Where did Appalachian music come from?
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- This video exists for educational purposes and will not be monetized in any way. Links to the original videos are provided below.
This video aims to explore the origins of some of the features of traditional Appalachian music. Of course not every feature was covered, but these were the ones I could find clear videos of. Many of the comparisons may be superficial, particularly the African ones, however they are designed to suggest similarities rather than provide concrete evidence of direct cause and effect.
It's worth noting that I've heard a kind of "yodel" sound in traditional Irish language folk music which is VERY similar to the Appalachian "vocal feathering" heard at 9:44. Listen to this recording from 1930: doegen.ie/LA_1130g2
0:00 Banjo
1:44 Lyrics
4:15 Dulcimer
5:13 Melodies
7:24 Blues features
9:03 Singing style
11:07 Mouthbow
Here are links to the original videos:
Remi Diatta, akonting: • Remi Diatta plays akon...
Clarence Ashley - “The Coo Coo Bird”: • Clarence Ashley perfor...
Freda Black - “The Cuckoo”: • Freda Black : Romany G... 41:09
Harry Cox - “Seventeen Come Sunday”: • Traditional English fo... 7:43
Bertha Baird - Civil War song: • Buna and Bertha: Appla... 7:53
Norwegian Langeleik: • Langeleik - cithare su...
Jean Ritchie - “Uncle Joe”: • The Hills Resound (Ken... 5:48
Aly Bain - “Mrs McLeod”: • Boolavogue / Mrs McLeod
Tommy Jarrell - “Cripple Creek”: • Tommy Jarrell: Cripple...
Sharon Shannon and Paul O’Shaughnessy: • A Set of Reels - Sharo...
Daniel Ngarukiye: • Traditional song from ...
Clyde Maxwell - “Clyde Maxwell’s Blues”: • Clyde Maxwell's blues ...
Dock Boggs - “Country Blues”: • Dock Boggs: Country Bl...
91-year-old woman - Swiss yodelling song: • Grandma's Swiss Yodel
Dillard Chandler - The Soldier Traveling from the North: • Appalachian Ballad Sin...
Native American singing: • Native American Drummi...
Jimmy Driftwood, mouth bow: • Jimmie Driftwood plays...
Mbilu, mouth bow: • Mouthbow and Song
Here is a video of Jean Ritchie and Aly Bain playing "Uncle Joe" / "Mrs McLeod" together: • Uncle Joe
Support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/TheFolkRevivalPro... - Hudba
I have already uploaded several videos about Appalachian music:
The first ever video of Appalachian music (1928) | "Doggett Gap" - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
czcams.com/video/EVxjnXEEBnU/video.html
Appalachian Ballad Singing (1969) | Dillard Chandler, Dellie Norton, Berzilla Wallin czcams.com/video/11id9wkfvwI/video.html
Appalachian musician George Landers performs old ballad "The Scotland Man" (c.1960s)
czcams.com/video/TR-jlH7Qs3A/video.html
I have also restored and uploaded several rare videos of the Appalachian ballad singer and dulcimer player Jean Ritchie (who appears in this video at 4:48):
czcams.com/video/phseXZaPoo8/video.html
czcams.com/video/SCbNTbJKqMI/video.html
czcams.com/video/piV-BGDHLF4/video.html
czcams.com/video/TMBqoeCTcQE/video.html
It's worth noting that I've heard a kind of "yodel" sound in traditional Irish language folk music which is VERY similar to the Appalachian "vocal feathering" heard at 9:44. Listen to this recording from 1930: doegen.ie/LA_1130g2
I also found this Portuguese recording (go to 14:35) czcams.com/video/4SU-HpKkSZo/video.html
For the unidentified old woman at 9:08, have you tried looking into Amish and Mennonite communities in Tennessee? Her style of dress is distinctive.
@@lady_sir_knight3713 No I haven't, but now you mention it I agree it seems likely that she comes from one of those communities! Sorry for the late response.
@@lady_sir_knight3713 agreed
I thought the Appalachian music came from the escaped indentured British slaves, mostly Irish with a bit of French.
