Play Me Something Quick and Devilish: Old-Time Fiddlers in Missouri
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.16 (808 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0826219942 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 424 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-06-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Of course, musical tastes shift over time, and the rise of music literacy in the late Victorian period, as evidenced by the brass band movement and immigrant music teachers in small towns, affected fiddling. Howard Wight Marshall considers the place of homemade music in people’s lives across social and ethnic communities from the late 1700s to the World War I years and into the early 1920s. This exceptionally important and complex period provided the foundations in history and settlement for the evolution of today’s old-time fiddling.Beginning with the French villages on the Mississippi River, Marshall leads us chronologically through the settlement of the state and how these communities established our cultural heritage. Documentary in nature, this social history draws on various academic disciplines and oral histories recorded in Marshall’s forty-some years of research and field experience. Other core populations include the “Old Stock Americans” (primarily Scotch-Irish from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia), African Americans, German-speaking immigrants, people with American Indian ancestry (focusing on Cherokee families dating from the Trail of Tears in the 1830s), and Irish railroad workers in the post–Civil War period. These themes include the use of the violin in Westward migration, in the Civil War years, and in the railroad boom
I enthusiastically recommend! :) I was a bit concerned I maybe wasn't enough of a "fiddle music expert" to appreciate this book, that I might possibly find it a bit dry since I can barely list the names of half a dozen of the old-time fiddlers (I began my interest in Missouri fiddling starting with John Hartford, especially his album "Hamilton Ironworks", and Gene Goforth). I am only about 25% though the book but I am *delighted* with it. I wish to emphasize that the author writes with a very nice friendly tone (clear, but not "stuffy"). It's filling in a lot of blanks for me regarding how the US was discovered too. Obviously, the dynamics of music and the dynamics of peo. Fiddles and how they have been played JohnBBQ Dr. Marshall is one of those rare breed of historians that not only studies a subject, he is a participant in the field. So when he writes about a subject it is something he knows inside out and he does it with clarity, honesty and humor. The fiddle played a big role in the lives of people and the ethnic mix of Missouri brought it all together--as did many things in the westward expansion across America.The CD of recordings over the last 50 years is also very interesting--you really 'hear' what you re reading about. This is a book for everyone that wants to know how music grew and who were the fiddlers that made it happen. Dr. Marshall bri. "A great reference for old time fiddlers" according to Amazon Customer. "Play Me Something Quick and Devilish" by Howard Marshall, is a documentary with enjoyable tales about many of the Missouri fiddlers and gives excellent histories of the old fiddle tunes we all know and love. It is a very useful reference to have on hand. Also, enough history of the previous two-hundred years of Missouri is included to support the overall structure and organization of the book. The author's credentials include his own activities in collecting and documenting the Missouri fiddlers and the tunes they play, as well as a stint at the Smithsonian Institution in that subject area. Also, the author is a bona fide old time Missour
“Social history, music history, and biography all intermingle to illustrate the rich heritage of Fiddle playing in Missouri. Bravo, Professor Marshall!”—Mary McWay Seaman, The Celtic Connection. This beautifully organized and eminently enjoyable book covers old-time fiddlers in Missouri – the crossroads of American culture for several centuries.This phenomenally entertaining and glorious volume should grace the library of every musician and historian. We can gain a rich sense of old-time fiddling within our nation’s history by reading and comparing state studies, and Missouri’s situation is particularly important in this regard.”—Western Folklore “All-in-all, Marshall’s text offers a comprehensive look at a music that most of us know of, but not about; a music that, though not given its rightful due, can still be heard both in its ‘pure’ form, and also as a compo