The Wisconsin Folk Song Recording Project is a

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

sponsored project carried out by Helene Stratman-Thomas and Leland A. Coon to record

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

s. The collection includes recordings, notes, and photographs gathered from 1937 to 1946. "Song catcher"

Sidney Robertson Cowell Sidney Robertson Cowell (born Sidney William Hawkins; June 2, 1903 – February 23, 1995) was an American ethnomusicologist, collector of folk songs, and the wife of the composer Henry Cowell. Life and career She was born on June 2, 1903, i ...

was also involved in making recordings. The collections include many vocal recordings as well as music performed on instruments including the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Hardanger fiddle A Hardanger fiddle ( no, hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument considered to be the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than ...

psalmodikon The psalmodicon (psalmodikon or salmodikon) is a stringed musical instrument; the most common variants have a single string. It was developed in Scandinavia for simplifying music in churches and schools, and as an alternative to the fiddle f ...

, and

tamburica Tamburica ( or ) or tamboura ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura; hu, tambura; el, Ταμπουράς, Tampourás; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza), refers to a family of long-necked lute ...

. The original black and white photographs are stored with the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

while the recordings are at the Archive of Folk Song, now the

Archive of Folk Culture The Archive of Folk Culture (originally named The Archive of American Folk Song) was established in 1928 as the first national collection of American folk music in the United States of America. It was initially part of the Music Division of the Libr ...

at the Library of Congress. The University of Wisconsin also has an extensive collection of material related to the endeavor and makes the recordings available at its Mills Library. The project was interrupted for several years by World War II. Several songs in the collection relate to the timber and pinery industry. There are also other work songs, love songs, immigrant songs,

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

s, seafaring songs, and war songs.

Richard M. Dorson Richard Mercer Dorson (March 12, 1916 – September 11, 1981) was an American folklorist, professor, and director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. Dorson has been called the "father of American folklore"Nichols, Amber M.Richard M. ...

also studied the Midwest's folk music culture.

Legacy

Folklorist Jim Leary followed up on their work with his ''Folksongs of Another America''. In 2001 the Mills Library hosted a history of recorded sound exhibition featuring Helene Stratman Thomas and her work on the project.

Recordings

Recordings included songs such as various versions of: * The Little Brown Bull * Jam on Gerry’s Rock As well as imported songs such as: * Dan Doo (English) *" I’ll Sell My Hat", also known as " Shule Aroon" (Irish) *Oh Yah, Ain’t That Been Fine (German dialect) as well as regional songs such as: *Emery De Noyer’s “Tomahawk Hem” *Bert Taplin's “Old Hazeltine” and “Manson’s Crew” Performers included Charles Dietz, a singer of English ballads.

References

{{Reflist Music of Wisconsin Folk music organizations Organizations based in Wisconsin