A Brief Social History of Fiddling in New England

Paul F. Wells is director of the Center for Popular Music and associate professor of music at Middle Tennessee State University. His research interests encompass a broad spectrum of American vernacular music, with fiddling and fiddle tunes his primary focus. The following essay is an abridged version of a piece that was originally published in the booklet that accompanies the record album entitled New England Traditional Fiddling: An Anthology of Recordings, 1926–1975, released in 1978 by the John Edwards Memorial Foundation at the University of California, Los Angeles. Although minor revisions have been made to the original essay, there has been no comprehensive attempt to update it in light of the author's continued research.

EARLY HISTORY

People in New England have been fiddling and dancing to fiddle music since the seventeenth century. Historical evidence relating to fiddling, and dancing in the colonial era is sparse, but sufficient to establish the fact that fiddling and dancing were popular amusements. To give just one example, in 1679 in Salem, Massachusetts, a man named John Wilkeson had to stand before the court to answer charges that he kept "bad order" in his house, including allowing excessive drinking, fiddling, and dancing (Scholes 1934, p. 376).

The music played by people described as fiddlers in colonial times would be unfamiliar today's players. The types of fiddle tunes that are now common, including jigs, reels, and hornpipes, did not become common until the mid-to-late eighteenth century (though some jigs may be somewhat older). However, dance music played on the violin existed before this time. The violin emerged around 1550 and was used almost exclusively as a dance instrument in its early years. In all likelihood the instrument merely served as a new medium for the performance of an extant corpus of dance music (Boyden 1961, pp. 110–114). The music found in John Playford's The English Dancing Master, originally published in London in 1651, illustrates the type of dances and dance tunes that were popular in seventeenth-century England and that would have been brought to New England by English colonists.

With the Revolutionary era, data on fiddling and fiddle music becomes more plentiful. It is from this time that we have the first concrete information about specific tunes known in early New England and are thus able to establish a link with present-day tradition. The earliest book I have seen containing tunes that are still current in the fiddler's repertoire is a reprint of a manuscript originally owned and compiled in 1777 by Giles Gibbs, Jr., a fifer from Ellington, Connecticut. Contained in Gibbs's book are such popular fiddle tunes as "Flowers of Edinburgh,"

"Cuckoo's Nest," "Rakes of Mallow," "White Cockade," and "Saint Patrick's Day," all known in various versions today. The fact that fiddlers and fifers of this time shared, to a certain degree, a common repertoire can easily be seen by comparing the tables of contents of early violin and fife instruction books, as many of the same tunes are given in each type of book. (See Bayard 1944, pp. xii–xiii, and Bayard 1966 for additional comments on the relationship between fiddle and fife music.)

Little is known of the individuals who were active fiddlers at this time. In the late eighteenth century, a man named Hugh Talent, servant of a Colonel Saltonstall of Haver-hill, Massachusetts, was said to have been "'an exile of Erin' and a famous fiddler withal" (Chase 1861, p. 309). In her diary of 29 April 1874, Mrs. Mary (Vial) Holyoke of Salem, Massachusetts, stated that she "paid James Noland the fidler for Instructing Children" (Holyoke 1911, p. 110). Lyman Beecher, an important clergyman and educator in the early nineteenth century who lived much of his life in New England, was an enthusiastic, if not proficient, fiddler. His daughter, author Harriet Beecher Stowe, described his interest in music:

Often his old faithful friend the violin was called in requisition, and he would play a few antiquated contra dances and Scotch airs out of a venerable yellow musicbook which had come down the vale of years with him from East Hampton. Auld Lang Syne, Bonnie Doon, and Mary's Dream were among the inevitables; and a contra dance which bore the unclerical title of 'Go to the devil and shake yourself was a great favorite with the youngsters. He aspired with ardent longings to Money Musk, College Hompipe, and sundry other tunes arranged in unfavorable keys, although he invariably broke down, and ended the performance with a pshaw! In after years, after his mind began to fail, nothing would so thoroughly electrify him as to hear one of his sons who was proficient on the violin, performing those old tunes he had tried so many times to conquer (Cross 1961, vol. 2, p. 87).

Merrill Ober, a resident of Monkton, Vermont, kept a diary for part of the year 1848, at which time he was sixteen years old. He had begun to play the flute in 1846 and took up the violin in May 1848. His diary reveals that he was an enthusiastic musician who possessed the ability to read and write music and who played at local dances (Ober 1928, pp. 32–40).

One intriguing fact regarding fiddlers from this period is that many of them were black men. Northampton, Massachusetts, had one, or possibly two, black fiddlers in the late eighteenth century. James Russell Trumbull, in his History of Northampton, reports that "Before the Revolution, Midah, a negro employed in a tannery of Caleb Strong, SR., was the principal fiddler in town," (Trumbull 1902, vol. 2, p. 562), while another writer states that "Late in the 18th century Moidore, a negro fiddler, was favorably known in the neighborhood by his playing for dancing" (Hale 1922–23, p. 341). It is possible that both of these writers were referring to the same fiddler, but unfortunately, neither specifies the source of their information.