I know gospel music comes from the Scotch and Irish.
Do be aware of placement of text boxes in the same spots where the "pause" video text blocks reading it. Center the text where the cc's usually go, above the progress time bar so we can pause and read your hard scholarship essays, thanks.
As much as this music represents a history of human suffering in various forms, something truly magical happened when Anglo-celtic folk and West African folk came together.
I suddenly understand why bluegrass and the banjo in particular has always captivated my heart and soul so deeply.
The southern Appalachians did pick up the banjo from Africa. The northern Appalachians did not use the banjo. Bill Monroe also said that the blues were part of bluegrass. This influence was added to music that came straight from Scotch Irish origins. We "Americanized" it. Lol
I have looked into this and one or two strings strung on a gourd is NOT a banjo. You have to remember that the Arabs were making incursions into Sub-Sahara Africa from centuries and they introduced some writing and other things along their trade routes. Also, the Arabs and Romans had routes by sea along the east coast of Sub-Sahara Africa. The Arabs are a Semitic people.
The Israelites (also a Semitic people) had advanced instruments in 1000 BC, as did other "Cradle of Civilization" (the "Fertile Crescent") people groups. Music goes back an awful long way but most just settle for scratching the surface and drawing wrong conclusions.
@JimDeferio You are right. My friend, King David, played a harp and an"instument of ten strings". Lol. I've heard, though, that the word "banjo" is African.
@@philiprose7942 Africa is a continent with many different nations, ethnicities/tribes and races. All of North Africa has historically been white and linked to Europe and the Levant, while the Khoisan (Capoid) and Pygmies occupied much of Sub-Sahara Africa until the Bantu (Negroid or Congoid) Internal Colonization (now referred to euphemistically as "The Bantu Migration") of most of Sub-Sahara Africa. East Africa was a mix of people from the Levant and some who migrated from western Africa.
THAT is the problem when saying something is "African" but most people use that expression...
Same goes for "Asia" or "Asian". Europe was more racially homogenous though extremely diverse ethnically and culturally.
@@JimDeferio Interesting. "African" is a broad term. You mention at least four different groups in sub-saharan Africa alone. Africa is HUGE landwise.
@@JimDeferio Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast,[1] but also to isolated parts of South and Southeast Asia (Negritos).[2] The term is derived from now-disproven conceptions of race as a biological category.[3]
Great stuff. It is one thing to read about the connections, but how much better it is to SEE and HEAR them.
Good work.
Also, the banjo is only one of a few different instruments used in Appalachian music, like guitar, fiddle, mandolin, dulcimer, and others.
My new favorite You tube Channel. This is real, this is human. Thanks for creating this.
Wow. Thank you so much!
Yes! I have my next inspiration
What a wonderful presentation showing all these roots that made the melodious tree that is Mountain Music. Thanks for putting this together.
what a great video :)
it's amazing how much is still unknown as to how oral traditions grew and evolved, and how so many different cultures came together like that
i really liked the clips of the norwegian dulcimer, the clyde maxwell one and the african mouth bow :)
Thank you :)
The source for "Uncle Joe" as a lyric was probably a caller at a square dance calling "do-si-do" - a dance move derived ultimately from the French "dos a dos" - back to back - to the McCloud tune, and then someone inventing words to sing along - turning do-si-do to Uncle Joe.
Brilliant video - I the way you go from source to source showing the links
Ah that's very interesting. Thank you!
Excellent video, time well spent!!
Who doesnt get the blues? Its a clear line throughout humanity, and its beautiful. Wonderful compilation! Amazing channel. Pkease keep at it
Thank you for the kind words :)
Excellent video, really well researched! Hope you keep posting content:)
Thank you! I'll keep posting as long as people keep watching :)
@@TheFolkRevivalProject love that!
The area owes much to its remoteness. The decades follwing the Civil War is when Appalachia became a national center of art & culture. Its seclusion spared it from much of the post war changes to the country and the culture flourished.
