by Kip Lornell
Canray Fontenont (fiddle) and “Bois Sec” Ardoin (accordion) belong to two families long involved with old-time zydeco music. Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution.
Since 2000 the unique music and cuisine of southwestern Louisiana has moved into the consciousness of people around the world. In Seattle or Milwaukee one can now find blackened fish or gumbo on restaurant menus and people dancing the two-step in dance halls. Cajun people are not only survivors, but they are also wonderful ambassadors for their way of life and folkways. A group of younger musicians born in the 1950s, such as accordionist Zachary Richard and fiddler Michael Doucet, have found a large audience outside of the area of their birth. Today the recordings of Beausoleil, C. J. Chenier (Clifton’s son), and the Balfa Brothers command their own “Cajun” section at major audio outlets as well as Internet sites. Clearly, the trend to “Americanize” Cajuns that peaked in the late 1940s has failed in a grand manner.
In fact, in the second decade of the 2000s, music festivals featuring Cajun and zydeco musicians are commonplace through the United States. The usually staid Filene Center at Wolf Trap Farm Park—located just outside of Washington, D.C., and the summer home to the National Symphony Orchestra as well as a variety of touring popular music acts—has hosted the “Louisiana Swamp Romp” since 1990. The lineup for June 2008 included Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie and Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers. A zydeco and Cajun music program such as at Wolf Trap would have been simply unthinkable even as recently as the middle 1980s, but the popularity of this music outside of its hearth area is now so widespread that these acts routinely tour in Europe, too. This fact simply underscores the popularity of roots music not only in the United States but among enthusiasts from across the globe as well.
Northeastern States
Though not as well documented nor as widely recognized, the music of French-speaking residents of the northeastern United States belongs in our survey. The population of northernmost New England and New York State includes hundreds of thousands of Franco-Americans, most of whom are Catholic. But there are also substantial Franco-American enclaves as far south as Hartford, Connecticut, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, attracted by the labor needed in the timber mills and factories that dot New England and the opportunities for maritime work along the coast. In 2010 “Francos” (as they often self-identify) accounted for 18 percent of all New Englanders.
Some are descended from the migration of Arcadians in the middle eighteenth century, but the majority are more recent migrants from Canada. Most of these Canadian immigrants have crossed the border from Quebec over the past 150 years, initially into northern New England but by 1900 throughout the region. Initially, their Franco-American music maintained close ties with Quebec and the French-speaking maritime provinces. Some of their folk songs still recollect France or their ancestors’ time in Canada and have been sung by generations of Franco-Americans. A substantial body of these songs are associated with the times of the Canadian explorers and of the plight of French-Canadian farmers.
There is also a tradition of drinking and bawdy songs, gaulois, that tend to be dominated by male singers. Much of this singing activity takes place in bars and taverns rather than at home. “La Bonnefemme Robert” (“Old Lady Robert”) remains one of the most popular obscene, anticlerical songs. Some men of Arcadian descent also continue the tradition of singing a soulful lament, complainte, that complains of life’s difficulties.
Francos also support an a cappella vocal tradition. When people gather for soirée, an evening social gathering, singing is often part of the interaction and includes a chanson or solo lyric song, antiphonal songs that underscore the community nature of these events, and a turlette, “mouth music” or lilting that is related to the Irish tradition. These vocal traditions are perhaps more pervasive in Quebec, but their importance in New England further suggests the respect felt by Francos for their cultural roots.
The influence of the Catholic church is also felt. For example, well-known Gregorian songs that have been heard in church provide the melody for folk texts. Some of these songs make fun of the church and its activities. There was also a turn-of-the-century movement to transform the vocal traditions into large choral pieces or to incorporate dance tunes into more formal instrumental compositions.
