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                             Folklife Center News

                           American Folklife Center

                           The Library of Congress  
                                  Spring 1998
                              Volume XX, Number 2
                  ISSN 0149-6840  Catalog Card No. 77-649628

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The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S.
Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through
programs of research, documentation, archival preservation,
reference service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and
training. The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture,
which was established in the Music Division of the Library of
Congress in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of
ethnographic material from the United States and around the
world.

Administration

Alan Jabbour, Director
Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant
Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator

Acquisitions

Joseph C. Hickerson, Head

Processing

Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist Coordinator 
Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist
Nora Yeh, Archivist

Programs

Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist
Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist
David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist

Publications

James Hardin, Editor

Public Events

Theadocia Austen, Coordinator

Reference

Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist
Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, Coordinator
Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist

Administrative Office

Fax: 202 707-2076

Reference Service

Tel: 202 707-5510
 
Board of Trustees

Congressional Appointees

William L. Kinney Jr., Chair, South Carolina
James F. Hoy, Vice-chair, Kansas
Judith McCulloh, Illinois
Carolyn Hecker, Maine
Nina Archabal, Minnesota
Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska
Juris Ubans, Maine

Presidential Appointees

Joseph D. Duffey, Director of the United States Information
Agency
 
Ex Officio Members  

James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress
I. Michael Heyman, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
William Ferris, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities
Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center


FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS

James Hardin, Editor
David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor

John Biggs, Library of Congress Graphics Unit, Designer
FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS publishes articles on the programs and
activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other
articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free
of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center,
Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS does not
publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books
from publishers other than the Library of Congress. Readers who
would like to comment on Center activities or newsletter articles
may address their remarks to the editor.


TELEPHONE AND ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES

American Folklife Center publications (including FOLKLIFE CENTER
NEWS), a calendar of events, collection guides, general
information, and connections to a selection of other Internet
services related to folklife are available on the Internet.

 LC Web is available through your local World Wide Web service.
The Center's home page can be accessed from the Library's main
menu. The direct URL for the Center's home page is:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/

 Folkline, an information service providing timely information on
the field of folklore and folklife, including training and
professional opportunities and news items of national interest,
is available through the above Internet servers. For telephone
service, call the Folklife Reading Room: 202 707-5510.


EDITOR'S NOTES

      Teachers who use John Steinbeck's novel THE GRAPES OF WRATH
in the classroom will be particularly interested in the Center's
new online presentation "Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles
L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941."
There are many parallels between the collection material and the
novel, and students may find that pictures and music greatly
enhance their understanding of the period depicted.

      Charles L. Todd, one of the creators of the Todd/Sonkin
Collection, lives in Florida, and was happy to learn that his
work of sixty years ago is having a new life on the Internet. He
writes as follows:


      "I have just spent an hour watching "Voices from the Dust
Bowl" on a friend's computer set up. It brought back many
memories of those "Okie" days out in California, and many of
those old voices brought tears to these old eyes of mine. . . .

      "When I remember that bulky old Presto recorder which young
Jerry Wiesner taught me how to use, I am amazed at the quality of
the sound after all these years. I could almost hear the toilets
flushing as those tow-haired little Okies sailed little toothpick
boats round and round in them--having never seen such miracles
before back in the Ozarks."

      The Jerome Wiesner Todd mentions was the first chief
engineer at the Library's newly created Recording Laboratory.
Wiesner went on to become President Kennedy's science advisor and
then president of M.I.T.

Senate Committee Hearings

      On March 4, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
met to hear testimony from the Librarian of Congress, James H.
Billington; the Deputy Librarian, Thomas Scott; and the chairman
of the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, William
L. Kinney, on a number of proposals involving the Library of
Congress, including permanent authorization for the Center.
Kinney made an eloquent statement on behalf of the Center,
mentioning his own experience with grassroots cultural traditions
as a newspaper publisher in Bennettsville, South Carolina, and
the many undertakings of the Center, including a favorite of his,
the Federal Cylinder Project. Committee chairman John Warner
(Virginia) praised Kinney for his testimony, and Sen. Thad
Cochran (Mississippi) spoke in support of permanent
authorization. Other members of the committee present were Sen.
Wendell Ford (Kentucky) and Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska).

Sonneck Society Bulletin 

      Belated acknowledgement to the Sonneck Society for American
Music. An earlier version of Catherine Kerst's article
"Outsinging the Gas Tank: Sidney Robertson and the California
Folk Music Project" (FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS, Winter 1998) appeared
in the SONNECK SOCIETY BULLETIN (Fall 1994).


Cover: Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pipkin being recorded by Charles Todd
(left) at the Shafter Migratory Labor Camp, Shafter, California,
1940. Todd wrote that Mrs. Pipkin was a gold mine of old English
ballads, and that many thought of her as the prototype for "Ma
Joad" in THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Photo by Robert Hemmig, Ventura,
California


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voices From the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin
Collection

By Robin Fanslow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker
Collection, documentary materials gathered in California in the
1940s at Farm Security Administration workers communities, is now
available online. Called "Voices from the Dust Bowl," it is the
second American Folklife Center collection in the Library's
ongoing National Digital Library Program.

