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‘Appalachian Celts And Their Music’
By Charles H. Ball
Here are three quotes which you might enjoy:
[quote]When the Celtic people settled the Appalachian region they had their hands full: Indians, bears, wilderness, weather, topography ..........you name it.
They were not inclined to worry much about their roots, except the ones they planted in the ground.
All they knew was that they had escaped tyranny, poverty, and oppression of one kind or another and were now planted in a new world, a world they had yet to conquer.
And this conquest would be a full-time job.
Today, three centuries later, most of their descendants have no sense of being Irish, or Scots-Irish, or Welsh, or Scottish.[/quote]
Have they ALL really forgotten their roots - I find that hard to believe
[quote]The history of the Scots-Irish is complex and is widely misunderstood.
To understand it, we need to know a little about the settlement of Scotland in the remote past.
Highland Scotland was settled by Gaelic immigrants from Ireland.
In those days what is now Scotland was called Alba and what is now Ireland was known as Scotia.
The inhabitants of Scotia were called Scots.
So the Gaelic Scots went to the highlands of Alba, and as a result Alba eventually became known as Scotland.
These highlanders spoke Gaelic and were very different from the lowland Scots who spoke a dialect of English.
Most of our Scottish images are drawn from the highlanders, with their clans and their plaids and their bagpipes and their wars.
We don't seem to think of the lowlanders, who were more similar to the people of the northern counties of England.
They had their own traditions, their own bagpipes (quite unlike the pipes of the highlanders), their own songs (in their own language), and their own dances.
It is this group of lowlanders who were ultimately to have the greatest influence in Appalachia.[/quote]
Yes, their own Bagpipes, Lowland & Scottish Smallpipes & yet these are hardly played over here anymore, the big Highlanders Pipes obviously won the day - well after all, it is impossible to compete wi' thon big beasties ':!:'
[quote]The early settlement of Appalachia by the Celts included Irish, Scots-Irish, and lowland Scots, as well as many Welsh.
Few highlanders came into Appalachia.
Strangely, the highlanders found their home in the coastal areas of North Carolina in such places as Wilimington and other settlements along the Cape Fear River.
They got as far as the Piedmont, but few ventured farther into the Appalachian highlands.[/quote]
Interesting! I hadn't realised that few Highlanders ever reached the Appalachian area
Anyway check it out for yourself:
http://www.leyline.org/cra/articles/app_celts_music.html
Also, here are some fascinating quotes from that excellent paper by Mike Seeger:
Firstly, he explains just exactly where Appalachia is:
[quote]"The Appalachian region stretches from the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian mountain regions of Virginia, West Virginia, southward through Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and barely into Georgia and Alabama."[/quote]
Then he lets us know who settled there:
[quote]"After Native Americans, the first people to settle in this region came from the British Isles in the mid-1700's. These early settlers included Scots-Irish but were primarily English. A small number of immigrants later came to this area from Germany."
"Little slavery existed in the area largely because the hilly land didn't lend itself to the plantation system of the flat land to the east and south."
"Communities were also nearly self sufficient culturally, and almost everyone could either sing, play an instrument, dance, or tell a story, usually in a style distinctly their own. English-language culture was dominant."[/quote]
But he doesn't actually say which accents or dialects were most common.
[quote]"The most popular instruments were the jew's harp and fiddle. Less often one would encounter a plucked or hammer dulcimer, some other home made instrument or possibly a flute or fife."[/quote]
It is widely believed that the mountain dulcimer actually migrated into the Southern Appalachians from a German antecedant in Pennsyvania - the scheitholt.
[quote]"In the early and mid-1800's a few Anglo Americans began taking notice of African-American banjo music and songs, adapting them to their own use. Some were professional entertainers who learned to pick the banjo and composed songs based on what they heard African-Americans doing..."
"With emancipation in the 1860's, more African-American people moved into the mountain areas, which tended to be less racially polarized. In addition to bringing their native banjo to the region, by the late 1800's African-Americans had also introduced newly evolved guitar styles along with a new type of song, the intensely personal blues. In time the banjo and the guitar were blended with the old fiddle and song traditions to create the beginnings of a truly American string band tradition."
"Around the turn of the century some European instruments such as the french harp (harmonica), mandolin, and the recently invented autoharp made their appearance by way of mail order catalogues, travelling salesmen, and the increasing contact with national urban culture."
"Rural men and women didn't "play by note" (read music) and each devised their own personal way of playing rural-style music on their new instruments. This period between about 1870 and 1930 was the golden age of old-time southern Appalachian music."[/quote]
I'm sure most of the country musicians in Ulster also learned their music by ear, from one another.
