My career ideas swirl around my head and change a lot, but one thing that stays the same is my Dream Job, which...doesn't exactly have a real title, so I'll explain. ~~
In and around maybe 8th or 9th grade, I was reading an article in Time magazine about the resurrection of a style of church music called Shape Note Singing, or more commonly called the Sacred Harp. This is from way back in the early 1800s when new Americans were poor and illiterate and couldn't read music, so instead they matched pitches to different shapes to read on a page. They had no pianos or pipe organs. It was created so that anybody who could talk could also sing along, and everybody could lead and keep the beat from inside their "hollow square" seating arrangement. This style was used up and down the South Eastern United States, and it burrowed deep into Appalachian mountain communities. It was the main mode of congregational singing in that region for decades, and in some places lasted through the 1950s and 60s. This particular style has a haunting harmonic form, and it's distinctly Southern American. But unfortunately this important specimen of musicology seemed lost for the future generations to study, listen to, and most importantly, sing.
This is where Alan Lomax comes in. Lomax traveled the United States recording songs and tales that people had brought with them from other lands, and that had morphed into the roots of traditional American music when they came to this country. Although he did lots work with different organizations, his most important field recordings were probably made during his time in the 1930s at the good ol' Library of Congress. He went to teeny little churches in the South and recorded Sacred Harp music, he recorded the descendant of African slaves singing "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" (which was featured in the wonderfully soundtracked film O Brother Where Art Thou, sung by Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss), many fiddle tunes, work songs, children songs, God songs, sad Irish songs and happy drinking songs.
He collected memories of a culture where singing and storytelling was a part of everyday life. He also recorded very rare performances and interviews with the folk- and -bluespeople of the day, like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Muddy Waters, people who still influence musicians today.
My dream job is to be wandering around the world with a tape recorder, like Lomax, asking people to sing me their songs. Music represents so much of a culture--it tells of history, of prosperity or economic depression, politics, violence, faith, happiness, community, work, and play. It tells of our evolution as a people and a society. I like the idea of preservation. I love the feeling that I am singing the same songs my Norwegian grandparents did in their Lutheran church, more than 150 years later. I love that I can find an obscure but beautiful Irish song from the 1800s called "On Raglan Road" after hearing it in the movie In Bruges, because in the 1960's a man named Luke Kelly and his band the Dubliners had the sense to remember it and sing it over 40 years earlier. I love that the African American spirituals have become some of the first songs we sing as children, whether we're Christian, African American, or not.
So don't be shy if I come up to you with a tape recorder and ask you to sing for me. It's the continuation of an American tradition that shouldn't be lost.
In and around maybe 8th or 9th grade, I was reading an article in Time magazine about the resurrection of a style of church music called Shape Note Singing, or more commonly called the Sacred Harp. This is from way back in the early 1800s when new Americans were poor and illiterate and couldn't read music, so instead they matched pitches to different shapes to read on a page. They had no pianos or pipe organs. It was created so that anybody who could talk could also sing along, and everybody could lead and keep the beat from inside their "hollow square" seating arrangement. This style was used up and down the South Eastern United States, and it burrowed deep into Appalachian mountain communities. It was the main mode of congregational singing in that region for decades, and in some places lasted through the 1950s and 60s. This particular style has a haunting harmonic form, and it's distinctly Southern American. But unfortunately this important specimen of musicology seemed lost for the future generations to study, listen to, and most importantly, sing.
This is where Alan Lomax comes in. Lomax traveled the United States recording songs and tales that people had brought with them from other lands, and that had morphed into the roots of traditional American music when they came to this country. Although he did lots work with different organizations, his most important field recordings were probably made during his time in the 1930s at the good ol' Library of Congress. He went to teeny little churches in the South and recorded Sacred Harp music, he recorded the descendant of African slaves singing "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" (which was featured in the wonderfully soundtracked film O Brother Where Art Thou, sung by Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss), many fiddle tunes, work songs, children songs, God songs, sad Irish songs and happy drinking songs.
He collected memories of a culture where singing and storytelling was a part of everyday life. He also recorded very rare performances and interviews with the folk- and -bluespeople of the day, like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Muddy Waters, people who still influence musicians today.
My dream job is to be wandering around the world with a tape recorder, like Lomax, asking people to sing me their songs. Music represents so much of a culture--it tells of history, of prosperity or economic depression, politics, violence, faith, happiness, community, work, and play. It tells of our evolution as a people and a society. I like the idea of preservation. I love the feeling that I am singing the same songs my Norwegian grandparents did in their Lutheran church, more than 150 years later. I love that I can find an obscure but beautiful Irish song from the 1800s called "On Raglan Road" after hearing it in the movie In Bruges, because in the 1960's a man named Luke Kelly and his band the Dubliners had the sense to remember it and sing it over 40 years earlier. I love that the African American spirituals have become some of the first songs we sing as children, whether we're Christian, African American, or not.
So don't be shy if I come up to you with a tape recorder and ask you to sing for me. It's the continuation of an American tradition that shouldn't be lost.
Love this idea, and you don't have to go far to do this. My friend, Larry Long does this for a living and there is a yearning for the work to continue. check out his website, and I'll get you his phone if you want. He still plays with Pete Seeger (for his birthday); he'd love to meet you!
ReplyDeleteWill we see you at the Minnesota State Sacred Harp Singing Convention at the end of September? http://freude.com/mnfasola/convention.html
ReplyDeleteChris--I would love to meet Larry and ask him about his work. Could you give me his email address?
ReplyDelete