In the course of what must have been a wild night in Providence, Rhode Island, on 26 January 1780, Dr. Zuriel Waterman, surgeon aboard the privateer Argo, notes that as a part of the general revelry in which the ship's company indulged, they "got a Negro Fidler & proceeding up town went in to a house to have a dance" (Waterman 1962, p. 136). In a description of a dance of unspecified date but which presumably took place early in the nineteenth century in New Hampshire, the music was supplied by a fiddler who is referred to as "Black Pelham" (Hatch 1887, p. 25). A man named Joe Brown who was commonly called "Black Joe" and who had served in the Continental Army during the Revolution was a popular fiddler in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He was of mixed blood, "his father having been a Gay Head Indian and his mother a Negress" (Roads 1897, p. 288). His house was a favorite gathering place on festive occasions: "When darkness prevented the enjoyment of outdoor games, the floors of the house were sanded and everybody went in for a reel and a jig. Then Black Joe took up his fiddle and sawing away, played the only tune he knew, until late into the night, keeping a constant accompaniment with his foot" (Roads 1897, p. 288). Sleighing parties from Boston journeyed to taverns in nearby Medford and "brought with them their 'fiddler' or engaged the services of Greenough, a noted colored fiddler of Medford …" (Brooks 1886, pp. 389–390).

The number of reports of black fiddlers in the late eighteenth century and the off-hand manner in which these men are mentioned suggests that at this time the role of "village fiddler" in New England was commonly filled by blacks. However, the phenomenon of black fiddlers playing for white dances in the eighteenth century was not limited to New England. To give just one example, Richard Hunter, a British traveler in the 1780s, journeyed to Baltimore and attended a dance there on 9 November 1785. During the course of the evening, he was obliged to take over the musical duties from the man who had been engaged for the evening when "the poor Negro's fingers were tired of fiddling" (Hunter 1943, p. 181).

Although most of the material that I have seen relating to black fiddlers in New England is from the late eighteenth century, a description of a dance in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1892 reveals that the music was provided by "'Old Put' the colored fiddler" (Coleman 1933, p. 98). Black fiddlers who play Anglo-American dance tunes have certainly existed in the south in more recent times. R. P. Christeson, for example, recorded many tunes from Bill Driver, whom he described as "one of two famed colored fiddlers in Missouri" (Christeson 1973, p. xi). At present, I have seen too little material to be able to draw any conclusions about the precise geographical and chronological dimensions of this phenomenon. It is a fascinating topic that should be investigated extensively.

Professional or semiprofessional dancing masters had been plying their trade in New England since the latter part of the seventeenth century, but very little is definitely known about their activities until a century later. Many dancing masters at the turn of the nineteenth century published books of dance instructions, and those that have survived provide an indication of the type of dances that were then being taught. Two collections from this time have been available for examination, and although they contain

only dance instructions and no music, the titles of many of the dances, such as "Soldier's Joy," "Fisher's Hornpipe," and "The Cuckoo's Nest," can be linked to perennially popular fiddle tunes and undoubtedly were intended to be danced to the tunes of the same name. (For more information, see John Griffiths's A Collection of the Newest Cotillions, and Country Dances and the article "An Eighteenth-Century Collection of Contra Dances.") It is possible that tunes were omitted from dance collections because the dancing masters were primarily concerned with promoting their own choreographic creations and merely assumed that the appropriate tunes would be in the repertoire of any practicing dance musician. Dancing masters may, in fact, have provided their own music, as many of them included instruction on the violin (and other instruments) in their advertisements. (See Pichierri 1960, pp. 215–238, for some New Hampshire examples.)

Another intriguing aspect of fiddling from this time is the existence of a class of professional stage fiddlers, but present knowledge of such musicians is very sketchy. In New York City there was a dwarf fiddler named Mr. Hoffmaster who composed the famous tune "Durang's Hornpipe" for dancer John Durang in the late eighteenth century (Wilson 1976, p. 13). Hoffmaster seems to have had counterparts in New England. A Signor Ostinelli from Boston, described as "the most famous violinist of the day in this country" and who played with musical groups in Claremont, New Hampshire, in the 1830s (Waite 1895, pp. 312–373), may have been the composer of "Ostinelli's Reel" and "Souvenir de Venice Hornpipe," both of which appear in One Thousand Fiddle Tunes (p. 41 and p. 109). Abraham Pushee of Lebanon, New Hampshire, was not a stage professional, but was "a noted performer on the violin and teacher of dancing" (Waite 1895, p. 373). Pushee played at an elegant ball at the Eagle Hotel in Newport, New Hampshire, in 1823 and is credited with composing "Pushee's Hornpipe" and "Young America Hornpipe," also in One Thousand Fiddle Tunes (p. 88, p. 101). The subsequent history of stage fiddlers extends through minstrel and vaudeville performers and may even include musicians such as Don Richardson and Charles D'Almaine who recorded many fiddle tunes in the early days of the phonograph industry. A thorough study of such fiddlers and their place in the broad scheme of American fiddling is needed.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, fiddling in New England underwent numerous changes. New types of dances and dance music were introduced that did not necessarily eliminate the old types but replaced them in fashionable circles. In addition to such normal evolutionary developments, the influx of large numbers of immigrants from Ireland and Canada brought new styles of fiddling to the area.

