous counter-melodies are there are many recordings by well­ Power of a Pocket Piano," Reader's Digest, July also heard. John Lee "Sonny Boy" known players like Woody Guthrie 1967. Condensed from Contemporary, June 4, Williamson made some influential and Sonny Terry, there are about five 1967. recordings in Chicago in the late 1930s hundred recordings by over one hun­ 5 Brian Sutton-Smith, "Psychology of in which the harmonica was treated dred performers from all parts of the Childlore: The Triviality Barrier," Western much as any other wind instrument in country, most of whom were never Folklore, Volume 29, Number 1 (1970), pp. 1-8. a small jazz or blues combo. Other recorded before or since. The collec­ 6 Harold Courlander, Negro Folk Music harp players took the name "Sonny tions include discs and tapes of U.S.A. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 216. Boy" following his success; one was soloists, one-man bands, harmonica 7 W. C. Handy, Father of the Blues, An Aleck "Rice" Miller who, as "Sonny duos and bands, harmonicas accom­ Autobiography (London: Sidgwick, 1957 [1941]), Boy Williamson," inspired many Delta panying other instruments, and har­ p. 15. Ed., Arna Bontemps. bluesmen through his broadcasts from monicas accompanying string bands. 8 Alan Lomax, ed. Afro-American Blues and Helena, Arkansas on the King Biscuit There are examples of Irish, Scan­ Game Songs, AFS L4 (Library of Congress: Time radio show from 1941 to 1974. dinavian, old-time country, French­ Washington, D.C., 1956). Nearby Memphis soon became a har­ Canadian, Cajun, gospel, and blues 9 Norm Cohen, "Henry Whitter: His Life monica hotbed, although many of the music performed on the harmonica. and Music," JEMF Quarterly, Volume 11, Part best players moved on to Chicago, Popular and novelty numbers, fox 2, Number 38 (1975), pp. 57-66. drawn by its more active club and chases, train imitations, and stories 10 Richard A. Peterson and Paul DiMaggio, "The Early Opry: Its Hillbilly Image in Fact and recording scene. with musical interludes are all Fancy," Journal of Country Music, Volume 4, After World War II blues players represented. Number 2 (Summer 1973), pp. 39-51. electrified their sound by cupping har­ It is difficult to generalize about the "Charles K. Wolfe, Tennessee Strings: The monicas and microphones in their harmonica material in the Archive's Story ofCountry Music in Tennessee (Knoxville: The hands and playing through small holdings, collected by a variety ofpeo­ University of Tennessee Press, 1977), p. 60.

JDLY-SEPTEMBER 9 The introductory pages of Introduc­ tion and Inventory include a discussion of the role of the cylin'der phonograph in early cultural documentation and a description of the work of the Federal Cylinder Project. Those sections are framed by a pr~face by AlanJabbour, an afterword by the project's first director, Thomas Vennum, Jr., and a selected bibliography. The inventory of cylinder collec­ tions follows. Organized by collector and cultural group, it lists the number of cylinders in each collection, the total actually duplicated, the sponsor­ ing organization, and the various ref­ erence numbers used by the Library for the originals and tape copies. In addition, the inventory cites the con­ tents of the collections, the recording date and location, and the immediate provenance of the cylinders them­ selves, whether tr'ansferred from the National Archives in 1948, received by exchange from the Mary C. Wheel­ wright Museum in 1972, or whatever. Volume 1 concludes with three separate indexes to the inventory. The first index is by American Indian groups. That is followed by one for other cultural groups and regions, and finally by an index for collectors, institutions, and sponsors. A foreword by Sue Carole De Vale introduces Early Anthologies. In it she describes the work of American psy­ chologist Benjamin Ives Gilman and A GUIDE TO Austrian-born Erich Moritz von FIELD CYLINDER COLLECTIONS Hornbostel. Gilman is well known for IN FEDERAL AGENCIES his transcriptions ahd analysis ofJesse Walter Fewkes's pioneering recordings of Zuni and Hopi songs. His work on the Fewkes recordings was commis­ The American Folklife Center is Hawaii, Polynesia, Jamaica, Den­ sioned by Mary Hemenway, as was pleased to announce the availability of mark, Africa, and other areas of the his project to record "exotic music" at two volumes in the twenty-volume cat­ world. Volume 8, Early Anthologies, the World's Columbian Exposition. alog series The Federal Cylinder Project: describes 101 cylinder recordings by The meticulousness with which Gil­ A Guide to Field Cylinder Recordings in . Benjamin Ives Gilman of musical per­ man carried out his assignment en­ Federal Agencies (Studies in American formances at the "Javanese," "Sa­ abled him to record, among other Folklife, No.3). The first volume in moan," "Turkish," and "Vancouver events, an entire gamelan perfor­ the series, Introduction and Inventory, lists Island Indian" exhibits at the World's mance in the "Java Village," and to by collection the more than 10,000 Columbian Exposition in Chicago in document the tuning of instruments. 1893. The catalog also includes infor­ A doctor of chemistry, Hornbostel field-recorded wax cylinders for which mation on the "Demonstration Collec­ went on to become Carl Stumpfs preservation tape copies exist at the tion" of 120 wax cylinder recordings assistant in musicological and psy­ Library of Congress. The recordings of music from many nations edited by chological research at the Psychologi­ document a wide range of Native Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and cal Institute in Berlin. In 1906 the American cultural groups, along with released shortly after World War I by institute became the Berlin Phono­ songs and spoken-word materials from the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv, gramm Archiv, which Hornbostel various parts of North America, which he directed. directed until 1933. As De Vale notes:

