MUSIC and DANCE Guide

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 30: MUSIC AND DANCE
BY TOPIC – Music ; Dance
Guide

MUSIC AND DANCE Guide

“‘Fiddler’ John” with his donated violin. [kingman_017c]


TAGS: music and dance guide, Appalachian ballads, folk-dancing, mountain musical instruments, dulcimers, banjos, fiddles, fiddlers, correspondence, narratives, musicians, books, singers, workers, scholars


MUSIC and DANCE Guide

In developing a music guide it is difficult to separate music and dance at Pine Mountain Settlement School. They are often integrally intertwined — as they should be.

Music and dance both played significant roles in the development of the School and the valley community at Pine Mountain. Many leading scholars of Appalachian ballads, folk-dancing, and mountain musical instruments, particularly the dulcimer, have contributed to the resources found at Pine Mountain Settlement and have used the archive at Pine Mountain for their research. Staff, students, visitors, and scholars who worked or used resources at the School have left a rich and growing collection of letters, transcriptions, and observations related to both music and dance.

The narrow hollows, the extensive family histories, the rich oral tradition, the love of celebration, and the extended historical trail leading back to European sources are gathered in any deep dive into the history of the music of Appalachia.


MUSIC and DANCE Guide: Resources

The following resources provide a brief overview of materials held at the School:

ABNER BOGGS PMSS Community (1881-1954) – Well-known for his rich repertoire of Appalachian songs and ballads as well as his tall tales.

ALAN and ELIZABETH LOMAX Visitors – Biography and list of recordings. Alan Lomax and his wife Elizabeth, gathered music from the PMSS area in 1937 and visited the School. He was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. For more information, see also ALAN LOMAX Biography on the Library of Congress website.

BOOKS Dance Collection A-L Includes music
BOOKS Dance Collection M-Z
Includes music

BOOKS Music and Recordings from Courtney Lomax//Moser Donation

CECIL SHARP AND MAUDE KARPELES Visit to PMSS – The 1917 visit by Cecil Sharp, a song and dance collector from England, was one of the most important moments in the revival of folk dance. Maude Karpeles was his assistant.

DULCIMERS AT PINE MOUNTAIN [Post – Dancing in the Cabbage Patch]

EVELYN K. WELLS Staff Interim Director – Her interest in folk music began at PMSS while serving as the School’s secretary from 1916 to 1931 and interim director in 1931. She went on to become prominent in the study and teaching of English Literature and Anglo-American folk dance and song at Wellesley College. 

‘FIDDLER’ JOHN LEWIS Community – Brief biography of John Lewis and his wife, Louize, who were well-known in the School’s early days for their entertaining stories, many of which are recorded.

JESS PATTERSON Staff – Dulcimer-maker; PMSS worker in the 1930s to 1960s.

LEONARD WARD ROBERTS Staff  – PMSS English teacher from 1950 to 1953 and folklore scholar. 

LORAINE WYMAN AND HOWARD BROCKWAY Visitors – PMSS visitors, 1916. Loraine Wyman was a singer and song-collector, Brockway was her accompanist.

MARY ELIZABETH BARNICLE AND TILLMAN CADLE COLLECTION  at East Tennessee State University
Includes recording made by Fern Hayes and Georgia Dodd in 1949 and collected by Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and Tillman Cadle. Recordings are not on site at PMSS.

 Disc 367, Side A: John Riley, Georgia Dodd, 1948-08-07
 Disc 368, Side A: John Riley, Georgia Dodd, 1948-08-07
 Disc 368, Side B: Carrion crow, Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 368, Side B: Cock robin, Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 369, Side A: Carrion crow, Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 369, Side A: Cock robin, Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 370, Side A: Aunt Sal’s song, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 370, Side B: Aunt Sal’s song, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 371, Side A: Riddle song, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 371, Side A: The cuckoo, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 371, Side B: The nightingale, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 372, Side A: Riddle song, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 372, Side A: The cuckoo, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07 
 Disc 372, Side B: The nightingale, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 373, Side A: Frog went a-courtin’, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 373, Side B: Good ol’ man, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 374, Side A: Frog went a-courtin’, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 374, Side B: Good ol’ man, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes, 1948-08-07
 Disc 375, Side A: Aunt Sal’s song, Georgia Dodd and Fern Hayes 1948-08-07

For access contact: 
Archives of Appalachia ;
archives@etsu.edu

Phone: 423-439-4338 | Fax: 423-439-4126
PO Box 70295 | 344 J L Seehorn Rd.
Johnson City, TN 37614

MAY DAY Guide – This annual celebration at PMSS was particularly important in carrying forward the English Country Dance traditions that Pine Mountain adopted as part of its cultural heritage.

MAY GADD Visitor – Head of Country Dance & Song Society of America for 35 years; English country dancing expert, 1930s-1970s; visited PMSS several times.

MINING AND PROTEST SONGS

PMSS Girls’ Octet 1936-1937 – A PMSS student singing group that toured the U.S., including a presentation at the White House, Washington, DC in 1937.

PMSS Song Ballads and Other Songs 1923 [BOOK]

RICHARD CHASE Staff – PMSS worker and visitor in the 1940s; folklorist.

SINGING WILLIE NOLAN Community (1881-1970) – Old-fashioned ballad singer who lived in the PMSS community.

Town Hall New York Fundraising – On November 21, 1938, students and staff from the Pine Mountain Settlement School presented an evening of Folk-Music and Folk-Dance “for the benefit of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Kentucky.” The program was planned to support the School’s Silver Jubilee.


See Also:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Music

BIBLIOGRAPHY Music and Dance Collections at PMSS
DANCE
DANCE Folk Dance Festivals 1939-1941
DANCING GREEN
DANCE Guide
EVELYN K. WELLS 1927 Correspondence Ballads and Copyright
EVENTS George Washington Ball
EVENTS Thanksgiving Ball
MULTIMEDIA
Wells Record 14 – PMSS Folk Songs and Dances 1913-1928

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