      A complex set of interacting forces, both economic and
ecological, brought the migrant workers documented in this
ethnographic collection to California. During the recession that
followed World War I, the drop in the market prices for farm
crops led Great Plains farmers to compensate for lost revenues by
increasing productivity--which they accomplished through greater
mechanization and by cultivating more land. But these methods
were dependent upon increased borrowing and spending, and many
farmers found themselves financially overextended.

      The stock market crash in 1929 exacerbated an already
tenuous economic situation. Many independent farmers lost their
farms when banks came to collect on their notes; and tenant
farmers were put off the land by large landholders shifting to
more efficient means of production. There was a 30 percent
unemployment rate at the time, and the attempts of displaced
agricultural workers to find other work often met with
frustration.

      Furthermore, increased cultivation placed a greater strain
on the land--the grasslands of the southern Great Plains. The
rich soil lost its ability to retain moisture and nutrients and
began to erode. Soil conservation practices were not widely
employed by farmers during this era, and a seven-year drought
began in 1931. In the dust storms of the following years, many of
the farms literally dried up and blew away, creating what became
known as the "Dust Bowl."

      For many refugees of the Dust Bowl, people whose lives had
revolved around farming, California seemed like an ideal place to
look for work. California's mild climate allowed for a long
growing season and a diversity of crops with staggered planting
and harvesting cycles. Popular songs and stories, circulating for
decades in oral tradition, exaggerated these attributes,
depicting California as a veritable Promised Land. And flyers
advertising a need for farm workers in the Southwest were
distributed in areas hard hit by unemployment. 

      The country's major east-west thoroughfare, U.S. Highway 66-
-also known as "Route 66," "The Mother Road," "The Main Street of
America," and "Will Rogers Highway"--abetted the westward flight
of the migrants. A trip of such length was not undertaken lightly
in this pre-interstate era, and Highway 66 provided a direct
route from the Dust Bowl region to an area just south of the
Central Valley of California. Although the Dust Bowl included
many Great Plains states, the migrants were generically known as
"Okies," referring to the approximately 20 percent who were from
Oklahoma. 

      California was emphatically not the promised land of the
migrants' dreams. Although the weather was comparatively mild and
farmers' fields were bountiful with produce, California also felt
the effects of the Depression.  Local and state infrastructures
were already overburdened, and the steady stream of newly
arriving migrants was more than the system could bear. After
struggling to make it to the state, many found themselves turned
away at its borders.

      Migrants who did cross over found that the available labor
pool was vastly disproportionate to the number of job openings
that could be filled. And those who found employment soon learned
that this surfeit of workers caused a reduction in the going wage
rate. Even with an entire family working, migrants could not
support themselves on these low wages. Many set up camps along
irrigation ditches in the farmers' fields. These "ditchbank"
camps fostered poor sanitary conditions and created a public
health problem.  

      Migrants were drawn to California's agricultural centers,
but arrival in the state did not put an end to the migrants'
travels. In an attempt to maintain a steady income, workers had
to follow the harvests. When potatoes were ready to be picked,
the migrants traveled to where the potatoes were--or the cotton,
lemons, oranges, or peas.


The ethnographic collection created by Charles L. Todd and Robert
Sonkin provides a glimpse of the everyday life and cultural
expression of people living through the Great Depression and Dust
Bowl era. The migrants represented in the online presentation of
the collection, "Voices from the Dust Bowl," came primarily from
Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Most were of Anglo-
American descent with family and cultural roots in the rural
South. In the homes they left, few had been accustomed to living
with modern conveniences such as electricity and indoor plumbing.

      The Arvin Migratory Labor Camp, which opened in 1937 near
Arvin, California, was the first Farm Security Administration
(FSA) camp. It was also the starting point of the Todd/Sonkin
expedition. The FSA camps were intended to resolve poor
sanitation and public health problems, as well as to help relieve
the burden placed on state and local infrastructures by the
influx of workers. The camps also furnished the migrants with a
safe space in which to escape from discrimination and rekindle a
sense of community.

      Although each camp had a small staff of administrators, much
of the responsibility for daily operations and governance
devolved to the campers themselves. Civil activities were carried
out through camp councils and camp courts.

      The motivation for Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin to
document life in the migrant camps of California arose from a
combination of circumstances. Todd held a longstanding interest
in balladry, acquired during his undergraduate studies of English
literature. He also had a more general interest in folk music.
Todd held firmly to the premise that folksong was a form of
journalism carried out orally. Ultimately, however, it was John
Steinbeck's portrayal of the San Joaquin Valley migrant camps in
a pamphlet entitled "Their Blood is Strong" that inspired him to
investigate the camps firsthand.  

      In 1938, Charles Todd planned a trip to visit his mother and
stepfather, an avocado rancher, at their home in California. Todd
was a graduate student in the Department of Public Speaking at
the City College of New York at the time, and he decided to do a
little work to underwrite the expenses of his summer vacation. He
procured a freelance assignment to write an article for the
magazine COMMON SENSE (precursor of THE NEW REPUBLIC). His
subsequent article gives an overview of the historical, economic,
and social context in which this collection was created
("Trampling Out the Vintage: Farm Security Adminstration Camps
Provide the Imperial Valley Migrants with a Home and a Hoe,"
COMMON SENSE, July 1939).