By the second half of the century, quadrilles and quadrille bands had become popular. The term "quadrille" originally referred to a fixed set of five or six different cotillions that were performed from mem ory rather than with the use of a caller or prompter, but its subsequent usage is varied and confusing. It is sometimes used to refer to any set of different figures for a square dance (often combining tunes in 2/4 and 6/8 time) whether called or not; sometimes to refer to a single square dance in 6/8 time; and sometimes simply to refer to any square dance. At any rate, quadrilles were originally fashionable dances, and in this capacity they superseded the cotillions and Country Dances of the previous generation.

The new fashion in dances was accompanied by the emergence of quadrille bands, consisting of several musicians and including wind instruments such as clarinet, flute, or comet in addition to one or two fiddles, string bass, and piano or organ (Page 1971, Part 2, p. 13). One such band was Burnett and Higgins's dance band, which was formed in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1860 (Kull 1961, p. 59). Others were those led by William H. Belknap of Newport, New Hampshire (organized in 1856), and by F. J. Farr of Rutland, Vermont (Wheeler 1879, p. 215). The activities of many southern New Hampshire and Vermont bands can be traced through the reprints of articles from local newspapers that are included in the column "It's Fun to Hunt," a regular feature of Northern Junket, a dance magazine published by New Hampshire caller Ralph Page. From this source we learn that Burnett and Higgins's band was active into the 1880s. Keene, New Hampshire, had its own popular quadrille band during the 1870s, and a later organization in the same town, described merely as the "Keene Orchestra," was active in the late 1880s, featuring the fiddling and prompting of one George Long, who was known as "one of the best, if not the best." One member of the Keene Quadrille Band, G. B. Wheeler, second violinist, joined forces with T. Maynard, first violinist from Taylor and Long's Band, to form Maynard and Wheeler's Orchestra, which played around the Keene-Alstead area in the mid-1880s.

Sometimes these bands played for dances on special occasions and holidays or for money-raising affairs sponsored by local churches or firefighting organizations, but many dances were organized simply as social events. As reported in Northern Junket, a note in the Cheshire Republican (published in Keene) for 7 February 1880 states that in nearby West Swanzey, "Quadrille parties are taking the lead among the amusements of the day." Each town seems to have had its own dance promoter or promoters, and A. T. Dinsmore of Alstead and Colonel Petts of Marlow were two individuals who were engaged in this activity.

However, these formal or semiformal dancing parties were not the only occasions for dancing in rural New England at this time. Two venerable social institutions, the husking bee dance and the kitchen dance (also known as the kitchen junket or kitchen racket) were also popular. Both types of dances may date back to the first part of the century or even earlier, but the earliest documentation that I have seen is from the late nineteenth century.

Husking bees took place in the autumn of the year. After a farmer's corn had been harvested, friends and neighbors would get together to help him husk the ears. Socializing, singing, and storytelling would accompany the work. The discovery of a red ear was of special significance and in some cases entitled the finder to a kiss from a member (or members) of the opposite sex, but in others obliged him or her to pay a forfeit. Supper and a dance followed the labor. (See Little 1888, p. 470, and Hatch 1887, pp. 188–189, for contemporary descriptions of husking bees.)

Many old New England farmhouses had kitchens that were large enough to contain a group of dancers. In the classic kitchen dance, all furniture was removed from the kitchen, including the stove, and the fiddler played while seated on a stool in the sink.

NEW INFLUENCES

Up to this point it has been feasible to talk of a single fiddle tradition in New England. Differences undoubtedly existed between various localities, and the introduction of new tunes, playing techniques, and performance situations surely made the fiddling of the nineteenth century different from that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nevertheless, we have been dealing with what was essentially one continuous line of development. However, the arrival of several groups of immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century brought new fiddling traditions to the New England states.

Probably the most important, in terms of impact on present-day New England fiddling, were the French Canadians. There were several reasons for their immigration to the United States. First of all, much of rural Quebec, from where most of the immigrants came, was beset by general economic distress in the nineteenth century. Economic prospects were very bleak, especially for young people who were just starting life on their own. The United States Civil War offered an opportunity for young men to escape the conditions at home, and it is estimated that 40,000 French Canadians served in the Union Army (Podea 1950, p. 367). Coincidental with and partially caused by the Civil War was the tremendous growth of industry in New England. With more jobs than workers available, mill owners turned to rural Quebec as a source of cheap manpower, sometimes employing earlier immigrants as recruiting agents. This emigration from Canada continued throughout the second half of the century, and by 1900, there were over half a million French Canadians in New England (Podea, p. 369). The majority of these immigrants found work in the textile mills in cities such as Lawrence, Lowell, Holyoke, and Fall River in Massachusetts; Nashua and Manchester in New Hampshire; Lewiston, Biddeford, and Sanford in Maine; and Providence and Woonsocket in Rhode Island.

The French Canadians experienced problems similar to those of other immigrant groups in this country. Low wages, poor living conditions, unfamiliar working situations, prejudice from other groups, and differences of language and culture often made life unpleasant. However, with the passage of time, many became skilled workers and ultimately were able to rise on the social and economic scale. Also, like other groups, French Canadians formed their own communities within the cities where they worked, creating a situation that fostered the preservation of their native culture.

