Sound Analysis – The Digital Past Course Blog

Folk Music and Square Dancing

Folk music in general began in this time period, or at least the recording of folk music did. In some FSA camps, the workers would bring their culture, like instruments and music, to help lighten the mood ¹ after a long day at work. One of these unique forms of music, was known as square dancing, which, in a way, incorporated the sound of the dancing ² with the music to create it’s beat. Not only that, but square dancing requires it’s dancers to dance with pretty much everyone, which can be representative of the theme of togetherness in the Great Depression.

This source was recorded by the Federal Music Project, within a Farm Security Administration camp. You can see how these two federal projects work together, as the workers in the camps would bring their unique flavor of music for the music project to record. The Federal Music project in general liked to focus on bring America together, usually through folk music. ³ However, there were critics of this, but president Roosevelt felt that this music would help unite America in it’s time of need, so he continued it. ⁴ It sort of, in a way, again connects to the theme of togetherness that these two federal projects would work together to better the culture and people of America. As times got harder, people began realizing that it’s easier to help one another rather than work for oneself.

By embedding the audio, an analysis in a way comes to life. Before, one could only imagine what a song, or person would sound like. By embedding the audio, we can now witness history as we read, by listening to the past and not just hearing about it. By listening to the audio, we can develop our own opinions about the piece instead of just reading about the opinions of the author of the article we read. In doing this, we allow for those reading to create their own view of history while also viewing our own, so they can compare what they think to what we think. This is how history is shaped, by historians comparing each other’s thoughts on pieces of history. Thus, by embedding the audio in the piece, we make the process a whole lot more convenient for the historians reading our articles.

Hispano Music

In the Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection through the Library of Congress, there are many song recordings and song transcriptions. During the 1930’s, Hispano music consisted of Waltzes and Religious hymns. Religious music was the most popular and through different variations of song lyrics, the ongoing themes were about ending suffering or asking for forgiveness. Waltzes were created for weddings and were considered to be celebratory. Religious hymns are referred to as “Alabados” ² and are typically worship songs that were most popular in New Mexico and Colorado. The featured Alabado is typically performed during a Holy communion and translates to “The Lord Gave us his body”. Religion plays an immense role during this time period and offers insight on the different thoughts Latino immigrants had during this time period. Although most Alabados are worship hymns, a majaroity of them are about ending suffering and asking God to be able to go to heaven. Aside from Alabados, waltzes offered an entirely different perspective because they were more upbeat and played during festive time periods. Valse De Cadena ⁵ was a waltz in which dancers would often switch partners all while holding on to each other to form a chain. Most waltzes are instrumental and rarely offer any lyrics. This Valse De Cadena was performed by a dad Mr. Anaya and his two daughters. Mr. Anaya learned to play instruments on his own by listening and watching from afar.

Music in the 1930’s was more religious, and if it was upbeat, there were rarely any words but more instrumental values. While analyzing these songs, it reminded me of Benjamin Filene’s piece on Mastering the Cult of Authenticity where he states that “folk culture challenged the status quo: it challenged dissatisfaction with the emptiness of mass culture”. ⁶ That statement felt to have followed my journey while diving into this collection because of the uniqueness in the creation of each piece. Most pieces were created by individual families as opposed to one main artist. In Morris Dickstein’s How song, dance, and movies build us out of the Great Depression, he discusses how “The engine of the arts in the ‘30s was not escapism, as we sometimes imagine, but speed, energy and movement at a time of economic stagnation and social malaise.” ⁷ Dickstein states that emerging in the arts helped Americans reflect, while giving them to opportunity to engage and find their inner voice of creativity. Overall, being able to experience music through text is revolutionary because it gives you a concise experience. While reading, forming conclusions and ideas is normal, however being able to actually listen to what an author is trying to convey makes this a great experience. This is a great way to convey meaning and transport an audience back in time.

Zora Neale Hurston and Creating Folk Music

Earlier in the semester, our class discussed the collection of folk music by Alan Lomax during the Great Depression. However, how folk music was created was a question that was neither answered nor explored.

While browsing the Library of Congress’ database, I encountered a song entitled, “Wake Up, Jacob,” composed by Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston explains that work camps were awoken to the singing of the camp’s crier. These compositions were original; however, it is likely that they incorporated music sung by one’s family or community.

Additional elements of the song were inspired by these songs’ purposes. “Wake Up, Jacob” incorporates the knocking of one’s hand against a hard surface. This knocking is meant to mirror the rapping of one’s hand against the lodgings where members of the work camp were sleeping.