      It was also during this period that Charles Todd met Robert
Sonkin, while they were both working in CCNY's Department of
Public Speaking. Sonkin approached the project from a different
perspective. According to Todd, "[Sonkin] had this passion for
Americana. He was a great linguistics man, fascinated by American
speech."

      To facilitate their documentary project, Todd contacted Alan
Lomax, then assistant in charge of the Archive of American Folk
Song at the Library of Congress, to arrange support for a
recording expedition to the camps. The two had met earlier in New
York City at the Village Vanguard, a Greenwich Village  
nightclub frequented by such notables of the folk revival
movement as Woody Guthrie, Huddie Ledbetter, Burl Ives, John
Jacob Niles, and Frank Warner.

      In 1940 and 1941, the Archive provided Todd and Sonkin with
a Presto disc recording machine, recording discs, and batteries.
In return the researchers agreed to place their collection at the
Library of Congress. At first the team used acetate-on-aluminum
recording discs, but as the war effort got underway and aluminum
became scarce, they were forced to switch to heavier, more
fragile acetate-on-glass discs. The recording equipment used by
Todd and Sonkin was the latest technology at the time, yet at a
weight of approximately eighty pounds, the Presto disc recorder
was hardly what we would consider portable today. The recorder
worked by engraving tracks into the acetate coating of the discs
with a stylus. Due to the fragility of the glass discs, some of
the recordings did not survive.

      Along with the equipment, the Archive provided the team with
instructions on how to document ethnographic material. In a
letter dated July 20, 1940, Alan Lomax outlined a methodology. In
addition, Todd and Sonkin received the "W.P.A. Folksong
Questionnaire" and training by the Library's chief engineer,
Jerome Wiesner, in the use of the recording equipment. Thus armed
with equipment and trained in collecting techniques, Todd and
Sonkin set off on the first leg of their expedition. In July and
August of 1940, they visited the Arvin, Shafter, Visalia,
Firebaugh, Westley, Thornton, and Yuba City Farm Security
Administration camps.

      Due to the constraints of the school calendar, Todd and
Sonkin were forced to return to New York at summer's end to
resume their duties at the City College of New York. In August
and September of 1941, the pair returned to California to visit
the Shafter, Arvin, Visalia, Porterville, and El Rio FSA Camps.
Their first stop, the Arvin Migratory Labor Camp, is notable both
as the first camp of its kind in California and as the camp where
John Steinbeck did research for THE GRAPES OF WRATH.  

      The territory Todd and Sonkin covered during their field
project ranged as far south as El Rio, just north of Oxnard, and
as far north as Yuba City, north of Sacramento. Much of the
documentation work was concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley.


While visiting the camps, Todd became aware of the important
possession the migrants had brought with them: their cultural
heritage and, in particular, the ballads and other folksongs they
performed and enjoyed. When they were not working, looking for
work, or tending to the civil and domestic operations of the
camp, the migrants engaged in recreational activities including
singing and other music making, which took place both in private
living quarters and in public spaces.

      The music performed by the migrants derives from a number of
sources. The majority of songs belong to the Anglo-Celtic ballad
tradition, such as "Barbara Allen," "The Brown Girl," "Nine
Little Devils," "Father Rumble," "Lloyd Bateman," "Pretty Molly,"
and "Little Mohee." But other sources were evident as well:
gospel and popular music, the minstrel stage, tin pan alley,
early country music, and cowboy music. The works of the Carter
Family, Jimmy Rodgers, and Gene Autry appear to have been
particular favorites of the migrants.

      Also included in the online presentation are square dance
calls, such as "Soldier's Joy" and "Sally Goodin," and play-party
rhymes such as "Skip to My Lou" and "Old Joe Clark." Some songs
reflect the migrant experience, including Jack Bryant's "Sunny
Cal" and Mary Sullivan's ballads "A Traveler's Line" and "Sunny
California." These songs all speak of hardship, disappointment,
and a deeply cherished wish to return home.

      One difficulty Todd and Sonkin encountered was that of oral
communication. Although both worked in the City College Speech
Clinic at the time, they were frequently perplexed by turns of
phrase employed by the migrants. For example, the performers
referred to the songs they had created to tell the stories of
their displacement and subsequent experiences as "migracious"
songs. Charles Todd relates that he thought the performers were
identifying these numbers as "My gracious!" songs, but he later
realized that they were referring to their migratory, or
"migracious," experiences.

      The recordings were made at various events, including
"literary" evenings at Visalia; social gatherings in people's
homes; Saturday night dances; camp council meetings; camp court
proceedings; and two "folk festivals," multi-camp events arranged
for the benefit of the researchers. Throughout the recordings we
hear children playing, doors slamming, trains passing by, and the
hum of "desert coolers"--described by Sonkin as electric fans
covered with wet burlap--that operated at public gatherings for
the comfort of participants and spectators. 