Absolutely amazing! I had no idea of all the musical connections and overlap of different peoples and cultures that became Appalachian music. Incredible! Thank you for your thorough research and wonderful presentation!
What a great way to explore our shared artistic heritage. Everything is a remix!
GOD BLESS YOU FOR THIS !!!!! JUST AS I SUSPECTED !!!!!! APPALACHIAN MUSIC CAME FROM POOR , SUFFERING PEOPLE WITH AN UNQUENCHABLE thirst for SOMETHING MUCH BETTER ......🌅🌅🌅
I've listened yodel in Japanese(arr) Irish music when I was 16 y.o.
I felt something strange like"why yodel...??" but suddenly make a sence why the composer selected and used it.
I guess he knows background and connections of music.
Great vid
very informative thank you
Amazing video! What connections we all have :) Love this channel.
Wonderful! Glad to see Native Americans included, too. Thank you
What the woman at 3:05 is doing reminds me of Irish lilting
There are many different variations between Scotish and Irish folk songs. Mcleod's Reel cant be deemed Scottish. It could be Scottish or Irish. A good example I can give is "Come and join the British Army" by the Dubliners. And "If it wasn't for the unions" by Hamish Imlach.
thank you so much!!
You're welcome! Feel free to have a look at some of my other videos!
The more I argued with them, the better I came to know their dialectic. First they counted on the stupidity of their adversary, and then, when there was no other way out, they themselves simply played stupid. If all this didn't help, they pretended not to understand, or, if challenged, they changed the subject in a hurry, quoted platitudes which, if you accepted them, they immediately related to entirely different matters, and then, if again attacked, gave ground and pretended not to know exactly what you were talking about. Whenever you tried to attack one of these apostles, your hand closed on a jelly-like slime which divided up and poured through your fingers, but in the next moment collected again. But if you really struck one of these fellows so telling a blow that, observed by the audience, he couldn't help but agree, and if you believed that this had taken you at least one step forward, your amazement was great the next day. The j*w had not the slightest recollection of the day before, he rattled off his same old nonsense as though nothing at all had happened, and, if indignantly challenged, affected amazement; he couldn't remember a thing, except that he had proved the correctness of his assertions the previous day. Sometimes I stood there thunderstruck. I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying. Gradually I began to hate them
Is this channel ok with having Hitler quotes in the comments?
Impossible to watch and read the tiny tiny text!!! Proofreading is the same as proof watching before submitting to publication!!!
Wish I had been there.
Awesome thanks!
07:43 I wonder why I, a European male from Ukraine, feel this with ma bones and soul. It's rather "proto blues," the blues scale, 12-bar blues. I feel it. FEEL IT.
Please do a "Where did Cajun music come from?" video :)
I will definitely consider that, but I'll have to learn more about Cajun music and find some good videos to use first! Thanks for watching!
Scot Irish mostly
Lowland Scottish and Northern English were the main influences (those are the regions the "Scots-Irish" mostly came from before settling Northern Ireland.)
irish folk music african music had banjo but thats it
Where do you think the Celts got their instruments from?
Clue, it was the Moors in Galicia.
@@alfsmith4936now thats a delusional take
Remi Diatta!
remarkable connecting of the dots
WHEN AND WHERE DID THE DULCIMER COME IN ????? IT ALMOST SOUNDS ISLAMIC TO ME ?????
norway
@@jzonkel WOWZIE !!! THANKS FOR THE REPLY ....🌅🌅
It is based on the lyre and no doubt on other instruments mentioned in the Bible. The ancient Israelites had a whole assortment of musical instruments from stringed instruments to horns and flutes. Ancient Israel and their next door neighbors, the Phoenicians, sailed to numerous places (the Phoenicians even went for tin up to the British isles BC (Before Christ).
Look it up yourself. This video barely scratches the surface of music history and it is wrong about American Indian and African influences. You have to go back much farther...
Ireland and Scotland
Irish scot roots, what else?
A lot of Northern English also. Many of the settlers had roots there. (And some minor West African and German influence.)
