Howard Wight Marshall
Uncover the rich and diverse heritage of Missouri's traditional fiddle music with Howard Wight Marshall, exploring its intricate cultural and historical evolution across diverse communities and eras.
Play Me Something Quick and Devilish comprehensively explores the rich and diverse heritage of traditional fiddle music in Missouri. In this detailed study, Howard Wight Marshall delves into the significance of homemade music within various social and ethnic communities, spanning a critical period from the late 1700s through the World War I years and extending into the early 1920s. This specific era is identified as exceptionally important and complex, having laid the historical and foundational groundwork through settlement patterns for the subsequent evolution of what is recognized today as old-time fiddling. The narrative commences with the early French villages established along the Mississippi River, from which Marshall chronologically guides the reader through the state's settlement, illustrating how these developing communities collectively forged Missouri's distinctive cultural heritage. Key populations contributing to this musical tapestry include the "Old Stock Americans," primarily Scotch-Irish individuals migrating from states such as Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia; African Americans; German-speaking immigrants; people with American Indian ancestry, with a specific focus on Cherokee families whose presence dates back to the Trail of Tears in the 1830s; and Irish railroad workers who arrived in the post–Civil War period. These are the primary communities whose unique fiddle and dance traditions converged and blended on the Missouri frontier, ultimately cultivating the abundant and vibrant old-time fiddling tradition enjoyed in the present day. Marshall further investigates a series of themes pertinent to the ongoing evolution of these fiddle traditions. These themes encompass the vital role of the violin in Westward migration, its presence and significance during the tumultuous Civil War years, and its connection to the railroad boom, an industrial expansion that dramatically reshaped history. The book acknowledges that musical tastes are inherently dynamic and shift over time. It examines how the burgeoning rise of music literacy during the late Victorian period, exemplified by the widespread brass band movement and the influence of immigrant music teachers in small towns, significantly impacted fiddling practices. Furthermore, the contributions of music publishing, alongside the surprising yet profound importance of ragtime and early jazz, are shown to have exerted considerable effects on the repertoire. Interestingly, much of the old-time fiddlers' repertoire is revealed to originate not solely from inherited reels, jigs, and hornpipes from the British Isles, nor from waltzes, schottisches, and polkas from Continental Europe, but rather from the prolific creative output of Tin Pan Alley. The author also meticulously examines regional styles evident within Missouri fiddling and offers insights into the future trajectory of this time-honored yet continually evolving tradition. Documented thoroughly, this work functions as a social history, drawing upon a diverse array of academic disciplines and incorporating numerous oral histories meticulously recorded over Marshall’s forty-some years of dedicated research and extensive field experience. The book is anticipated to be an entertaining and enlightening read for a broad audience, including historians, music aficionados, general readers interested in Missouri's folk heritage, and, of course, fiddlers themselves. Accompanying the book is an enclosed Voyager Records companion CD, featuring 39 tunes. This historic sampler showcases a range of Missouri fiddlers and styles, with recordings spanning from 1955 to 2012. A media kit for the publication is accessible at press.umsystem.edu/pages/PlayMeSomethingQuickandDevilish.aspx.
Authors: Howard Wight Marshall
Publication date: 01-01-2013
Language: en
Pages: 422
Rating: No data
Play Me Something Quick and Devilish, written by Howard Wight Marshall and published on 01-01-2013, is included in our catalog for information queries and ebook downloads in epub or pdf format.
Howard Wight Marshall is an American folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and academic known for his work in material culture studies, vernacular music, and rural architecture, especially in the context of the American Midwest and South. He earned his doctorate at Indiana University and has been a professor at the University of Missouri, where he served as director of the Folklore Studies program. His research often focuses on musical traditions, everyday life, and cultural expressions of rural communities, and he has published several books and articles on these topics.
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