In “Ballad for Americans,” an article produced by the website Radio Diaries⁸, the origins of this popular song are discussed. It was composed by a gay man and popularized by a black man but adopted by all Americans as an anthem of national unity. When considered alongside “Wake Up, Jacob,” a song that incorporated musical elements from slave communities, the origins of most folk music becomes irrelevant. Instead, the music’s use in uniting people under a common banner becomes that of central importance, as we can see by the songs sung in work camps across the country.

Additionally, we should consider folk music to be a part of a region’s history. In Digital Exhibit’s article, “The American Guide Series,” there is no mention of music sung by a state’s inhabitants.⁹ This is discouraging, as the songs a people sings speak volumes of their beliefs and values. Although one may visit a state and its monuments, one cannot fully understand a people without knowing of their music.

Folk music is not a narrow category of music. It is the incorporation of culture and new surroundings and unites all of those who listen it – folk music is the music of the people.

Skill 7 Blog 9

For centuries music has been an autobiographical tool to remember. It has been used to pass on information, gather support, or to lament the passage of time and what once was. This was particularly apparent when perusing the Library of Congress Archives. All of the music I listened to was a part of the California Gold collection, an anthology of folk music from Northern California from the 1930s, which highlighted the migrant experience.

During this time period music became a powerful political statement that captured the ideas of the Popular Front. This was a coalition of left leaning organizations that was under girded by the communist party, socialists and independent leftists. When this political movement eventually crumbled and dissolved its underlining tenets remained embedded in the literature, movies, and music of the time. This Cultural Front was led by “black, left, and labor dissenters-who-organized in a newly conducive climate”¹⁰
and eventually led the country into the long civil rights era.

A majority of folk music from this time is a direct reflection of the lives those people lived, the hope they had, the hardships they faced, the religions they clung to¹¹ , and their homesickness. The dust bowl drove a lot of people west in hopes of work and that was reflected in the music that was recorded. A number of songs ” depicting California as a veritable promised land“¹² ¹³
enticed workers and the mythology surrounding the west became a part of the popular culture.

Having these more personal moments shared through music had a unifying cultural effect because it underscored that many people were experiencing the same things. Although it was well known that impacts of the great Depression were widespread, hearing it sung to you has a different effect. In this way folk music was both a mirror, reflecting the shared trials of life, and a magnifying glass, broadcasting the widespread problems of inequality, dislocation, and joblessness.

Beyond immortalizing the pain of a generation, music was also used to bolster the spirits of the people. Migrants living in labor camps were able to recount stories of their homes, and commune with others. In current popular culture you can see direct link to how music way used back then. At times music is a tool with which to disrupt the system, while at other times music becomes a little bit of oblivion to make life a bit more tolerable.

Sunny California

Does politically influenced music polarize or unite? More specifically, was the impact of politically influenced folk music in the 1930’s a polarizing or uniting factor? From slave songs sang in the fields to politically influenced raps heard on the radio, music has been and remained a prevalent form of expression used to convey personal struggles in a way that others can relate to. Mary Sullivan’s “Sunny California” is a story of a migrant worker leaving Texas to find work in California, a story many Americans found solidarity in at the time. It shares the struggles of homeless dust bowl migrants left out in the rain, their optimism washed away with their“rag houses”

“Sunny California” shares a perspective not uncommon to the many destitute migrant workers suffering the economic effects of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Music like Mary’s was a way to relate to another, to share in their struggles and try to find relief through community. Mary’s experience was collected as a field recording at the Shafter FSA Camp in 1941. She shares in the recording that she wrote the song four years prior, when she arrived in California. The Federal Music Project did the important work of collecting these narratives through the form of folk music, to preserve traditional music, and unintentionally stirring a pot of controversy when music was composed for the purpose of expressing political dissent.¹⁴ Like today, the country was politically polarized, and was brought together through music that spoke to common experiences.¹⁵

Musicians in the 1930’s sought to create ways that they could express their experiences in the changing times, in a way that the masses experiencing the same struggles could identify with and come together either for relief or for change. This hope perseveres today for modern musicians who strive to create music that people can find refuge in and be encouraged to action together. In regards to his most recent album, artist Hozier says, “I wanted to write a song that was hopeful and grounded in solidarity, grounded in love, in what can be achieved though organization, through the common respect of the dignity of people. It was the decision to write something that was not cynical, when it was so easy to write something that kind of rolled its eyes at global politics.”¹⁶

This perspective, in conjunction with Mary Sullivan’s, shows that even without placing blame or cynicism, and perhaps most effectively when done this way, politically influenced music can unite people through the expression of shared experiences and struggles. In this way, music can help work towards healing a nation.