      Todd and Sonkin were not the only ones drawn to document the
plight of the Dust Bowl refugees. According to Todd, the camps
were "full of Ph.D. scholars and do-gooders studying the real
people." Much to his dismay, he learned that some of the songs
they recorded that chronicled the plight of the Dust Bowl
migrants had been composed by an unidentified "Ph.D. from
Vassar." 

      "Voices from the Dust Bowl" illustrates certain themes
common to human experience: the trauma resulting from
dislocation; the tenacity of a community's shared culture; and
the solidarity within and friction among groups. Intergroup
tension is further illustrated in this presentation by
contemporaneous urban journalists' portrayals of rural life,
California farmers' attitudes toward both Mexican and "Okie"
workers, and discriminatory attitudes toward migrant workers in
general.

      Todd and Sonkin also held recording sessions with a few
Mexican migrants living in the El Rio Farm Security
Administration camp. Unfortunately, the glass-based acetate discs
on which the Spanish-language musical performances were recorded
did not survive. However, photos from El Rio and interviews with
Jos Flores and Augustus Martinez provide at least a glimpse into
the lives and culture of non-Anglo farm workers, who represented
the majority of migrant farm laborers in California.


We know that the Todd/Sonkin collecting expedition achieved a
degree of notoriety because the researchers were invited to the
White House to play some of their recordings for President and
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt in September 1941. From the
correspondence we may surmise that Robert Sonkin returned to his
teaching post at the City College of New York. We know that
Charles L. Todd returned to California in 1942, and worked as
associate manager of the Tulare Migrant Camp in Visalia.

      As World War II wore on, Todd, Sonkin, Alan Lomax, and many
of the migrant workers were subsumed by the war effort, either
through conscription or through work in the defense industry. The
state of the economy, both in California and across the nation,
improved dramatically as the defense industry geared up to meet
the needs of the war effort. Many of the migrants went off to
fight in the war. Those who were left behind took advantage of
the job opportunities that had become available in West Coast
shipyards and defense plants. As a result of this more stable
life, numerous Dust Bowl refugees put down new roots in
California soil, where their descendants reside to this day.

.............................................................

Folklorist Robin Fanslow is working at the American Folklife
Center, digitizing collections for the Library's National Digital
Library Program.


Selected Bibliography

Baldwin, Sidney. POVERTY AND POLITICS: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF
THE FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION. Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1968.

Bonnifield, Paul. THE DUST BOWL: MEN, DIRT, AND DEPRESSION.
Albuquerque:  University of New Mexico Press, 1979.

Farris, John. THE DUST BOWL. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc., 1989.

Gregory, James N. AMERICAN EXODUS: THE DUST BOWL MIGRATION AND
OKIE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 1989.

Hurt, R. Douglas. THE DUST BOWL: AN AGRICULTURAL AND SOCIAL
HISTORY. Chicago:  Nelson-Hall, 1981.

McWilliams, Carey. ILL FARES THE LAND: MIGRANTS AND MIGRATORY
LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1941.

Riney-Kehrberg, Pamela. ROOTED IN DUST: SURVIVING DROUGHT AND
DEPRESSION IN SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS. Lawrence, Kansas: University
Press of Kansas, 1994.

Shindo, Charles J. DUST BOWL MIGRANTS IN THE AMERICAN
IMAGINATION. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Stanley, Jerry. CHILDREN OF THE DUST BOWL:  THE TRUE STORY OF THE
SCHOOL AT WEEDPATCH CAMP. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1992.


Photo captions:

Baseball game, Tulare Migratory Labor Camp, Visalia, California,
March 1940. (LC-USF34-24123-D) Prints and Photographs Division.
Photo by Arthur Rothstein

A man has his shoes shined at a social hour in Shafter Camp. This
is Charles Todd's favorite picture of an "Okie Family." Photo by
Robert Hemmig, Ventura, California

Charles Todd at the recording machine, surrounded by Mexican men
and boys, El Rio Camp, 1941. Photo by Robert Hemmig, Ventura,
California

The King Family Singers, with Syd Thompson playing the fiddle.
Location and date unknown. The King family came to California
from Arkansas as migratory farm workers. They brought their
instruments and songs with them, and entertained their fellow
"Okies" as they traveled from farm to farm, following the crops.
Photo by Robert Hemmig, Ventura, California

Dance at the Arvin Camp. Date unknown. Photograph by Robert
Hemmig, Ventura, California, courtesy of Charles Todd

Will Neal playing fiddle for Robert Sonkin (behind microphone)
and Charles Todd (right), Arvin Camp, 1940. Photograph by Robert
Hemmig, Ventura, California

Back cover:

Band playing at a Saturday night dance, Farm Security
Administration Tulare Migratory Labor Camp, Tulare, California,
1940s. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, courtesy of Charles Todd. A new
online collection from the Archive of Folk Culture features
"Voices from the Dust Bowl." See page 3.