A strong fiddling tradition had existed in Quebec and was undoubtedly brought to the "Little Canadas" of the New England mill cities. The historical background of French Canadian fiddling is complex and has yet to be thoroughly researched, but a few general points can be made. Many tunes of Anglo-Celtic origin occur in the repertoire of present day French Canadian fiddlers, probably as the result of contact between French and British settlers in Canada. However, a relationship between the dance traditions of France and the British Isles existed prior to the settlement of the New World. In the late seventeenth century, the popularity of the English "Country Dance" spread throughout much of Europe, including France. In 1688, a Parisian dancing master went to England and noted down some Country Dances to teach in his own country (Sachs 1937, p. 420). Such dances apparently became quite popular there, and early in the eighteenth century, the French introduced their own modification of the Country Dance, the contredanse francaise (later anglicized to "contra dance") or cotillon (later anglicized to "cotillion") (Sachs, pp. 421–422). Whereas the Country Dance could accept an unlimited number of couples, this was a dance for four couples and was, in fact, the square dance. This new "French Country Dance" in turn became popular in Britain, and thus, the dance traditions of both British and French settlers in North America were probably similar in many ways. In addition to this imported tradition and the influence from other groups in Canada, local changes in repertoire and technique strictly among French fiddlers in Canada have undoubtedly been factors in shaping the development of French Canadian fiddling.

It is difficult to judge how much influence French Canadian fiddling had on the Yankee tradition in the nineteenth century. In addition to the immigrants to the mill cities, numerous French Canadians also moved to rural areas in northern New England, and it seems likely that more avenues of cultural exchange would have existed in these areas than in the cities. French Canadian tunes are currently played by most fiddlers throughout New England, but it is difficult to determine how far back in time this phenomenon extends. Possibly it has occurred only since the advent of radio and the phonograph.

The French Canadians were not, however, the first group of immigrants to make an impact on New England's population. They were preceded by large numbers of people from Ireland who began arriving in the 1840s following the famine in that country. Irish immigrants continued to arrive throughout the second half of the century. By 1875, they constituted one-seventh of the total population of Massachusetts (Knight 1975, p. 76). There had been Irish people in New England prior to this period of mass immigration, and it is estimated that in 1775, 4 percent of the population of Massachusetts was Irish (Knight, p. 74). But, while these earlier arrivals tended to become absorbed into mainstream American culture, many of the immigrants in the late nineteenth century formed distinct Irish communities in New England cities, primarily Boston. This is an important point in terms of measuring Irish influence on fiddling in New England. Mention has already been made of Hugh Talent, an Irishman who played the fiddle and lived in Massachusetts in the late eighteenth century. Undoubtedly there were others like him, and these fiddlers contributed an Irish influence to the shaping of Yankee fiddling. The fiddling of later arrivals from Ireland, which would have reflected any developments that had occurred in Irish music after the emigration of Hugh Talent and his contemporaries, may or may not have had a direct impact on existing New England fiddling. The degree of influence would have depended on how much social and musical interchange actually occurred between these people and New England natives.

The available evidence relating to Irish fiddling in rural New England is sparse and inconclusive. Francis O'Neill tells of Reverend J. T. Walsh, a priest in East Hampton, Connecticut, who during his youth in County Waterford had become a good fiddler but who had given up music. "Marooned for a quarter of a century among the New England Yankees, he had lost interest in almost everything but the spiritual welfare of his congregation" (O'Neill 1913, pp. 172–173). Father Walsh can scarcely be viewed as a likely source of dissemination of Irish music in New England!

On the other hand, the existence of "Daniel O'Connell's Welcome to Parliament"—a tune named after an Irish political leader of the famine era—in the repertoire of L. O. Weeks, a Vermont fiddler of the early twentieth century who described himself and his family background to collector Alan Lomax as "Yankee," may indicate that some interaction did actually take place. Again, more evidence is needed to assess accurately the musical influence of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century.

Yet another group of people with a strong, distinctive fiddling tradition came to New England at this time. These were people of Scottish descent from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, who moved to Boston in search of jobs. Their ancestors were Scottish Highlanders who had migrated to the New World in the late eighteenth century. The defeat of the supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 radically altered the lifestyle of the Highlanders, and throughout the next hundred years, many of them left their native land for a variety of political, economic, and religious reasons. The settlers in Cape Breton retained a strong Highland culture, and the island has become famous for its traditions of music and dance.

By the late nineteenth century, many of the farm families on Cape Breton had grown too large for the land to support, and the young people were forced to look elsewhere for employment. Some went to industrial areas on Cape Breton, primarily to Sydney or to other cities in Canada, but many also settled in Boston. A strong Cape Breton community that still exists today was established in the Boston area. Again, we can only assume that there were fiddlers among the Cape Bretoners in Boston in the nineteenth century, since I have found no concrete evidence to indicate their existence.

If there were Scottish fiddlers in Boston, or elsewhere in New England in the nineteenth century, there is no indication that they had any influence on their contemporaries in rural New England. As was the case with Irish music, a Scottish influence was important in the overall development of Yankee fiddling. "Money Musk," one of the most famous New England contra dance tunes, is a Scottish tune, its composition attributed to Daniel Dow. Numerous tunes of Scottish origin appear early New England fiddle tune manuscripts. However, many of these, such as "Flowers of Edinburgh," "The White Cockade," "East Nuke of Fife," and "Speed the Plough," have long been universally popular throughout the British Isles and have frequently appeared in published collections of tunes. Therefore, their appearance in New England does not necessarily indicate direct influence from Scottish musicians.

Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, New England had become host to a variety of fiddling styles. At this point, a line can be drawn between rural and urban traditions. With the possible exception of French Canadians in rural areas in northern New England and perhaps a few isolated Irish and Scottish musicians, the new immigrants tended to settle in cohesive communities in the cities, and their traditions had little recognizable impact on the dance music of the New England countryside.

TWENTIETH CENTURY

In rural New England in the early twentieth century, many aspects of traditional fiddling were little different than they had been in the previous century. Kitchen dances and cornhuskings accompanied by fiddle music were still being held in western Massachusetts in the early twentieth century. Fiddler Wes Dickinson of Whately, Massachusetts, recalled in an interview:

Paul Wells:: What was the "kitchen racket"?
Wes Dickinson:: I played at two or three of 'em when I was a kid. It's when, say there's a group of people, twenty people, ten or fifteen couples, when one of them has a daughter or son getting married, they go in there with a piano, drums, and a fiddle, and they play in the middle room and they dance in the rooms all around there. And they have coffee and doughnuts and sometimes—they didn't have no whiskey then, unless they made their own—they had a lot of cider.
Doug Goodwin:: What about the cornhusking bees you were telling me about?
WD:: The cornhusking was more fun than the kitchen racket, because that there, was the same way—Link Barnes played the drums, his wife Edwina played the piano, my father played the fiddle, and I would learn. I used to play with 'em. They used to spread the corn out in the middle of the barn floor, and then they put the baskets on top, and husk, get the farmer's corn husked. When you got a red ear, you'd kiss the girls. I think there was more than kissing going on, but you got the corn husked anyway!
PW:: Was the music going on during the husking, or after?
WD:: No, they had to get all the corn husked, and then they had to sweep the floor up and put corn meal on the barn floor, and then they'd have cider and doughnuts, or whatever, coffee, whatever they had, and then they'd dance until sometimes two or three o'clock in the morning. And one farmer would get his corn done, next week it would be a different farmer. So every Saturday night there was a corn husking. I went to approximately ten or twelve of them in my life.
PW:: About when was this?
WD:: Well, I'm fifty-nine years old and I was probably, well, it was about fifty years ago, or maybe forty-five years ago. That's the last of 'em. (Interview with the author, 1 October 1975.)

There were numerous dance fiddlers active in western Massachusetts, and probably elsewhere in New England, at this time. Wes Dickinson's father played the fiddle and some of his contemporaries were Jim LaSalle of Northampton, Charlie Fields of West Whately, and Harry Shippee of Ashfield. In the hill towns of western Hampshire County, the Bates Dance Orchestra, led by Harry Bates of Worthington, was well known. Lou Granger of Chesterfield and Castanus Brown and Oren Gumey of Worthington were other fiddlers in this area. Occasionally at dances in this area prior to World War II, some of the men would engage in solo step-dancing or "jig-dancing" competitions. Bob Sears, a veteran of many dances around Cummington, Windsor, and Hawley, recalls that at the end of a square dance, between sets, or whenever the fiddler could be urged to participate, two or more men would try to "out-dance" each other. They would perform motionless from the waist up and would never admit that they grew tired. The one who prevailed would frequently cap his performance with a leap in the air and a click of the heels, simply to further assert his superiority.

The new century brought new interest in folk traditions and customs. Industrialist Henry Ford did much to support traditional American folk arts, including square dance and fiddle music (which he felt was morally superior to the "corrupting influence" of popular

jazz dance music). Mellie Dunham, a fiddler from Norway, Maine, earned national fame as a result of the media blitz that accompanied a trip he made to Dearborn, Michigan, to visit and play for Ford in 1925. As a result of this publicity Dunham was signed to a $500-a-week contract on the Keith-Albee vaudeville circuit (Wells 1976, pp. 112–115).

Dunham's fame helped fuel a nationwide interest in fiddling and fiddlers' contests. Fiddlers conventions became common in New England, often sponsored by local Ford dealerships or other businesses, as a means of promoting traditional music. What was undoubtedly the largest contest of this time was the "World-Wide Fiddlers' Contest" held in Lewiston, Maine, during the second week of April 1926. There was a certain amount of validity in this contest's claim to be the world championship, since fiddlers from four nations participated in the event. According to an article published in the New York Times, the renowned Scottish fiddler and composer James Scott Skinner sailed to America for the sole purpose of competing in the contest and announced, "I'm going to America to kill jazz" ("Scotch Fiddler"). He was joined on his voyage by John Wiseman, a fiddler from Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. Canada was represented by John Boivin of St. Georges, Quebec, and by pioneer French Canadian recording artist Joseph Allard of Montreal.

Participation by United States fiddlers was not limited to those from the northeast, for two musicians from Indianapolis, Joseph A. Lawson and James O'Donnell, traveled to Lewiston to play in the contest. With the exception of John Boivin, none of these travelers fared very well in the competition. Skinner became impatient with the inability of the contest's pianist to accompany Scottish tunes and walked off the stage in disgust part way through his performance (Junner 1960, p. 97). Wiseman fell ill shortly before the contest began, but he insisted on playing nevertheless, and a nurse stood behind him on stage while he performed.

When the contest was over, James F. Claffey of Boston, aged sixty-seven, was dedared the winner, Edward Minnin (or Minion) of Lakeport, New Hampshire, was second, John McKenney of Farmington, Maine, took third, and Boivin finished fourth. Claffey, who had played with the Boston Symphony, was awarded __BODY__,000 and a silver cup for his efforts, and his photograph appeared in the New York Times on Sunday, 25 April 1926.

