Carl Rahkonen, music librarian, presented a paper on “The Vernacular Tune Book Collection of Samuel P. Bayard” at the Atlantic Chapter meeting of the Music Library Association at Princeton University on October 20, 2012.
Staring in the 1920s, Samuel P. Bayard, a former professor at Penn State University, began acquiring tune books of vernacular music for the purpose of documenting the possible origins of music he collected in Western Pennsylvania. Over many years, his tune book collection grew large, but was also quite specific, concentrating on the folk music of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales and including books by many of the well-known “song hunters” of the past.
Rahkonen’s presentation examined the general characteristics of Bayard’s tune book collection, and described specific kinds of books found in the collection.
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