In Boxes:


And perhaps a man brought out his guitar to the front of his
tent.  And he sat on a box to play, and everyone in the camp
moved slowly in toward him, drawn in toward him.  Many men can
chord a guitar, but perhaps this man was a picker. There you have
something--the deep chords beating, beating, while the melody
runs on the strings like little foot-steps. Heavy hard fingers
marching on the frets. The man played and the people moved slowly
in on him until the circle was closed and tight, and then he sang
"Ten-Cent Cotton and Forty-Cent Meat." And the circle sang softly
with him. And he sang "Why Do You Cut Your Hair, Girls?" And the
circle sang. He wailed the song, "I'm Leaving Old Texas," that
eerie song that was sung before the Spaniards came, only the
words were Indian then. (John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH)


The migrant people, scuttling for work, scrabbling to live,
looked always for pleasure, dug for pleasure, manufactured
pleasure, and they were hungry for amusement. Sometimes amusement
lay in speech, and they climbed up their lives with jokes. And it
came about in the camps along the roads, on the ditch bands
beside the streams, under the sycamores, that the story teller
grew into being, so that the people gathered in the low firelight
to hear the gifted ones. And they listened while the tales were
told, and their participation made the stories great. (John
Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH)


These three in the evening, harmonica and fiddle and guitar.
Playing a reel and tapping out the tune, and the big deep strings
of the guitar beating like a heart, and the harmonica's sharp
chords and the skirl and squeal of the fiddle. People have to
move close. They can't help it. "Chicken Reel" now, and the feet
tap and a young lean buck takes three quick steps, and his arms
hand limp. The square closes up and the dancing starts, feet on
the bare ground, beating dull, strike with your heels. Hands
'round and swing. Hair falls down, and panting breaths. Lean to
the side now. (John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH)


New Online: "Voices from the Dust Bowl"

"Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles T. Todd and Robert Sonkin
Migrant Worker Collection" has just been made available online
through the National Digital Library Program of the Library of
Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html). The
collection consists of approximately 18 hours of audio recordings
(436 titles on 122 recording discs), 28 graphic images (prints
and negatives), and 1.5 linear feet of print materials, including
administrative correspondence, field notes, recording logs, song
text transcriptions, dust jackets from the recording discs with
handwritten notes, news clippings, publications, and ephemera.
The online presentation provides access to 371 audio titles, 23
graphic images, a sampling of the dust jackets, and all the print
material in the collection. Covering the period between 1940 and
1941, this collection documents the lives of Dust Bowl migrants
living in Farm Security Administration camps in California.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Tradition of Yue Ju Cantonese Opera

By Nora Yeh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.............................................................

This article is based on a lecture and Chinese opera
demonstration, sponsored by the American Folklife Center and the
Asian Division, presented by Nora Yeh at the Library of Congress,
November 3, 1997, to celebrate the opening of the Asian Reading
Room in the Library's newly renovated Jefferson Building.

..............................................................

      Chinese opera is the musical and theatrical culmination of
many artistic elements: face painting, costume, implements, and
recently, backdrops; melodic and percussive instruments, singing,
monologue, dialogue, and numerous combinations of these; and
stylized movement, dancing, pantomime, acting, facial
expressions, hand gestures, and acrobatics. As local operas
evolved in different regions of China, some of these elements
were emphasized over others. Yue ju, the dominant tradition in
Cantonese opera today, is only one of the 365 types of Chinese
opera.

      Cantonese opera originated in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644
A.D.) under the reign of the emperor Jiajing (1522-64 A.D.). It
derived from three main sources: (1) a very popular folk singing
style known as yi yang qiang, from the interior mainland; (2) an
elegant theatrical and classical genre enjoyed by the literati
known as kun qu, from the coastal area; and, (3) during the next
150 years, the development of standard repertoire and tunes,
which combined xi pi melodic tunes from Hunan province with the
er huang melodic tunes from Anhui province. Cantonese opera
evolved from its infancy in the mid-1500s to its maturity in the
1720s.

      Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism have all influenced
Chinese opera. The social hierarchy and class distinction, as
defined by Confucian morality, demanded segregation between the
male and the female performers, making it necessary to present
entire programs with either an all-male or all-female cast. Thus,
men impersonated female characters in the all-male casts and
women impersonated men in the all-female casts. Although mixed
companies are now acceptable, fan chuan or the "reversal of
roles" still exists. Most Chinese theaters follow this custom,
and yue ju Cantonese opera is no exception.


Formerly the music of yue ju Cantonese opera was almost identical
to that used for older and more established operatic forms. But,
since the beginning of this century, yue ju has become a blend of
conventional tunes and fragments from Cantonese folk melodies,
popular songs, modern Cantonese instrumental compositions, and
even Western tunes. Two extreme cases involve the use of jazz and
experimentation with the tune of Strauss's famous "Merry Widow
Waltz."

      Often the opera melodies have changed so much from their
prototypes that the only recognizable trace is in the first few
words or syllables of the title of the original tune. The
repertoire varies from two thousand to three thousand pieces. 
But all in all, the yue ju  opera music has developed into a
style with unique yue ju characteristics.  