Several New England fiddlers in addition to Mellie Dunham were able to capitalize on the public's interest in fiddling. One of the first to emerge in the wake of Dunham's popularity was "Uncle John" Wilder of Plymouth, Vermont, uncle of then-President Calvin Coolidge. The New York Times of 20 December 1925 reported that Wilder sent a challenge to Mellie in the form of the statement: "I can fiddle Mellie Dunham to a standstill" ("Vermonter Enters Fiddling Lists"). There is no evidence of any meeting between the two musicians, but Wilder managed to stay in the public eye for some time. On 7 January 1926, Uncle John went to Boston "prepared to play for the fiddling championship of New England against all comers," but there apparently was no specific event to which he was referring ("President's Uncle in Fiddling Contest"). On 9 January, however, Wilder and seven other fiddlers gathered at the Wayside Inn in South Sudbury, Massachusetts, to play for Henry Ford (Ford owned the inn).

A photograph of Wilder appeared in Billboard on 6 February with a caption stating that he was playing vaudeville shows under the direction of the Jacobs Agency of Boston. He was scheduled to open in Boston and additional bookings included Baltimore and Washington. It was also announced that he had a contract to play fairs when the season opened. According to the New York Times, Wilder participated in the Lewiston, Maine, contest in April, but failed to qualify for the finals ("President's Uncle Loses").

Uncle John's biggest venture was a tour of Loew's Theaters with the Plymouth Vermont Old Time Dance Orchestra and a group of eight dancers from Plymouth in the fall of 1926. The tour was conceived by Jess Martin and organized by Martin's friend William Morris, the well-known booking agent. The orchestra consisted of Wilder and Lewis Carpenter, fiddles; Cassie Cady, piano; Linn Cady, drums; and Clarence Blanchard, clarinet. The dancers included Emma Carpenter, Walter and Jeanetta Lynds, Laura and Aswell Johnson, Julia Messer, and Margaret and Raymond Moore, with calling by Herbert Luther Moore. The dancers were not a formal performing group but were chosen from Plymouth residents who had often danced together at local affairs and who were able to leave their jobs. The orchestra and dancers left home on 24 October 1926 and did not return until early in December. Their tour included performances in New York, St. Louis, Washington, D. C. (where they played at the White House as well as the Palace Theater), Frederick, Maryland, and Carlisle, Lebanon, Harrisburg, Westchester and Johnstown in Pennsylvania.

A few months after the completion of the tour, Uncle John found himself ousted from the orchestra as a result of his refusal to accompany the group on overnight engagements. However, in April 1927, he was hired for a three-day appearance at the State Theater in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, apparently without the rest of the orchestra.

John Grant, of Long Island, Casco Bay, Maine, was booked into a theater in Portland in December 1925 on the strength of the interest in fiddling aroused by Mellie Dunham, but this seems to have been the extent of his public career. A fiddler named "Uncle John" Bernard apparently visited Henry Ford and exploited this fact through appearances at theaters in New York (prologuing the film The Music Maker), by playing a few dates on the Keith-Albee circuit, and, according to an article in Billboard, through "independent engagements in his native New England" ("Ford's Fiddler"). At least one other New England fiddler, Harry Shippee of Ashfield, Massachusetts, is reputed to have played for Henry Ford.

The most enduring products of this fiddling mania are the phonograph records made by some of the fiddlers who came to prominence at this time. Although fiddlers outside New England made records as a result of their victories in Ford-related contests (Bunt Stephens of Tennessee) or other association with Henry Ford (Jasper Bisbee of Michigan), the Ford connection was particularly important in regard to fiddlers from rural New England. This is true not because there was a large number of Yankee fiddlers who recorded at this time, but because nearly the only ones who did record 78s did so as a result of the Ford-spawned fiddle craze. These include Mellie Dunham, Joe Shippee, and the Plymouth Vermont Old Time Dance Orchestra. Of these fiddlers, Dunham is known to have made nine sides (including one unissued), Shippee four, and the Plymouth Orchestra, two.

It is somewhat surprising that more New England fiddlers were not recorded in an attempt to exploit the fad. Perhaps the companies were insensitive to regional differences in fiddling and merely promoted recordings by southern artists with whom they were already familiar. An article in Variety noted that Columbia's "hilly-billy" records which had been "such big sellers throughout the southern mountain territory" were also starting to sell well in urban areas of the north, which lends support to this suggestion ("Hilly-Billy Records Growing").

The only commercial recordings prior to this time that have some relevance to the documentation of New England fiddling are those made by Charles Ross Taggart for various companies in the 1910s and 1920s. Taggart assumed the character of "The Old Country Fiddler" and waxed comic monologues delivered in "Yankee twang" interspersed with occasional bits of fiddle tunes. Researcher Steve Green has established that Taggart grew up in Vermont and had something of a professional career touring on the Chatauqua circuit early in the century. (Personal communication with the author, 25 January 1997.)

Some Yankee fiddlers did appear on square dance records (78s) in later years. New Hampshire caller Ralph Page recorded numerous sides for at least two different companies, Disc and Folk Dancer, backed by bands that included fiddlers. These records were designed to accompany dancing, and the calls, rather than the music, are their main feature. Nevertheless, they are part of the overall picture of documentation of rural New England fiddling.