Skill 7/Blog 9

For this skill and blog assignment, I chose to focus on folk music. During the 1930’s, folk music was very important. Most ‘sophisticated’ styles of music during the Great Depression became associated with the elites and the upper classes, such as jazz and opera. They were disconnected from the average American. Folk music, however, was relatable, did not put on airs, and was usually created by average people.

In the 1930’s, when the United States sought to unify itself through shared culture, folk music became a unifying factor. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spent $27,315,217 in order to “rediscover and define American culture” ¹⁷. One part of this massive undertaking was the upliftment and preservation of folk music. The president and the first lady invited folk musicians to play at official events, and they also “sponsored as series of nine concerts of folk music and dance in the White House between 1934 and 1942”¹⁸. Their tactics worked. By their efforts, folk music grew popular among average Americans, and folk music became a style of music that was distinctly American.

Since the 1930s, folk music has evolved and gone through many transformations. Today, most would likely consider modern country music to be folk music. However, it is interesting to take a glance back at what folk music was initially like in the 1930’s when it became popular.

As I went through the audio collections in the Library of Congress, I began to realize why folk music became so popular and widespread. Unlike jazz or opera, folk music felt disconnected from what could be considered “the elite”. The feel of the music I listened to was casual, warm, and inviting. The tuneslisten were simpler and easy to remember, as well as easy to hum or whistle ¹⁹. And the singers sang about things that were also simple, easy to remember, and easily relatable and familiarlisten to the average non-elite American ²⁰.

Before I took the time to actually listen to old style folk music, I had no idea what it sounded like. I’d seen pictures of folk artists with guitars and banjos, but I couldn’t picture the music they played. I imagined something similar to country music, with songs that typically focused on lost love and sorrow. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by how cheerful and mellow folk music could be. When describing music, I think it is important to include actual audio of the music as well. Without the audio, describing music is like describing color to someone who is blind.

The Effect of the Federal Writers Project on American Culture

The Federal Writers Project worked hard to promote and represent the cultural diversity that is present in the United States. The writers that worked on the project made it a goal to showcase those who are underrepresented and discriminated against in the United States.

Let’s start off with something as simple as writing about food. In the project known as “America Eats,²¹” the authors wrote about different food cultures around the U.S. in order to represent the different food pathways of America and to discover if there are actual “American foods.” In doing this, they discovered that much of the underrepresented cuisines, most namely African American and Mexican cuisines, were quite delicious.

Previously, white Americans ridiculed African American cuisine and claimed it was “primitive” and “unrefined.” However, white Americans came to learn that their food was quite delicious because it didn’t fall under their “refined” taste. They were able to create many delicious dishes ²² that white Americans had not even thought of.

By refined I’m assuming they mean “bland,” but I digress.

In addition to this, white Americans began to also love Mexican food because if men could handle the spice, then that was a good indicator of the manliness they had.

Secondly, one of the most prevalent and impactful projects of the FWP were the ex-slave narratives. Through this, ex-slaves were able to tell their story in a government funded project. This project revealed another cultural difference in America, the dialect²³. The interviewers of the project had some difficulty understanding what the interviewees were saying because of the difference in speech ²⁴and lack of access to a formal education.

The ex-slave narratives brought light to the lives that were underrepresented and discriminated against for hundreds of years. America was able to see what kind of lives they lived and through the audio recordings, the feeling and emotion of the interviewee comes to life.

How Did The Great Depression Shape Religion?

The Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the industrialized world. This economic downfall has a large impact on the United States populations, more specifically those in the southern regions. President Roosevelt saw these conditions and according to Paul Sparrow, director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum “He had never seen poverty like that. He saw a family of eight living in a tar paper shack, farming on depleted soil” (Kaufman, 2019). Roosevelt had seen that the sorrows in the South specifically had become pervasive after the Great Depression set in.

From my perspective, I perceive that the South turned to religion in this dire time. I feel that because of this, religion was greatly influenced by the Great Depression as it was seen as an escape and not only that, but a sign of hope as well. From my understanding, the South turned to religion mainly in the form of song.

For this assignment, I chose two different audio sources and chose one clip from each. I did this because I felt it served a vast perspective on my research question, “how did the Great Depression shape religion in the south?”. I feel that those in the South felt that there was a sort of “light” at the end of this depression. and when they felt that light was reached or they had been given a sign that the “light” was near, they were overcome with a sense of joy as their hope grew due to their religious beliefs. It can be concluded that because of the Great Depression, religion was greatly influenced as it served as an escape from the sadness and despair. While religion provided an escape, I believe it also had the potential to create a community, in turn creating the music that is seen used in this assignment.