French American dance music continued to be more widespread and common in the late twentieth century. Most noteworthy are the waltzes and two-step quadrilles that are most often played on the harmonica, fiddle, or accordion. These instruments usually provide the basic melody while the harmony is supplied by a piano with the tapper du pied, a rhythmic clogging of the feet, or the spoons adding rhythmic interest. Most of the dance tunes, such as “Fisher’s Hornpipe” or “Le Reel de Sherbrooke” are well known on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. In northern Vermont the well-respected Beaudoins and Reindeaux families maintain the older instrumental traditions.
While families are critical in transmitting and maintaining the Franco musical traditions, the performance of Franco-American folk music in New England has evolved into a more eclectic Americanized brew. Most of the artists come from Franco-American families (where the speaking of French is becoming increasingly optional), while others have become bicultural by virtue of marriage, and a few have fallen under its spell because of physical proximity to so many Francos. And if you live close enough to the Quebec border, you can watch French Canadian folk music on television and hear it on Canadian radio!
In other words, the cultural geography of New England—as well as the impact of mass media—has fostered this type of interaction. This blending has resulted in country western music sung in French, the continuation of ballads with clear ties to France, nineteenth-century fiddle tunes being performed for country dances, and topical songs about the timber industry—all part of Franco music. It is a mélange that remains unique but it also illustrates a process that occurs in other cultural groups throughout the United States. The “Scandahoovian” melting pot of the upper Midwest provides another example.
SCANDINAVIAN AMERICAN
Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, and Danes began settling in the United States during the early eighteenth century. The largest wave of Scandinavian immigration took place over a seventy-year period beginning in 1850, when they flooded the upper Midwest from Michigan to North Dakota. Most groups still tend to think of themselves as Danish American, Finnish American, Norwegian American, or Swedish American. There is also a sense of a general Pan-Scandinavian culture, but that is subservient to individual nationalistic identities. And, of course, many people rally around the Lutheran church, still its single most important religious institution. Today Scandinavian Americans live throughout our country, but the highest concentration still resides in the upper Midwest.
Ballads
Early in the twentieth century ballads formed a small but important part of Scandinavian American folk music. New immigrants brought with them a proud tradition of epic, often mythic, storytelling and ballad singing. Eventually these traditions, such as the mythical Finnish Kalevala epics, found a new, distinctly American voice. Ballads were sometimes sung to the tunes of well-known Lutheran hymns. By the late nineteenth century nearly half of all of the Norwegian broadside ballads were being set to such hymns. Most importantly they were transformed into emigrant ballads during the nineteenth century. Transmitted both orally and by way of printed broadsides, emigrant ballads informed the listeners of the tribulations and the joys of life in the New World. This excerpt from such a ballad sends a warning back to potential emigrants:
Things certainly were fine over there,
to hear him tell about it.
They didn’t have to work like slaves for a living,
and instead of hardtack they ate fine white bread.
No taxes and no foreclosures,
gold to be had for the digging,
and crops that grew of thems
elves.
That’s what they said, and lied like the devil.
(T. Blegen, Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads, New York: Arno Press, 1979, 208–9)
Instrumental Music
Like so many other groups, Scandinavian American instrumental music is linked to dancing. A combination of polkas, waltzes, and other related tunes can be heard in dances throughout the upper Midwest. Even some of the older Swedish polkas can be heard today, most of which come from the musical activity of Edwin Johnson and his descendants. Younger revivalist bands such as Wiscandia and Bob & Becky Wernerehl play some of Johnson’s tunes. The revitalization of older styles gained momentum during the late 1970s, resulting in the occasional use of plucked zithers—the Finnish Kantele, for instance, by groups like Minnesota’s Koivun Kaiku (Echoes of the Birch). Like their German American counterparts, youthful polka bands such as the Ridgeland Dutchmen, the New Jolly Swiss Boys, and the Mississippi Valley Dutchmen, as well as younger Norwegian Americans such as LeRoy Larson, have stirred a renewed interest in local folk music.
