Samuel P. Bayard |
~THE BAYARD COLLECTIONS~ |
Between 1928 and 1963, Samuel Bayard and his collaborators traveled throughout southwestern Pennsylvania collecting and transcribing nearly 1000 traditional folk tunes. The intent was to "show something of what the older Pennsylvania tradition really consisted of" - "pre-radio, pre-tape, pre-TV" (Bayard, 1982, p. 2). Their sources were largely country dance fiddlers, but also fifers, who carried on a once widespread but now relatively obscure tradition of American marching music. Most of the tunes we play on this recording are taken from the Bayard collection, and all are traditional tunes played in Pennsylvania until recent times.
Though
raised in rural Pennsylvania, Mark and I grew up unaware of
this rich musical heritage and as aspiring traditional
musicians we turned to the better known tunes and instrumental
styles of southern Appalachia. We met up in Pittsburgh and
played together for some time before we came across the Bayard
collection and other regional musical sources. Gradually we've
added Pennsylvania tunes more and more to what we play. While
we treasure the southern old-time tradition, we've found great
satisfaction in the discovery of this music from home. |
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Mrs.
Sarah (Gray) Armstrong |
Bayard's collection reflects the musical heritage of the first Europeans to inhabit Pennsylvania, predominately the Scots-Irish, Irish, English and Germans, and includes several distinct musical styles. We haven't tried to represent these styles equally, but play the tunes we found ourselves drawn to, probably leaning toward Appalachian rhythms and tonalities. We also haven't tried to imitate closely any of the old players' instrumental styles. (Archival recordings are available for musicians interested in that project). Instead we play here in the style we've learned and developed over the years, figuring it's better to do what we know than to imitate something out of context. However, we have tried to keep arrangements true to the instrumentation, rhythm and feel of the tunes we selected. We feature fiddle and banjo on most of the tunes, a common enough pairing in the region even if never dominant in the old days. Mark adopts some of the choppy bowing of the old Pennsylvania fiddlers in places. With the banjo there's less to go on; Bayard mentions banjos, but to my knowledge there's no identified regional banjo style to follow. Otherwise we stick to instruments recognized in Pennsylvania tradition, such as guitar, accordion and harmonica. I use wooden flutes as a substitute for the fife on the few tunes we include from the fifing tradition. Hopefully we capture the spirit of the tradition in this recording, adapting our playing to the tunes, rather than the other way around. Richard
Withers and Mark Tamsula, Pittsburgh PA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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This recording is our second effort to present something of the rich tradition of fiddle and fife music in southwestern Pennsylvania, this time including songs from the region. Almost all of our tunes and songs are taken from the collections of Samuel Preston Bayard, who traveled throughout the area in the early to mid-20th century, preserving a musical heritage that otherwise might have been lost as its last active participants passed away.
Richard
Withers and Mark Tamsula, Pittsburgh PA |
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