I feel that embedding audio in text analysis adds a sense of interaction with the text. I feel that by incorporating more than one of your senses, it brings the reader a better understanding of the text because they are appealed in more than one aspect, one through sight and another through sound. I also feel that embedding audio is a very unique way to provide analysis on an argument in the sense that it is more dimensional than the two-dimensional visual an image or text provides.

Green New Deal: Historians on the immense scale required to succeed. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://mashable.com/article/green-new-deal-historians/

“Daniel Saw The Stone”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1941035_afs05148a1.mp3

“Jesus Touched Me”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1944003_afs07039a1.mp3

Dustbowl Soundcite

When thinking about the Dust Bowl or Great Depression my mind always goes to the iconic 1936 photo taken by Dorothea Lange titled Migrant Mother. This photo depicts a middle-aged mother and her young children, all dressed in rags, the mother with a look in her eyes that makes you feel her pain and worry. I had always known what this photo looked like, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned the story behind it.

Like many others during this time, this mother of seven was migrating west from her home in Oklahoma where the dust bowl had made life almost impossible. She and so many others traveled to California in hopes of finding a better life. These people were nicknamed “Okies” and when they arrived in California were probably saddened to find that it was not the land, they thought it would be. The Great Depression had taken its toll their too and jobs were not as abundant as they had originally thought.

This made me wonder how the Okie’s much have felt before and after this journey. I wondered if they ever regretting leaving the great plains. I found my answer in the Library of Congress’s Collection of Voices from the Dust Bowl in a two-part interview with a man named Tom Higginbotham. Higginbotham was also an Okie who spoke about his experience both in Oklahoma and California. He spoke about how he left Oklahoma because he didn’t want his family dying of starvation like his livestock. He didn’t exactly want to leave his land but he listen. It seems like Higginbotham and so many others saw life in California as hard but nowhere near as bad as living on the dust covered plains.

My research brought me to think that although life didn’t get much easier the Okies were incredibly grateful for the opportunities they were given in California. Higginbotham himself had said listen. Life was rough in Oklahoma and it wasn’t too much better in California, but these people were so appreciative of the government FSA camps. They were grateful for the opportunity to work hard and try to make life even a little better for their families.

Citations:

1. Dana Cochran et al., “The Great Depression,” Matthew Downs, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).

2. “The Migrant Experience”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/todd-and-sonkin-migrant-workers-from-1940-to-1941/articles-and-essays/the-migrant-experience/

3. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 1 of 2”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000198/.

4. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 2 of 2”,Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000199/.

Citing A 1930 Original, Right? (Blogpost 9)

Music has long been used to document the emotion of a certain era. But, all too often, we forget what story it can tell about the emotional struggle of the age. And, more importantly, how people were able to use music to express emotion through their or another person’s story. Sometimes these songs will only be shared within a family, community, or just another person. The creation of folk music, in particular, told a great story through much of the 1930s

²⁵

.Though we understand how people can process through another, we have to question, what role does “artistic credit” play in folk music of the 1930s?

It’s clear that music has done its job of showing joy and sorrow of a time, but John A. McCready challenged this idea through a set of songs about a drunkard. However, these songs, though performed by McCready, are written by different people. And, without clear distinctions, we can interpret the recordings as his original work if not for a description to follow.

The Drunkard’s Dream

²⁶

is an interesting example. There are many versions of this song that were created before McCready and many versions that would follow. However, there are many names by the same title but don’t hold the same tune or lyrics. But, some truly are covers that mirror the original. Most recently, a 1966 version by the Stanley Brothers. We have to wonder, which is the original? Or, has it never been published?

McCready croons out another tune, The Drunkard’s Child

²⁷

that tells more of the drunkard from before. Through the metadata we learn that the original song was by J.W. Ferrell. Yet, in the description, Sidney Robertson Cowell discusses the significance of the dog barking in the background. Robertson Cowell explains, that dog belongs to the “drunken mother” the song preaches about. So again, we are left wondering, did McCready know Ferrell? Is that Ferrell’s dog? Or, does McCready sing about his own mother simply through Ferrell’s lyrics? The 1930s isn’t the first time songs have been covered. But, they weren’t reprimanded for the lack of credit that the 1930s singers or a more modern 1966 singers did not give credit to so, today, a copyright attack has been put on the singers of the 2000s, questioning their every move, demanding original content

²⁸

. But, how original can we be? There’s only so many options and permutations of music that one can create. But, musicians who are redoing the work of someone before them should certainly give credit where credit is due. It allows us to cycle back and see the original creator and how it made them feel first.