[quote]"By the mid 1900's fewer and fewer singers and musicians were transmitting local songs or participating in old-time family music, since virtually all were influenced by or learning totally from recordings by professional country-style musicians. The old songs and ways, which had built on centuries of tradition, especially unaccompanied singing and the quiet instruments such as the trump (jew's harp), fiddle, dulcimer, and later the banjo, simply went out of fashion."[/quote]
There appears to have been a similar decline of country musicians in Ulster too during the first half of the 20th century, if my findings in North Antrim are any indication, see:
[quote]"The banjo and fiddle gave way to the guitar, which became the most prominent instrument amongst both professional and amateur players."[/quote]
The Folk revival, from the 60's on, probably did a lot to spread an interest in the Guitar too, here in Ulster. Other factors which contributed to a decline in the interest for Old Time Music, as well as the old tunes here. I'm sure the first point Mike makes on this, would have been just as relevent here, aye and perhaps even his second too?
[quote]"Why did formerly rural people buy into this? For one thing, it was certainly easier to tune a radio than to learn to play an instrument."
"The older songs were associated with old times and hard work, with being "hicks" or "hillbillies," someone from the "lower" rural class."[/quote]
Another excellent look at this region is that of Charles H Ball, in his
‘Appalachian Celts And Their Music’
Here are three quotes which you might enjoy:
[quote]"When the Celtic people settled the Appalachian region they had their hands full: Indians, bears, wilderness, weather, topography ..........you name it. They were not inclined to worry much about their roots, except the ones they planted in the ground. All they knew was that they had escaped tyranny, poverty, and oppression of one kind or another and were now planted in a new world, a world they had yet to conquer. And this conquest would be a full-time job. Today, three centuries later, most of their descendants have no sense of being Irish, or Scots-Irish, or Welsh, or Scottish."[/quote]
Have they ALL really forgotten their roots - I find that hard to believe?
[quote]"The history of the Scots-Irish is complex and is widely misunderstood. To understand it, we need to know a little about the settlement of Scotland in the remote past. Highland Scotland was settled by Gaelic immigrants from Ireland. In those days what is now Scotland was called Alba and what is now Ireland was known as Scotia. The inhabitants of Scotia were called Scots. So the Gaelic Scots went to the highlands of Alba, and as a result Alba eventually became known as Scotland. These highlanders spoke Gaelic and were very different from the lowland Scots who spoke a dialect of English. Most of our Scottish images are drawn from the highlanders, with their clans and their plaids and their bagpipes and their wars. We don't seem to think of the lowlanders, who were more similar to the people of the northern counties of England. They had their own traditions, their own bagpipes (quite unlike the pipes of the highlanders), their own songs (in their own language), and their own dances. It is this group of lowlanders who were ultimately to have the greatest influence in Appalachia."[/quote]
Yes, their own Bagpipes, Lowland & Scottish Smallpipes & yet these are hardly played over here anymore, the big Highlanders Pipes obviously won the day - well after all, it is impossible to compete wi' thon big beasties.
[quote]"The early settlement of Appalachia by the Celts included Irish, Scots-Irish, and lowland Scots, as well as many Welsh. Few highlanders came into Appalachia. Strangely, the highlanders found their home in the coastal areas of North Carolina in such places as Wilimington and other settlements along the Cape Fear River. They got as far as the Piedmont, but few ventured farther into the Appalachian highlands."[/quote]
Interesting! I hadn't realised that few Highlanders ever reached the Appalachian area.
For yet another interesting slant on this idea that the playing styles & tunes came from Ulster & had a big impact on the musicians of Appalachia, can be read in:
Alan Jabbour's 'Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier' lecture, in which he says:
[quote]"The favoured instrument for this instrumental music revolution was the modern Italian-style violin, which had spread northward through Europe in the 17th century. In the 18th century a number of manufactories for making violins sprang up in Germany, France, and England, and they had the effect of democratizing the violin, making it available not just to professional musicians but to people from all walks of life. So I am inclined to attribute the revolution in instrumental music to the advent of the modern violin, as a widely diffused new instrument, combined with the general revolutionary spirit of the later 18th century in the British Isles and colonies."[/quote]
He goes on to point out that:
[quote]"I had supposed that the repertory and style in the Upper South were originally 'British', and then by new composition and gradual stylistic evolution became more regionally distinctive. But as the other elements of my original model were eroded, I began to contemplate the possibility that the Southern fiddling style I was documenting in the 20th century took shape much earlier than I had originally imagined. In particular, I reflected on the bowing patterns I had been laboriously transcribing from my fiddling mentors. Many of them used bowing patterns in which were imbedded elaborate forms of syncopation. Now it should be stipulated that syncopation has many forms. Any performance that establishes one rhythmic pattern, then superimposes a different pattern in contradistinction to the original pattern, is using syncopation. But the syncopated bowing patterns of my fiddling mentors were precisely what we all think of as “American syncopation,” appearing in jazz and popular music and commonly presumed to be an African American contribution to our musical heritage."[/quote]
So, if Alan is correct, then perhaps the style of music in Appalachia owes far more to that of the African Americans than any European influences. Unlike the music of Cape Breton, which clearly owes much to it's Scottish anscestry.
Alan also makes a compelling case for a very strong influence on Appalachian music actually coming from American Indian music, so in reality, the influences coming from Ulster may have simply amounted to a small number of tunes, & little else!
