Nagra IV-S portable reel-to-reel tape deck in the Folklife Reading Room. Photo by John Fenn.
We’re back with another episode of the Folklife Today podcast! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on Stitcher, iTunes, or your usual podcatcher.
In this episode, John Fenn and I talk about some of our favorite items in the archive, including a Nagra IV-S portable tape recorder, and invite Jennifer Cutting along to talk about commercial recordings of traditional folk dance tunes collected by the English folklorist Cecil Sharp. We used the opportunity to honor folklorists Tony Barrand, who built upon Cecil Sharp’s dance scholarship, and Mick Moloney, who made some great recordings on our Nagras. Barrand and Moloney both passed away in the last year. As usual, I’ll present more complete recordings of the music and other related collections in this blog post. But first…
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Resources
As is often the case, much of the material in the podcast is discussed elsewhere on the blog, and other resources are available on the Library’s website. Find the relevant links below!
Cecil Sharp Recordings
Jennifer Cutting and Tony Barrand speak outside the Library of Congress on May 1, 2003. Cutting is dressed in her “kit” as a member of Rock Creek Morris Women, while Barrand is dressed as “Mother,” a traditional character from the Morris tradition. Photo courtesy of David Roodman, who has the photo in his collection, and may be the photographer.
The specific tunes discussed by Jennifer on the podcast were the following:
Cecil Sharp’s song collecting in the United States was the subject of the concert and multimedia presentation Sharp’s Appalachian Harvest with Jeff Davis & Brian Peters, which AFC presented in 2015–find it at this link.
Jennifer’s interview with Tony Barrand was presented over 4 blog posts, which you’ll find at this link.
Nagra IV-S Tape Deck
Mick Moloney prepares to record Irish music at the Annual Midwest Fleadh Cheoil at Bogen High School, Chicago, Illinois, May 8, 1977. Photo by Jonas Dovydenas. Find the archival scan here!
John’s choice of an item that caught his eye was one of our portable Nagra tape decks. The deck itself is in the AFC reading room, and you can see it by visiting us in Washington, DC! But if you can’t make the trip, there’s a photo at the top of the blog.
Although a lot of recordings were made for AFC on the Nagras, we chose to play field recordings made by Mick Moloney for the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project. We did this to honor Mick, who passed away unexpectedly on July 27. Mick was a good friend of mine, and a mentor. I’ve known him since the 1980s, and my first teaching job was as his teaching assistant in a class on Irish folk music in the early 1990s. My own choice of an item that caught my eye was the striking photo of Mick to the right, complete with Nagra on his hip. It was taken by Jonas Dovydenas on May 8, 1977, on the same day Mick made the recordings we played on the podcast.
Find the specific tapes we used in the podcast at the following links:
- The Michael Flatley tune came from Fleadh Cheoil, held at Bogan High School, Chicago, Illinois, part 5, flute competition.
- The Liz Carroll and Tommy Maguire tune came from Fleadh Cheoil, held at Bogan High School, Chicago, Illinois, part 6, flute competition and fiddle-accordion session.
Find all of Mick’s recordings for the project at this link.
Mick also presented an illustrated lecture for us in 2009: If it Wasn’t for the Irish and the Jews: Irish and Jewish Influences on the Music of Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, which you can find at this link.
When Mick passed away, we posted this obituary, with the same photo, on the AFC Facebook page.