Folklife Center News, Volume 20 Number 3 (Summer 1998). American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
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CENTERNEWS SUMMER 1998 • VOLUME XX, NUMBER 3 American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress Administrative Office TELEPHONE AND ONLINE Fax: 202707-2076 INFORMATION RESOURCES Reference Service Tel: 202 707-5510 American Folklife Center publica ti ons (i ncluding Fo lklife Ce nter Board of Trustees News), a calendar of events, collec tion guides, general information, Congressional Appointees and connections to a selection of William L. Kinney Jr. , Chair, other Internet services related to South Caroli na folklife a re ava il able on the James F. Hoy, Vice-chair, Kansa s Internet. Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska The American Folklife Center LC Web is available through Presidential Appointees was crea ted in 1976 by the U.s. Con your local World Wide Web service. Joseph D. Duffey, Director of th e gress to "preserve and present The Center's home page can be United States Information Agency American folk life" through pro accessed from the library'S main grams of research, documentation, menu. The direct URL for th e Ex Officio Members archival preservation, reference ser Center's home page is: http : James H. Billington, Librarian of vice, live performance, exhibition, / /lcweb .loc. gov/ fo lklife/ Congress publication, and training. The Cen 1. Michael Heyman, Secretary of ter incorporates the Archive of Folk Folkline, an information ser the Smithsonian In stitution Culture, which was established in vice providing timely information William Ivey, Chairman, the Music Division of the Library of on the field of fo lklore and folklife, Nationa l Endowm en t for the Arts Congress in 1928 and is now one of including training and professional William Ferris, Chai rman, Nationa l the largest collections of ethno opportunities and news items of na Endowment for the Humanities graphic material from the United tional interest, is available through Alan Jabbour, Director, American States and around the world. the above Internet servers. For tele Folklife Center phone service, call the Folklife Reading Room: 202 707-5510. Administration EDITOR'S NOTES Alan Jabbour, Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Interns Acquisitions James Hardin, Editor David A. Ta ylor, Editorial Advisor Joseph c. Hickerson, Head Interns in Washington don't have Processing John Biggs, Library of Congress Graphics Unit, Designer a very savory reputation these Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist days, although intern positions, Nora Yeh, Archivist Folklife Center News publishes ar often unpaid, continue to be popu Programs lar at many federal agencies. Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist ticles on the programs and activi Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program ti es of the American Folklife Cen Folklife Center News can't hope to Coordinator ter, as well as other articles on tra correct an impression created per Mary Hufford, Fo lklife Specia list ditional expressive culture. It is haps by the national media, but David A. Taylor, Fo lklife Specialist available free of charge from the Publications Library of Congress, Am erican continued on page 15 James Hardin, Editor Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. Public Events 20540-4610. Folklife Center News Theadocia Austen, Coordinator does not publish announcements Cover: The Folk Alliance honored the Reference from other institutions or reviews American Folklife Center with a Lifetime Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife of books from publishers other than Achievement Award at the Alliance's Specialist the Library of Congress. Readers annual conference in Memphis, Tennes Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, who would like to comment on see, February 12. Jim Hirsch, executive Coordinator Center activities or newsletter ar director of the Old-Time Music School in Stephanie A. Hall, Automation ticles may address their remarks to Chicago and co-chair of the Lifetime Ann Hoog, Fo lklife Specia list the editor. Achievement Award Committee (left), presented the award to Judith McCulloh, chair of the Center's Board of Trustees, and Alan Jabbour, director of the Cen ter. Photo by James Hardin 2 Folklife Center News Alllerican Folklife Center Receives Folk Alliance Lifetillle Achievelllent Award Members of the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center proudly display the Center's Lifetime Achieve ment Award at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, February 12. From left to right: James Hoy, William Kinney, Judith McCulloh, Juris Ubans, Alan Jabbour, Winston Tabb (Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress), and Nina Archabal. Photo by James Hardin The American Folklife Center has fields of folk music and dance. honorees have included Pete received a Lifetime Achievement There are three categories for the Seeger, Alan Lomax, Woody Award from the North American awards, for living performers, de Guthrie, Moe Asch, Utah Phillips, Folk Music and Dance Alliance, ceased performers, and for