      Unlike arias in Western opera, no musical pieces are
composed specifically for a particular Chinese opera. The music
is often borrowed and adapted, either in part or whole, from all
kinds of music. Being essentially monophonic, the instrumental
accompaniment follows the same principles in the orchestral
arrangement. Thus, so long as the leading melodic instruments
play the main tunes, secondary instruments can be varied in
number, and become dispensable. The secondary instrumentalists
can perform, even improvise, to provide variegated melodies for
heterophonic textures according to the performer's ability and
knowledge. Every instrumentalist uses the same notation, unlike
the Western orchestra, in which each section reads from its own
instrumental score.  

      After years of evolution, the singers have developed three
types of vocal productions. The first is the trained natural
voice, used by males. The second is the high-pitched, "squeaky"
falsetto voice, used only by refined female characters. The
third, sung by young male characters only, is nasal and produced
from the back of the mouth chamber. It does not sound high-
pitched and is not a head tone. This range of stylized vocal
textures matches the various characterizations for the many
roles.

      Because in the past performances took place outdoors, where
it was necessary to attract the attention of the audience,
singers were trained to use their diaphragms to enhance sound
projection. Today, although most shows are indoors and
microphones are used, singers are still trained to project their
voices. Members of the audience who are unaccustomed to Chinese
opera may find the sound surprisingly or even unpleasantly loud.


The costumes of Cantonese opera provide socio-historical and even
geographical resonance for the performances, and are designed for
symbolic and aesthetic effect. Costumes (along with makeup and
props) help to portray the status and personality of the
different characters.

      Six distinct roles make up the cast: (1) wen wu sheng or
young fighting general; (2) xiao sheng or young scholar; (3) hua
dan or young female; (4) er hua or supporting female; (5) chou
sheng or clown; and (6) wu sheng or acrobatic performer.

      If a man or woman wears long white "water sleeves" and
carries a fan, he or she is from an imperial family, and, if a
man, he would be a high official or scholar. The sleeves signify
that the character belongs to a class that does not do manual
work, and in performances the sleeves are used to magnify
gestures and movements. Pheasant feathers, fur, and boots are
usually worn by male or female military commanders. (Because most
battles in history occurred in the north and west frontiers of
China, one can logically assume that the dramas with such
characters originate from northern or western China.)

      A hard round belt (about the size of a hula hoop) worn
around the waist shows a person of high rank in a civil court.
Elevated shoes worn by a male character indicate moral stature
and physically enhance his height. Elevated shoes worn by a
female character, which are tiny and elaborately decorated,
underscore the dainty walk of women from the upper class who have
bound feet. Light-colored floor-length gowns with elaborate
embroidery are usually worn by people of the leisure classes;
whereas, black, blue, or brown, less highly decorated shirt-and-
pants outfits are worn by servants.

      Symbolism is prevalent in every aspect of yue ju. Four
soldiers onstage may symbolize an army of ten thousand. When a
character enters and exits the stage several times, it may mean
that he has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles and for many
years. Pantomime involving a stylized "horse whip" conveys
working a horse--exercising, mounting, riding, or dismounting it.
A table may stand for a table, a bed, a mountain, the top of a
castle wall, or a balcony. Manipulating an oar indicates rowing a
boat or raft.


The rich cultural and historical heritage, the vast geographical
regions, the diverse ethnicities, and the eventful encounters of
China with its neighbors offer a tremendous variety of material
to Chinese opera dramatists. Stories are based on a wide range of
subjects, including romantic encounters, historical events, ghost
tales, patriotic episodes, moral teachings, famous classics,
pseudo-religious tales, and heroic epics.

      In addition to providing entertainment, the operas also
serve to educate people about Chinese language, belief systems,
society, arts, history, and even etiquette. This function was
especially true when most of the population was illiterate and
the opera was probably one of the few means of transferring such
information to certain social classes such as farmers, laborers,
and merchants. Precisely because Chinese opera was a powerful
tool for mass communication, rulers often carefully scrutinized
the presenters and their presentations in order to prevent
uprisings that might result from possible anti-government themes.

      One typically Cantonese opera is based on a semi-fictitious
story about the Lady Flower Blossom (Hua Ray Fu Ren), a beautiful
consort to King Meng Chang:

      In the year of 965 A.D., King Meng Chang of the Kingdom Hou
Shu, located in today's Sichuan Province, was defeated by the
first emperor of the Song Dynasty, Tai Zu. Barely escaping from
the pursuit of the Song army, King Meng Chang left his beloved
Lady Flower Blossom behind. Subsequently Lady Flower Blossom was
captured by Tai Zu. Enchanted by her beauty and talents, the
emperor kept her as his concubine.

      Although many years passed, she could not forget King Meng
Chang. Therefore, when she found out that Meng Chang had become a
Buddhist monk and exiled himself to a remote Sichuan temple, she
asked Tai Zu to grant her permission to go on a pilgrimage to her
homeland's temple, with the hidden purpose of meeting her former
husband. At the temple, the reunion between the former king and
the lady was very emotional. To express her love for him, she
drew his portrait. Then they parted in tears. Upon her return,
she displayed the portrait on the palace wall, which eased the
pain of her unending love.

