2 home-grown American musical traditions
For links and essays, please click on the links below
My "Road Scholars" talks on Illinois music history
Directory of Prairiesong site and my faculty page
Prairiesong is a website that gathers information on two uniquely American musical traditions, the Appalachian dulcimer and shape-note singing, and where to join in, in central Illinois. Also: information on two talks that Pete Ellertsen gives on music history for the Road Scholars program of the Illinois Humanities Council: "Ballads, Bobby Burns and Show Tunes: Popular Music in Illinois, 1800-1850"; and (2) "Shape-note Singing Schools on the Illinois Frontier." Ellertsen, who teaches English and journalism at Springfield College in Illinois, is moving his music pages here from his faculty website. (Drawing of dulcimer player by W.J. Duncan appeared in Harper's, May 1915.)