10 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Javanese musicians and dancers at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. (Prints and Photographs Division)

The initial issuance of Horn­ The Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide FOLK RECORD bostel's "Demonstration Collec­ to Field Cylinder Collections in Federal tion," the first anthology of Agencies. Volume 1 - Introduction and LIST recordings of world music, was Inventory, by Erika Brady, Maria in itself a historical landmark. It LaVigna, Dorothy Sara Lee, and "American Folk Music and Folklore contained some of the earliest Thomas Vennum, Jr. , 11Opp.; $8.50 Recordings 1983: A Selected List" is and most representative record­ (Stock no. S/N030-000-00153-2). now available. The annotated list of ings of "exotic" musics. Among Volume 8 - Early Anthologies, edited by 31 records and tapes released in 1983 them were wax cylinders which Dorothy Sara Lee with a foreword by was chosen by panelists Norman had been analyzed in the pub­ Sue Carole De Vale, 96 pp.; $8.00 Cohen from theJohn Edwards Memo­ lications that laid the founda­ (Stock no. S/N030-000- 00154- 1) . rial Foundation, William Ivey of the tions for the discipline now Both volumes may be purchased from Country Music Foundation, Anthony called ethnomusicology. the Superintendent of Documents, Seeger from Indiana University's Government Printing Office, Wash­ Archives ofTraditional Music, ethnic The catalog that follows De Vale's in­ ington, D .C. 20402 . Remittance, music specialist Richard K. Spotts­ troduction to Volume 8 is organized made out to the Superintendent of wood, Jeff Todd Titon from Tufts by cylinder. It includes the various Documents, must accompany orders, University, and Center staff. The list numbering systems, the duration of and reference should be made to the includes recordings of old-time coun­ the entire cylinder in minutes and stock number. try music, bluegrass, blues, gospel, seconds, a comment on the sound cowboy, Cajun, Norteiio, and other quality, a description of the item musical traditions found within the recorded, the name and identification United States. The recordings ex­ of the performer, if known, and the emplify "root" traditions and provide date of the original recording. Each liner notes or accompanying booklets. entry concludes with notes which Free copies of the list may be obtained relate the selection to other recordings, from the American Folklife Center, provide specific technical information, Library of Congress, Washington, and so forth. D.C. 20540.

JULY-SEPTEMBER 11 NEW especially the traditional ballad, and INTERAGENCY Native American literature and reli­ BOARD MEMBERS gion, particularly Navaho. In 1979 AGREEMENT Toelken directed the Center's Mon­ The Folklife Center is pleased to an­ tana Folklife Survey, a three-month On May 11,1984 Donald C . Cur­ nounce that J. Barre Toelken, pro­ field project to document traditional ran, Associate Librarian ofCongress, fessor of English at the University of folk culture throughout the state. signed into effect an interagency Oregon, and BruceJackson, Director BruceJackson received an M.A. in agreement between the Library of of the Center for Studies in American literary criticism from Indiana Univer­ Congress and the National Park Ser­ Culture at the State University of New sity in 1962 and was a Junior Fellow vice to facilitate the implemention of York at Buffalo, have been appointed at Harvard University from 1963 recommendations contained in Cul­ to six-year terms on its Board of through 1967, studying folklore and tural Conservation: The Protection of Cul­ Trustees. The appointments were sociology. He has been the Director of tural Heritage in the United States (see made by Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the Center for Studies in American Folklife Center News, Volume VI, President pro tempore of the Sen­ Culture at the State University of New Number 4, October-December 1983). ate, and Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., York at Buffalo since 1972 and has The two-year agreement calls for the (D-Mass.) Speaker of the House, been teaching courses in folklore creation of a steering committee to be respectively. studies, documentary history and criti­ composed ofCenter director Alan Jab­ After completing his Ph. D. in cism, and law at the University since bour, or his designated representative, medieval literature at the University 1967. His writings have focused and the Associate Director for Cul­ of Oregon in 1964, Barre Toelken primarily on Afro-American culture, tural Resources of the National Park . joined the English faculty there in aspects of criminal justice, and the Service, or his designated represen­ 1966 to begin teaching regular courses study of folklore. He is also a film­ tative. The committee, which will in folklore, mythology, and Native maker and photographer. meet at least three times in 1984 and American literature. He is now chair­ Jackson, currently President of the at least once a year thereafter, may in­ man of the institution's Folklore and American Folklore Society, is com­ vite representatives of other agencies Ethnic Studies Program. pleting a six-year term on the Society's and public or private organizations to From 1971 through 1976 Toelken Executive Board. He was recently the meetings as deemed appropriate. was a member of the American elected to be the next editor oftheJour­ The development of an interagency Folklore Society's Executive Board. nal of American Folklore. He is also co­ agreement was a key administrative He has been editor of the Journal of director of an American Folklore action recommended by former Secre­ American Folklore, Oregon Folklore Society group that is producing a tary of the InteriorJames Watt in his Bulletin, Northwest Folklore, and regional booklet to define folklore studies and letter to the President and Congress editor of Western Folklore. His own outline the nature of folklore research dated June 1, 1983 which accompa­ writings have dealt with oral literature, and teaching in America today. nied his summary of the report.

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