      One day Tai Zu saw the portrait and asked her who it was.
She responded that this was a deity by the name of Zhang Xian,
and that whoever wished a son could pray to him for one. Tai Zu
prayed, and a son was born. Ever since then,  Zhang Xian became a
popular deity for anyone who wants a son. 

      This drama contains many typically Chinese cultural
subjects. It involves history, romance, and patriotism; the
trilogy of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism; a beautiful woman,
royalty, political intrigue, and revenge; and folktales and folk
belief.

      The heyday for Chinese opera has passed and the tradition
has declined rapidly. What used to be an outdoor event, performed
at the temple yard, market place, at a wealthy clans' inner
courtyard, or a tea house, is now performed mostly indoors at an
auditorium. Chinese opera was once popular among all social
classes. Although it was supported by the rich and upper classes,
it was for the enjoyment of people from all walks of life. During
the Communist takeover, especially at the time of the Cultural
Revolution (about 1967 to 1977), this artistic product from the
time of feudalism, together with many other classical performing
traditions, was completely destroyed. The performers were put
into exile and "brainwashed." Costumes, handbooks, artifacts, and
stage props were burnt. The instrumentalists were retrained and
reassigned to the state supported model operas, the yang ban xi.

      Today, few artists dedicate themselves to Cantonese opera.
In China, there is still a school where some very talented
children are being trained in this theatrical tradition. In the
United States, there are Cantonese opera associations in New
York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.                  
Because of time and budget constraints, productions may consist
of several highlights of one long opera or excerpts from several
different operas.

      In recent years there has been a revival of Chinese opera,
but its comeback has been slow. Competing forms of entertainment,
the time required to learn to perform or even appreciate this
art, the disintegration of communities and clans, the lack of
interest among the younger generations, limited funding, and an
increase in Western-style education, all contribute to the
diminishing social significance of the Chinese opera. Despite
these social and cultural changes, yue ju deserves to be
preserved for its unique aesthetic and cultural values.


Photo captions:

The Shing Ping Music Club ensemble, performing at the Library of
Congress, November 3, 1997. Jennifer Lee sings the excerpt "Miao
Rong," from the opera LADY FLOWER BLOSSOM, which tells of the
tragic feelings that followed the demise of the country Shu. This
is the moment in the opera when Lady Flower Blossom visits her
beloved husband, played here by James Peng (right), who exiled
himself in order to lead a monastic life. Photo by James Hardin

Paul Hahn of the Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division
models the costume of a Chinese emperor's yellow hunting outfit.
The tasseled baton he holds represents his riding crop. Photo by
James Hardin

Julia Leggett of the Asian Division models the traditional red
wedding dress worn by an empress. The headdress, called feng-guan
(phoenix crown), is decorated with designs representing the
phoenix, butterflies, coins, wings, and pearls, all of which
symbolize good fortune. On the wedding night, a red cloth covers
the bride's head until the newlyweds enter their bedroom. Photo
by James Hardin

Jennifer Lee sings the part of Lady Blossom Flower in the opera
of the same name. Her role type, called zheng ying hua dan, is
the leading female role, which demands vocal production of bright
head tones. Photo by James Hardin


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two New Library of Congress Folk Music Records Reissued on
Compact Disc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      The American Folklife Center and Rounder Records have
released two new compact disc publications of American folk
music, reissued from the legendary Library of Congress albums
FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES. The series of reissues, produced
by Bob Carlin, will number at least twenty over the next few
years.

      SACRED HARP SINGING (Rounder CD 1503), which features a form
of sacred group singing found in the American South, was
originally recorded by Alan Lomax and George Pullen Jackson at
the thirty-seventh annual session of the Alabama Sacred Harp
Singing Convention at Birmingham, Alabama, August 1942. THE
HAMMONS FAMILY: THE TRADITIONS OF A WEST VIRGINIA FAMILY AND
THEIR FRIENDS (Rounder CD 1504/05), a double-CD set, combines two
recorded publications originally issued in 1973: THE HAMMONS
FAMILY: A STUDY OF A WEST VIRGINIA FAMILY'S TRADITIONS (a two LP
box set) and SHAKING DOWN THE ACORNS: TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND
STORIES FROM POCAHANTAS AND GREENBRIER COUNTIES, WEST VIRGINIA (a
single LP). Both Hammons family recordings were drawn from a
documentary project conducted by Carl Fleischhauer and Alan
Jabbour from 1970 to 1972.

      THE SACRED HARP is the title of a collection of sacred songs
compiled by B.F. White and E.J. King and published by J. L. White
at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1844. The book has given its name to a
particular network of singing gatherings, where one or another
form or edition of the book is used. In the case of this
documentary recording, the songs are from ORIGINAL SACRED HARP
(Denson Revision), 1936. While the singing is sacred, it does not
occur as part of a church service; rather, people gather
especially for a Sacred Harp sing, often at all-day sessions.
This album of Sacred Harp songs represents a cross section of the
tradition, which was born centuries ago in the British Isles,
crossed the Atlantic with the early colonists, took on the colors
of the eighteenth-century singing school, and, after the
Revolution, spread to the Southeast.