Commercial recordings were made by fiddlers from the various immigrant traditions in New England, but knowledge of these recordings is presently very incomplete. An Irish fiddler named James Claffy made several recordings for Columbia's 33000-F Irish series in the late 1920s, and he may be the fiddler who won the Lewiston, Maine, contest in 1926 and who was identified at that time as James Claffey from Boston. Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band of Boston also recorded for Columbia in the 1920s and for Decca's 12000 Irish series. Fiddler Michael C. Hanafin, who played with Sullivan's Band, made some solo recordings as well. In the 1940s, O'Byrne Dewitt of Boston began the Copley label, which released the work of local Irish artists, including fiddler Paddy Cronin.

Hundreds of French Canadian 78s were issued, not only by Canadian companies but also by United States firms such as Columbia and Victor Bluebird, but I am unaware of any French Canadian emigrants to New England recording during this era. Fiddler J. O. LaMadeleine recorded tunes titled "Reel de Holyoke"/"Lanciers Springfield" (Starr 16382) and "New Bedford Reel" (Apex 26312), which makes it tempting to speculate that he lived, for at least a time, in Massachusetts. Local musicians may have been recorded by the La Patrie label of Lawrence, Massachusetts, but little is known about the activities of this company.

Many of the Cape Bretoners who have made fiddle recordings, such as Colin J. Boyd, Angus Chisholm, and Bill Lamey, lived for some time in the Boston area. Alex Gillis and his Inverness Serenaders, a popular Scottish performing group in Boston that played over the radio possibly as early as the 1920s, made some recordings that were issued in the Decca 14000 Scottish series of the 1930s. Copley Records also issued some Scottish material.

It is regrettable that Columbia, Victor, and the other phonograph companies that recorded extensively in the South did not see fit to pursue similar activities in the North-east. This is especially unfortunate in regard to Yankee fiddling, because as the twentieth century progressed, many changes took place in the fiddle and dance traditions of rural New England. The extant phonograph records of Yankee fiddling are too few to permit any meaningful general conclusions to be drawn about performance styles in the earlier part of this century. A look at some of the developments in western Massachusetts, the area where I grew up and with which I am, therefore, most familiar, will perhaps be helpful in understanding the changes which occurred throughout New England.

By the time I began attending local square dances in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the dance music consisted entirely of adapted song melodies such as "San Antonio Rose," "Darling Nellie Gray," and "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." These were played by a band consisting of accordion, piano, and drums, with a singing caller. Between the sets of squares were polkas, waltzes, and occasionally a round dance. Enjoyable as these affairs were, they gave no indication of the heritage of Yankee fiddle music, and contra dances were nowhere in evidence.

Melodies from popular songs were being adapted for use as dance tunes fairly early in the century. Wes Dickinson, who was born in 1917, recalls that "Redwing," "Marching Through Georgia," and "Wait for the Wagon" were among the tunes that his father and his contemporaries played. However, older fiddlers in the area recall that traditional tunes such as "Soldier's Joy," "Devil's Dream," "Rakes of Mallow," and "Miss McLeod's Reel" and contra dances such as "Money Musk," "Pop Goes the Weasel," and "Hull's Victory" were in use at dances up until the time of World War II. It may be that the changes in social patterns brought about by the war, coupled with the rise in popularity of country and western music, were responsible for changes in dance practices. Or, as my parents (who are both avid square dancers) have suggested, it may simply be the case that the old contra dances were too sedate for modem tastes.

The following excerpt from an interview with fiddler Doug Goodwin, who began playing for dances in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts in 1946, shows the type of music used in postwar square dances and the way in which new tunes came into usage:

Paul Wells:: What kind of stuff were you playing? What kind of tunes?
Doug Goodwin:: What do you mean, for square dances? Okay, the eastern square dance, with a singing caller, took in songs like "My Little Girl," which is, I think, an old World War I tune, or "Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet," "Redwing," "Listen to the Mocking-bird" with square dance calls put to them…. And then, every now and then when a new song would come out, some caller would put words to the song. Like "You Are My Sunshine," came out in the '40s sometime. (Interview with the author, 1 October 1975.)

The situation was much the same in other parts of rural New England. Writing about dance music in southern New Hampshire during the period 1930–1965, Newton F. Tolman, an experienced dance musician, states: "Square dance music, to New England square dance enthusiasts and the world at large, seemed to be irrevocably represented by tunes like 'Darling Nellie Gray,' 'Redwing' and Polish polkas" (Tolman 1972, p. 30). My own discussions with older fiddlers in Vermont have given a similar impression. Thus, although there were undoubtedly areas that retained the older traditional dances and dance music, these areas seem to have constituted quite a small minority.

Meanwhile, in Boston an active fiddling community was developing among the Irish, Scottish (Cape Breton), and French Canadian fiddlers who lived in the area. Music and dancing flourished in halls and clubs, and the recording activity of some of the city's musicians has already been discussed. Irish fiddler Paddy Cronin recalls the music scene in Boston as he knew it in the 1940s and '50s:

At that time, Dudley Street in Roxbury was the big place to play. The Greenville, that was Joe MacPhearson's place. The dance hall was up on the top and we'd go in there because Joe had a bar room. We'd all go in there and drink enough! There was a piano, and every fiddler from Canada, Ireland… from everyplace would come. There I first met Tommy Doucet. And in there I met Scotty Fitzgerald. In there I met Johnny Wilmot and Sean Maguire. The Irish dance hall was up over the bar, and you'd come down the stairway and go into MacPhearson's. The ballroom was called the Intercolonial. I played in all those halls … the Hibernian, the Rosecry, the Intercolonial, and the Opera House below. (Quoted in Ferrell 1975.)