a busi and Chris Strachwitz. one of three presented this year in ness or organization that has con The North American Folk Music Memphis, Tennessee, at the Folk tributed in non-performing ways, and Dance Alliance exists to foster Alliance's Tenth Anniversary Con such as recording, archiving, pro and promote traditional, contempo ference, February 12-15. The other ducing, or otherwise facilitating rary, and multicultural folk music, two winners were Jean Richie and folk music and dance. dance, and related performing arts Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter. The recipients are chosen each in North American. The Folk Alli The Lifetime Achievement year from a list of nominees by a ance seeks to strengthen and ad Awards program of the Folk Alli panel of electors who have been in vance organizational and individual ance is designed to honor mem the field for many years and thus initiatives in folk music and dance bers of the folk community who have the experience and perspec through education, networking, ad have made lifelong contributions tive to judge the lasting nature of vocacy, and professional and field to sustaining and enriching the the nominees' contributions. Past development. Summer 1998 3 Folksinger Jean Richie also received a Lifetime Achieve ment Award from the Folk Alliance. She is shown here with folksinger Tom Paxton (left) and award committee co chair Jim Hirsch. (See Lucy Long's article in this issue for comments on Richie's contri butions to the dulcimer tradition in Appalachia.) Photo by James Hardin Prominent folklorist and former head of the Archive of Folk Culture, Alan Lomax (center) was a visitor at the February meeting of the Center's board of trustees, along with his daughter, Anna Lomax Chairetakis (right). The meeting was held in Memphis to coincide with the Folk Alliance annual conference. Photo by James Hardin Retiring members of the Center's board of trustees (left to right) : Nina Archabal (Minne sota), Carolyn Hecker (Maine), Juris Ubans (Maine), and Judith McCulloh (Illinois). Photo by James Hardin 4 Folklife Center News Appalachian Plucked Dulcitner: Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture By Lucy Long Since the beginning of the twenti eth century, popular images of the dulcimer have tended towards the romantic, associating the instru ment with the notion of Appala chian residents as "our Elizabe than ancestors" and with simplis tic conceptions of folk music as a spontaneous, natural outpouring of musical tradition. Repertoires were assumed to be limited to older pieces (balladry, play party songs, and religious hymnody harking back to the British Isles) and playing styles limited to simple melodic lines with drone accompaniments, requiring little technical skill or musical talent. Even the origins of the instrument itself were shrouded in the mists of the past, leaving it open to speculation and mythologizing. Popular magazines and literature portrayed the dulcimer as an an cient instrument played by bare foot, long-haired maidens who sat in front of their log cabins, dream Stanley Hicks, 1980. Photo by Lucy Long ily strumming their hand-hewn instruments while singing medi eval English epics. Thus began a lifelong interest ceived a grant from the Parsons My own Appalachian heritage in the dulcimer, one that led me to, Fund for Ethnography in the Li made me suspicious of this image. among other places, the Archive of brary of Congress, which I used to My relatives in northwestern Folk Culture at the Library of Con cover travel expenses to continue North Carolina did not seem very gress, where I did an internship in my research. The Archive's mate Elizabethan to me, and most of 1978. Archive head Joe Hickerson rials have enabled me to speculate them had not seen a dulcimer un quickly discovered my interest more knowledgeably about the til I showed them one. My own in and has continuously fed my en musical development of the dul troduction to the instrument was thusiasm and curiosity over the cimer. in high school, in the early 1970s, years. In 1983 I began a finding aid when an older brother bought one on the dulcimer, noting down the he Archive's holdings con at a gift shop in a summer resort tuning, playing style, and reper tain over forty-one collec town. Then, when I heard moun toire of each recording in the tions that include dulci tain residents play the dulcimer, it Archive; and I have incorporated T mer material. The earliest sounded much more vigorous and this work into numerous papers recordings were made in 1934 at energetic than the few existing and articles, including my doc the American Folk Song Festival in commercial recordings. toral dissertation. In 1997 I re Ashland, Kentucky. Other record Summer 1998 5 fuller picture of the pur Variations in shape and construc pose of the recordings and tion further suggest "pockets of the relationship between tradition" rather than a homog the collectors and their in enous, pan-Appalachian regional formants, a perspective dulcimer tradition. that is needed to under Toward the end of the 1800s, the stand the selection process settlement school and crafts move behind the pieces and ments brought the dulcimer to the playing styles recorded.