      Both original Hammons family albums featured Burl Hammons,
Maggie Hammons Parker, Sherman Hammons, and their family, but
SHAKING DOWN THE ACORNS also includes selections by two friends
of the family, Lee Hammons (no known relation) and Moss Coffman.
The ancestors of the Hammons family were among the pioneer
settlers who made their homes in the woodlands of Eastern
Kentucky and West Virginia, gaining their sustenance from
hunting, gathering, and simple gardening and animal husbandry,
and entering the cash economy only marginally through the
occasional piecemeal sale of pelts, logs, and ginseng.
Fleischhauer and Jabbour met the Hammonses in 1970 and set about
a full-length study that brought together recordings, printed
material, and photography, and combined music, lore, oral
history, documentary research, and general cultural reflections,
as a way of conveying publicly the interconnections between art
and life in the traditions of a single family. 

      Rounder Records, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has
specialized in American folk music recordings since the early
1970s. Over the years Rounder has released a number of LPs and
CDs drawn from the collections of the Archive of Folk Culture,
including recordings of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll
Morton, Aunt Molly Jackson, and many others. The present series
represents a collaboration between Rounder and two Library of
Congress divisions: the American Folklife Center, which includes
the Archive of Folk Culture, and the Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division, which includes the Library's
Recording Laboratory. The original recordings were released
through the Recording Laboratory Revolving Fund.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Texaco Foundation Funds Internet Presentations of Traditional
Music

By Alan Jabbour
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      The Texaco Foundation, as part of its new focus on
broadening the use of music in education, has presented the first
installment of a $300,000 pledge to the National Digital Library
Program of the Library of Congress. The foundation's new
signature program in music education explores the potential of
music to improve academic achievement. The emphasis is on serious
curricular reform, which will be aided by the Library's program
to make original music source material available for student and
teacher use on the Internet.

      The Texaco donation will be used for online presentations of
four collections from the Archive of Folk Culture featuring rural
Southern, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian musical
traditions. They include sound recordings, photographs, and
manuscript materials. 

      "The Texaco Foundation is proud to be part of the National
Digital Library Program," said Anne T. Dowling, president of the
Texaco Foundation in White Plains, New York. "These collections
from the American Folklife Center celebrate the many remarkable,
unique voices that have shaped America."

      The four collections proposed for online presentation are:

      The John and Ruby Lomax Southern States Collection, 1939.
Using the Library's sound recording apparatus, John Lomax and his
wife, Ruby, documented Southern traditional material on a three-
month trip through nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and
Virginia. They recorded religious songs, spirituals, field
hollers, blues, rags, Civil War songs, work songs, ballads, dance
tunes, Spanish-language folk dramas, children's games, lullabies,
prayers, narratives, and oral history interviews.

      The Lomax/Hurston/Barnicle Expedition, 1935. Alan Lomax,
John Lomax's son and the new assistant in charge of the Folk
Archive, collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston and Mary Elizabeth
Barnicle on an expedition to document African American music and
lore from Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas. The expedition
included a visit to Eatonville, Florida, the black township where
Hurston had grown up, and the recordings include not only members
of her community but herself in the dual roles as collector and
informant. Hurston has become almost legendary today as a
pioneering African American woman whose novels, plays, and
folkloristic writings are widely studied and appreciated. The
collection contains children's game songs, ring shouts,
spirituals, dance tunes, ballads, and stories.

      The Juan Rael Collection. The upper valley of the Rio Grande
is home to descendants of early Spanish settlers who have
conserved some of the oldest European traditions in America. In
1940, with support from the Library of Congress, Juan Rael
traveled through the upper Rio Grande communities of southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico recording their traditions. His
field recordings include coplas (couplet songs), decimas (a sung
verse form), alabados (religious songs),  valses de cadena
(traditional Spanish waltzes) and other dance tunes, marches, and
religious folk drama.

      Omaha Indian Music, Past and Present. A major collection of
wax cylinder recordings made in 1896 by ethnologists Alice
Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche (himself an Omaha) explores the
traditions of the Omaha tribe of northeastern Nebraska and
highlights the pioneering research done by one of the first
Native Americans to document his own tribal traditions as a
scientific undertaking. A modern recording session by the
American Folklife Center documents the encounter with these early
recordings by a contemporary Omaha elder, John Turner. And the
Center's extensive documentation of several annual Omaha powwows
in the 1980s, in both recorded and photographic form, not only
captures the cultural energy of the modern powwow movement but
also features contemporary renditions of some songs found on the
early cylinder recordings.

      The four new collections from the Archive of Folk Culture
will join "California Gold" and "Voices from the Dust Bowl,"
already online, as well as presentations in preparation on quilts
and quilting and on Nevada ranching traditions. There are more
that two dozen American history collections available from the
Library of Congress, including "African American Perspectives,"
"Selected Civil War Photographs," early short films, and
panoramic maps.

Photo caption:

Anne T. Dowling (right), president of the Texaco Foundation,
presents a check to Jo Ann Jenkins, the Library's chief of staff,
in the Librarian's Office. Also pictured are (from the left)
Norma Baker, director of the Development Office, and Susan
Siegel, executive assistant to the director, January 14, 1998.
Photo by James Hardin