A nationalistic spirit has kept the traditions closely identified with specific countries or regions with the “old” land. As early as 1926 fiddler/vocalist Erik Kivi recorded “Merimiehen Valssi” and “Porin Poika,” which were released on Victor’s 78000 series. These were the first commercial recordings of Finnish American folk music recorded in the United States. The record sold only about 1,000 copies, but the market was deemed large enough that more than 800 Finnish American records were eventually issued during the 1920s and 1930s. Columbia thought enough of this market to issue an entire printed catalogue of Finnish American material that appeared on its 3000-F series. Not all of them were folk music, of course, but traditional music was well represented. Many types of Scandinavian American music (dance music, laments, nationalistic songs, and hymns) were documented on commercial recordings, but the industry’s interest in the music waned during the 1940s. So did the community support for the music.
Polka and More Polka!
Polka music is played all across the United States but is perhaps most closely identified with the northern European population that settled in the Midwest (specifically, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Twin Cities, and into North Dakota) during the nineteenth century. Until recently polka music has been danced by millions but carefully studied by few. For many midwesterners of Scandinavian, German, Czech, Polish, and Slovenian heritage, this is deep music that holds important cultural meanings. Polka is dance music, to be sure, but it also implies a social complex replete with family histories, foodways, community interactions, and hard work.
With its easily learned 2/4 duple meter, polka music was all the rage in Europe in the 1840s and a far cry from the sedate and serious waltzes and minuets. In Europe the polka was viewed as down home, boisterous, and dangerous to polite society.
Because it has been over one hundred years since many of these northern Europeans have immigrated to the United States, today’s polka music and dance is distinctly American. And, despite the ethnic pride displayed in names such as Karl and the Country Dutchmen and Norm Dombrowski’s Happy Notes, there has been considerable musical interaction among the musicians.
Nonetheless, enough differences remain to distinguish the bands, their musical repertoire, and their national or regional origins. This is perhaps most easily noted in their choice of instruments. The contemporary Polish American style, which is particularly strong in Chicago and Milwaukee, highlights reed and brass instruments (most often clarinets and trumpets). Their German (Dutchmen) and Czech neighbors favor similar lineups but often add a tuba or sousaphone to the ensemble, giving these bands an even richer sound. Polka musicians of Slovenian heritage favor an accordion over concertina, while Norwegian American polka bands are more likely to feature a fiddle in their lineup. These may appear to be subtle distinctions but they are important not only to the musicians themselves but also in the overall sound of each tradition.
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MUSICAL EXAMPLE
This performance is by a large instrumental ensemble that is more typical of the Dutchmen polka bands of Wisconsin and Minnesota. “Minnesota Polka” is one of the mainstays of German American bands and was recorded and played over the radio in the 1930s by Whoopie John Wilfahrt and later by the Six Fat Dutchmen from New Ulm, Minnesota. The band’s leader, Karl Hartwich (born 1961), is one of the few people making a fulltime living playing this music. He presently lives near the Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin, deep in the heart of polka country.
Title “Minnesota Polka”
Performers Karl and the Country Dutchmen
Instruments Karl Hartwich, concertina; Don Burghardt, trumpet; Myron Meulbauer, trumpet and clarinet; Marty Nachreiner, clarinet; Doug Young, tuba; Jerry Minar, keyboard; Holly Johnson, drums
Length 2:25
Musical Characteristics
1. It is played in a simple, yet lively, 2/4 duple meter.
2. You hear crisp and well-articulated brass and reed lines.
3. The tonality is major.
4. The tuba explores a wide range and adds a slight syncopation to the music.
5. Hartwich’s concertina playing is not only very clean, but he also strongly emphasizes jaunty rhythmic accents at the end of his phrases.
This selection is taken from Smithsonian Folkways 40088.
