New York Folklore: Volume 14, No.3-4: Folk and Traditional Music in New York State

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NEW YORK FOLKLORE
Vol. 14, Nos. 3-4, 1988
Folk and Traditional Music in New York State
Ray Allen and Nancy Groce, Guest Editors

INTRODUCTION: FOLK AND TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN NEW YORK STATE
by Ray Allen and Nancy Groce

The dictionary definition of an empire as “an aggregate of nations or people” under the rule of a single government, can be applied readily to the Empire State. It is difticult to make many meaningful generalizations about New York, a state whose huge population is one of the most ethnically diverse in the nation, and a state which is also turther subdivided into almost a dozen distinct geo-cultural regions. New York contains one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities, yet vast tracts of farm land and wilderness remain; Wall Street and Madison Avenue may receive more publicity, but the state’s largest industry is still agriculture. Equally diverse are the myriad forms of traditional and community-based music preserved, performed and enjoyed within its borders. This issue of New York Folklore is designed to draw attention to the varied musical traditions in New York State, as well as to recent research by folklorists and ethnomusicologists.

In terms of music and culture, New York has always been diverse. When the Dutch arrived in the 1620s, a number of culturally distinct Native American groups were living within the borders of present-day New York: the Algonquian-speaking Leni-Lenape dwelt in the south; while Iroquoian-speaking groups such as the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and later Tuscarora lived in the northern and western part of the state. Michael Sam Cronk’s article on the music of the Iroquois discusses the on-going musical traditions of some of these earliest New Yorkers.

The Dutch were generally tolerant in their attitudes toward other European ethnic groups, as long as they did not interfere with the colony’s primary purpose as a trading station. They settled what is today “downstate” New York—Long Island, the New York metropolitan area, and northward along the Hudson River as far as Beverwyck (now Albany). The Dutch were more liberal in their attitudes toward music than their New England contemporaries who, though not opposed to home music making, did object to public musical entertainments and the use of musical instruments in church....

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NOTE: The New York Folklore Society Newsletter and New York Folklore Journal were replaced by Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore which debuted in December, 2000.

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