When one is thinking of the Adirondacks, music may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Generally, when thinking of the Adirondacks most would think of hiking, fishing, camping and spending time outdoors. However, that is not the only part of the Adirondacks. Music holds a special place for many people within the Adirondacks. More specifically, traditional music is a significant part of Adirondack culture. 

One may ask what traditional music is, but traditional music can vary from region to region. Within the Adirondacks, traditional music is classified as “instrumental and vocal music of amateur musicians and singers–ordinary people– at work and at leisure in the Adirondack region of New York State ”(Traditional Adirondack Music). Moreover, traditional music occurs through the passage of words. Traditional music is learned from family members, neighbors, co-workers, and other members of the community. The music is then passed on by word of mouth from person to person. Within traditional music, there aren’t books or lines to follow (Traditional Adirondack Music). It is all through how you interpret the music.  Essentially, traditional music is a very welcoming and diverse form of music as anyone can play and there are no constraints on what traditional music entails. It is because of the freedom of the type of music within traditional music, that allows it to be so calming and enjoyable. 

The process of traditional music within the Adirondacks began is quite interesting. It is thought that Adirondack traditional music started when settlers came to the Adirondacks and didn’t have many activities to do. This caused them to start producing songs and creating music. For example, from the Traditional Adirondack Music article, the text states, “We didn’t have any electricity, see, so we’d sit nights, this was our entertainment–we’d sit and play the fiddles, we’d sing, us kids used to jig all over the front room whether my mother liked it or not.  I can see that old carpet yet…holes into it, that old carpet wore right out”(Traditional Adirondack Music). As we can see, traditional music started as a way of entertainment. People started to really enjoy expressing themselves through this music, and traditional music began to take off. 

Within traditional music, there are two main types of music. First, there is the singing of traditional music. This when singers would produce music by entertaining themselves without any other  accompanying person(Traditional Adirondack Music). Essentially, there were no other people singing with them, it was more of an individual piece. The beauty of this type of traditional music is that there was a wide variety in the types of songs people would sing. The songs would range from century old story songs from the British Isles and Ireland to emotional songs about local events occuring (Traditional Adirondack Music). On the other hand, another large part of traditional music was the fiddlers and dancing component. Fiddler musicians would boost the spirits of their communities through their music (Traditional Adirondack Music). Fiddling was a very popular and appreciated form of music as it resulted in a lot of dancing and happy moods. Fiddling was most commonly used for people to dance. 

Overall, traditional music was a very large part of Adirondack culture. Unfortunately, traditional music doesn’t have the same popularity nowadays as it had in the 1900s. Traditional music was a great way for community members of the Adirondacks to express themselves while bringing others together and spreading joy. Traditional music holds a special place within the Adirondack community 

Works Cited

Seydmann, and Seydmann. “The Fiddle in the Scottish Folk Music Revival.” The Fiddle in the Scottish Folk Music Revival, 14 Sept. 2016, www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/revival-fiddle/.

W Is for the Woods – Traditional Adirondack Music, woods.tauny.org/sections/2/traditional-adirondack-music.