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Polka music in the Midwest has also evolved its own media. Polka News is the most widely read of the polka publications, though there are also many smaller, regional magazines. And the upper Midwest, from Michigan through North Dakota, is dotted with small (mostly on the AM band) radio stations that devote at least a portion of their broadcast day to polka music. More recently public radio stations, most notably in Wisconsin, have taken up the mantle with weekly programs devoted to the regional styles of polka music. In the 1950s television programs around the United States featured local talent of all types and midwestern stations hosted more than a few polka bands during the 1950s and 1960s. The Lawrence Welk Show did more to promote midwestern polka styles than anything else on nationwide television. In his informative notes to “Deep Polka,” Richard March writes that in the early years of 2000 “syndicated polka TV shows like Colleen Van Ellis’ ‘Polka, Polka, Polka’ are invading cable, and State Senator Florian Chmielewski of Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota, claims to have the longest running program in TV history. ‘Chmielewski Fun Time,’ has been on Duluth’s KDAL ever since 1955, over 2,000 programs” (Leary and March 1996, 7).
Norm Dombrowski’s Happy Notes, one of Wisconsin’s most popular Polish American bands. Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution.
Norwegian American Folk Music
The first Norwegians came to the United States in 1825. They soon migrated westward from New York into the Midwest, reaching Wisconsin within fifteen years. By the 1850s they had moved as far west as southeastern Minnesota, and within twenty years the Red River Valley had become the region with Minnesota’s highest percentage of Norwegians. Like many recent immigrants these newly minted Norwegian Americans stuck together, often settling in the same county and township. Wisconsin in the 1840s was a land of hardy pioneers, so “sticking together” could mean a few miles to the nearest neighbor.
A rural lifestyle helped to promote a sense of community within Norwegian American enclaves. Summertime work exchanges helped to raise barns and establish local quilting circles. During the winter, which lasts from November to April, these same families gathered weekly. Except for the small pious Haugean sect, which discouraged dancing, fiddle music, and other related activities, they met for weekly dance parties. Each week a different family hosted the dance, clearing out the parlor and opening the house to all of the neighbors. Neighbors provided the music and some of the food. The dancing often lasted until well into the night.
But by the turn of the twentieth century Norwegian immigrants rar
ely sailed across the Atlantic Ocean as familial units. Males typically came first, worked on farms, and later sent for their family. Farmwork often exposed them to other cultures, thus contributing to the mixing of ethnic music traditions. They also came from different regions in Norway, resulting in a more heterogeneous population. The formation of bygdelags, social and cultural societies consisting of people from the same region of Norway, was the response to this fragmentation as well as the physical isolation of rural farm life. Bygdelags helped to perpetuate not only the language but also regional dialects, customs, and music. Norwegian food such as lefse, an unleavened bread, and sweet krumkakes were found on the tables at the close of formal meetings. They brought people together to celebrate Norwegian Constitution Day on May 17 (Syttende Mai). By the 1920s there were scores of bygdelags throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Julebukker is an old Norwegian custom that occurred in some communities. It can be translated as “Christmas fooling” or “Christmas ghosting.” In twentieth-century Wisconsin it evolved into a masquerading event featuring cross-dressing and other masking devices. The disguised visitors would enter a neighbor’s house, and the occupants would try to guess the true identities. The teasing usually ended in a dance with fiddles, accordions, and guitars providing the music for waltzes, polkas, and “Yankee dances” (a square dance).
The Hardanger fiddle emerged in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a unique type of violin used to accompany the regional dances brought over by Norwegians. This occurred in part through the bygdelags and in part through the localized concentration of immigrants from western and southern Norway. Named for the rural section of Norway from which it originated, these distinctive fiddles are ornately decorated. A Hardanger fiddle is also a little bit shorter and narrower than other fiddles and features a fingerboard that is virtually flat. The layout of the fingerboard encourages the musician to play more than one string at a time. Strung underneath the fingerboard and attached to the bridge are four or five strings, which sound sympathetically. This gives the Hardanger a fuller sound and an unusual timbre. Hardanger fiddles were important enough to spawn the Hardanger Violinist Association of America in the early twentieth century. Further evidence of revitalization is the contemporary revival of this organization in Wisconsin and Minnesota.