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Ethnic Music in the United States: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

Stephen Erdely
Stephen Erdely*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass
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Extract

In his essay, “The Cultivation of Various European Traditions in the Americas”, Charles Seeger stated that:

… the character of music activity in the Americas up to 1900 compels an approach in many ways different from that conventionally in use by historicomusicology. It must perforce be almost exclusively ethnomusicological, quantitative rather than qualitative, more concerned with tradition than with only the outstanding carriers of tradition, and with all four idioms [tribal, folk, popular, and art music] equally under the increasing hegemony of traditions that did not grow to maturity upon the soil of the continent but were brought to it full-fledged throughout a period of four centuries and cultivated, often as not, in the frame of their continued and brilliant functioning in the distant, superior culture of Europe (1961:366).

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 11 , 1979 , pp. 114 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 By the International Folk Music Council 

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References

Notes

I wish to express my gratitude to Prof. Israel J. Katz for his help in preparing this essay for publication and to Prof. Albert Weisser for suggestions concerning Jewish music and Christian chant.Google Scholar

1. Regarding the history of immigrants and their experiences, the following sources were consulted: Coppa-Curran (1976), Handlin (1957, 1973, and 1977), Hansen (1940 and 1940b), Lerner(1957:I, 85–94 and II, 501–14), Wheeler (1971), and Wittke(1939).Google Scholar

2. The Andrica-Suster All Nationalities Directory (1961) was most useful for this survey.Google Scholar

3. Compare also Stockmann-Fiedler-Stockmann (1965:10) on the manner of performing traditional polyphonic songs among the Albanians, and Rihtman (1958:99–103) for the manner practiced among the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Google Scholar

4. The Dwight's Journal of Music, 11[Boston, May 23, 1857]:62–63 and [June 6, 1857]:75, contains some of the earliest reports on the large choruses and their performances.Google Scholar

5. Engel (1960:68–80) discusses the history of “people's choirs.”Google Scholar

6. The quotation is attributed to Alexander W. Thayer, the renowned biographer of Beethoven (Sablosky 1971:67).Google Scholar

7. For a detailed account of the singing school movement, see Chase (1966:124, 134–44, and 183–206), Howard-Bellows (1957:41–42, 101–2), Lowens (1961:77–79 and 1964), Sablosky (1971:9–15, 66–67, 81, 84, 99, and 136), and Steinberg(1973:602–20).Google Scholar

8. Sárosi (1971:52–56) offers a detailed account of the texts of these decrees.Google Scholar

9. Petrović (1963:47 and 1968:23–24) observed that the adoption of the accordion by Yugoslav folk ensembles has also led to a change of taste in intonation, leaning more toward the tempered scale. Furthermore, the new factory-made instruments, such as the violin, trumpet, clarinet, double bass and guitar, have been utilized to create music of a quality different from that of the old folk instruments. They offer the possibility for more developed melodies containing chromatic tones and the possibility for modulation.Google Scholar

10. Bayard (1944 and 1956) and Burman-Hall (1975) offer information on fiddle music, its performance practices, repertory, tune variants, and occasions.Google Scholar

11. Concerning the cantigas, see Angles (1938:331–62 and 1940:499–528), the laudes, Jeppesen (1935:xvii). Rajeczky (1957) studied the influence of Christian chant on Hungarian folk music, whereas Bardos (1975) investigated the influence of Hungarian folk music in the creation of tune variants for the passion plays. Žganeć (1956) observed the influence of Serbian folk music on the liturgical chants of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox rites. Wiora (1952:19, 23–25, 28, 42 and 60) compared Gregorian melodies with their parallels in European folk music; a similar study was undertaken by Szabolcsi (1959:43–44).Google Scholar

12. The overpowering influence of the German Liedertafel on the formation of glee clubs is acknowledged in the writings of Kodály (1964:I, 48–51, and 71–75), in which he also advocates the need for creating a new Hungarian choral literature based upon folk melodies.Google Scholar