Although the heyday of fiddling in the city has passed, many traditional musicians still reside there. Further exploration of Boston's role as a center of fiddling activity needs to be done.

LATE CENTURY REVIVAL

Despite the fact that traditional fiddling seems to have languished in rural New England during the mid-part of the twentieth century, there was a considerable revival of interest in fiddling beginning in the mid-1960s. Perhaps the most important factor behind this revival was the formation of the Northeast Fiddlers' Association. Around 1964 or 1965, a group of people in northern Vermont, including Sandy Paton, owner of Folk-Legacy Records, and several people from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, took an interest in Vermont fiddling and organized a fiddlers' convention. Clem Myers, a fiddler from Barre, Vermont, became involved, and this helped earn the cooperation of other musicians. Plans for a fiddlers' organization were made, and in December 1965, the North-east Fiddlers' Association, Incorporated, was chartered as a nonprofit educational corporation. The Goddard faction eventually withdrew its involvement, however, and the association came under the full control of the fiddlers themselves.

Later in 1965, Clem Myers sent a letter to around 100 people, including 31 fiddlers, asking them to join and support the newly formed association and announcing the first meeting, which was to be held in Hardwick, Vermont, on 28 May 1966. The idea was successful; the association continued to grow, and by the mid-1970s had a membership of approximately 500, of which nearly 200 were fiddlers. The association held monthly meetings at various locations in northern Vermont, and published a monthly newsletter. Myers served as president of the club for the first several years of its existence before being succeeded by Wayne Perry of Stowe, Vermont. (Information on the early history of the Northeast Fiddlers Association was gathered from materials that were kindly lent by Wayne and Evelyn Perry and from conversations with Clem Myers.)

Following the formation of the North-east Fiddlers' Association, at least three other fiddlers' clubs were organized in New England, including ones in the Champlain Valley, southern Vermont, and Bristol, Connecticut. The desire to get together with other fiddlers on a regular basis without having to travel long distances was a motivating factor in the formation of these other organizations.

Fiddle contests enjoyed a renaissance in the late twentieth century. The most important was the annual National Traditional Old Time Fiddlers' Contest (formerly the North-east Regional Old Time Fiddlers' Contest), sponsored by the Northeast Fiddlers' Association. This two-day event attracted many fiddlers from Canada as well as from the northeastern United States. The Craftsbury Common Contest in Craftsbury, Vermont, was also a large and popular annual event.

What of fiddling for dancing? In addition to the type of square dance music that was discussed earlier, which may or may not be played on the fiddle, the instrument is widely used in the contradance revival that began around the same time as the formation of the Northeast Fiddlers' Association. This revival had its initial impetus among young people and had strong ties to the back-to-the-land movement that swept rural New England in the 1970s. Young people moved from the cities to the country and sought to adopt a lifestyle that they conceived to be appropriate to their new environment. Thus, contra dancing, with its long history as part of New England traditional culture, was wholeheartedly embraced. However, at Saturday night dances or fairs in the hill towns, natives of the area still enjoyed themselves square dancing to "San Antonio Rose," "Darling Nellie Gray," and "Spanish Cavalier," quite apart from the contra dance revival.

New Hampshire fiddler and dance caller Dudley Laufman was a key figure in the revival of interest in contra dancing. The area around Keene and Nelson, New Hampshire, has been host to a considerable amount of dance activity and was the center of a square dance revival in the 1930s. (Veteran caller Ralph Page, who has been extremely important in maintaining an interest in traditional New England dancing, is from this area). Newton Tolman described the beginnings of Laufman's involvement with dancing: "Dudley became interested in Nelson's illustrious history as one of the principal centers involved in the earlier revival of square dancing. Soon he began to pick up the old authentic music—such of it as we could remember—and began re-creating the old dance forms, dispensing entirely with the waltzes, polkas, and modern dances which in recent years were generally intermixed with squares at most public dances" (Tolman 1972, p. 37).

In the Boston area there are still several regular dances that feature fine traditional fiddling. The French American Club in Waltham, just outside of Boston, and the Canadian American Club in Watertown remain important venues for dances and concerts for the local Cape Breton and French Canadian communities. Informal sessions of Irish music can be found at pubs in the city nearly every night of the week.

Fiddling has undergone many changes in the more than three centuries that it has been a part of New England life. From a time when fiddlers provided dance music for all levels of society, to the addition of the music of various immigrant groups, through decline and subsequent revival of fiddling and dance traditions in rural New England, fiddling has been an enduring form of musical expression in New England. With strong interest in fiddling at the start of the twenty-first century, this music will probably continue to be played for many years to come.

A BRIEF SOCIAL HISTORY OF FIDDLING IN NEW ENGLAND

EARLY HISTORY

NEW INFLUENCES

TWENTIETH CENTURY

LATE CENTURY REVIVAL

BIBLIOGRAPHY