Compiled by Shoemaker over two decades, with the assistance of John C. French and John H. Chatham, this volume includes over one hundred songs and ballads from Union, Snyder, Centre, Lycoming, Clinton, Tioga, Potter, McKean, Forest, Cameron, Elk, and Clearfield Counties in Pennsylvania. Shoemaker prefaced much of his work with words on preserving the wilderness, and with it the romantic simplicity of the preindustrial “golden age” of Pennsylvania. In this volume, he ties the ballads to this ideal by noting, “Work without music is too modern, too grinding; it was not the life for the Pennsylvania mountaineer whose soul overflowed with melody. . . . Simplicity was his foremost vital trait; he was close to the Eternal Source and the harmonies of Nature.”
This facsimile edition of Shoemaker’s 1919 original publication includes ballads and fragments of ballads from across the northern counties, accompanied by Shoemaker’s introduction and annotations to each ballad, which often include context as well as the name of the county where it was collected and from whom.
Compiled by Shoemaker over two decades, with the assistance of John C. French and John H. Chatham, this volume includes over one hundred songs and ballads from Union, Snyder, Centre, Lycoming, Clinton, Tioga, Potter, McKean, Forest, Cameron, Elk, and Clearfield Counties in Pennsylvania. Shoemaker prefaced much of his work with words on preserving the wilderness, and with it the romantic simplicity of the preindustrial “golden age” of Pennsylvania. In this volume, he ties the ballads to this ideal by noting, “Work without music is too modern, too grinding; it was not the life for the Pennsylvania mountaineer whose soul overflowed with melody. . . . Simplicity was his foremost vital trait; he was close to the Eternal Source and the harmonies of Nature.”
This facsimile edition of Shoemaker’s 1919 original publication includes ballads and fragments of ballads from across the northern counties, accompanied by Shoemaker’s introduction and annotations to each ballad, which often include context as well as the name of the county where it was collected and from whom.
North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy: As Sung in the Backwood Settlements, Hunting Cabins and Lumber Camps in Northern Pennsylvania, 1840-1910
180North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy: As Sung in the Backwood Settlements, Hunting Cabins and Lumber Camps in Northern Pennsylvania, 1840-1910
180Paperback
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780271048819 |
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Publisher: | Penn State University Press |
Publication date: | 03/15/2011 |
Series: | Metalmark |
Pages: | 180 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d) |