I can't understand what this video is trying to prove.Appalachian music has not to do with India and Africa.Ok, banjo it's African, so what?
NOBODY IN THIS WORLD WILL BE ABLE TO CONVINCE ME THAT BLACK AFRICANS did not have anything SUBSTANTIAL to do with APPALACHIAN MUSIC : BORN AND RAISED IN NEW ORLEANS , AND STICKING TO MY GUNS .... LONG LIVE BLUEGRASS !!!!!
Musicologist and composer, Howard Goodall, who has done music documentaries for PBS, and who has done numerous music documentaries for the BBC, says that the blues had its origin in Celtic music and he can prove it. His documentaries, except one which you have to pay for, are still available, I think, on CZcams for free.
Black people did not invent a 5 string banjo that is far different from a gourd
Traditional African banjos aren't made from gourds, dumbass. They're made from goatskin. Plus, the word "banjo" is literally a Bantu word, from "mBanza."
This is typical Afrocentric propaganda as usual. The folk music is in most cases basically directly from the European source, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Africa. The old folksong collectors found very old European folk songs there directly passed down over generations. The instruments are all European. And even the 'banjo' has little to do with a gourd and a stick, is actually European guitar technology with a superficial resemblance to primitive African instruments that are incapable of playing European folk.
I love that this video is educating people to the reality of how new folk forms emerged in North America via cultural exchange, and in so doing, is making you very upset. Because of your comment, I'm going to spend tomorrow finding ways to foster multiculturalism in my community, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Source: Trust me bro.
If you think that American (especially Appalachian) folk sounds anything like European folk you must be tone deaf. Yes, there are ballads and sometimes melodies that are transmitted from Europe. But that doesn't account for everything in a musical style.
Also holy shit, African banjos are not "gords and sticks;" they're complex instruments with drone strings and goatskin resonators. It's these two innovations that African slaves brought to the Americas. Plus guitars are not even European but were developed in the Middle East and brought to Europe by the Moors...i.e., North Africans.
@@geniewiley4217 LOL. You need to seriously do a study on these things.
@geniewiley4217 you are being ridiculous. There a re literally hundreds of Scottish and English ballads that date back to 17th and 18th centuries that are found in appalachia.
From English, Scottish and Irish folk music, not from African tribal music.
From all of those things, according to every ethnomusicologist in the world.
@@TheFolkRevivalProject No they don't all say that.
@@anthonypuccetti8779 Please let me know of any reputable person who doesn't think African music had some influence on Appalachian music.
@@TheFolkRevivalProject What's ironic or really unexpected is I went to his channel and he's a far left political ideologue. I really didn't expect that.
@@anthonypuccetti8779 The British folk tradition has a very strong influence on the Appalachian tradition to be sure; but listen to appalachian music; there are sounds and elements entirely alien to British folk music, that's African influence, you don't need to be a purist with regard musical traditions, it's immature and silly.
The music, no, the instrument, yes. Do better with your titling.
This video shows a bunch of different folk traditions but you all seem to be hung up on the one that has to do with Black people, I wonder why that is?
Anyway, apart from the instrumentation (which is a major part of the timbre of Appalachian music and structures it's harmonic and melodic content), the rhythmic style of Appalachia is clearly African and deeply contrasts with that of the British Isles. I'm guessing most of the people who are butthurt over a Black person shown playing a banjo here either don't play an instrument or haven't listened to African folk traditions.
People need to understand that black slaves weren't put into the Appalachian areas. It is mountainous region without sugar plantains. The black population went there and mixed without prejudice.
I don't think so.
Rewrite history all yall want lies are lies
Please could you be more specific?
Honestly the theory that native americans influence in a sorta way in the appalachian singing makes me feel proud of being a mixed race guy. Native american culture DID have influence in american culture.
And as a guy that's not Native it makes me upset that this is so hard for people to accept. It should be logical. Like of course.
African
European
Native
Those are the people that were there, only logical that the music had influence from them.
10:36 cool my friend!
Monkey see, Monkey do…the opposite is not true.