Any ideas as the whom this person is?

[Deleted member 101]

Hi all,

I came across this photo online and think I have seen and heard of this person before (perhaps even on here).
I vaguely remember her being American, from the 1940s and may be the subject of a book.
That may well be totally wrong as I might be getting my wires crossed.

Any ideas?

 

[AccordionUprising]

Thats Jenny Vincent, yes from the US. I wrote about her here:
https://accordionuprising.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/jenny-vincent-the-long-view/

Shes in my Accordion Revolution books chapter about the very few accordionists who played a role in the US folk revival. I tried to explore why folk music proponents in the U.S. basically eliminated accordions, while in most of the world the instruments are part of national folk traditions.

Teaser: influential folklorist Alan Lomax hated accordions; they were part of pop-music (not folkloric enough) at the time; and the huge accordion industry was pushing for inclusion in the classical and jazz world, ignoring the power of folk music. Together these had lasting impact on the instrument, stripping it from some of the traditions that might have supported it after the difficult collapse of he sales-bubble of the 1950s.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thats Jenny Vincent, yes from the US. I wrote about her here:
https://accordionuprising.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/jenny-vincent-the-long-view/

Shes in my Accordion Revolution books chapter about the very few accordionists who played a role in the US folk revival. I tried to explore why folk music proponents in the U.S. basically eliminated accordions, while in most of the world the instruments are part of national folk traditions.

Teaser: influential folklorist Alan Lomax hated accordions; they were part of pop-music (not folkloric enough) at the time; and the huge accordion industry was pushing for inclusion in the classical and jazz world, ignoring the power of folk music. Together these had lasting impact on the instrument, stripping it from some of the traditions that might have supported it after the difficult collapse of he sales-bubble of the 1950s.

Alan Lomax hated accordions ? Not folkloric enough ? 
What is the difference between Il popolo and folklore? Arent these the same people?

Was Alan Lomax aware of the fact that many music composers in medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical and romantic times used folk themes to write variations upon?
There has always been a two way direction of influence between folk music and classical music in music history.

There are no walls between folk music and classical music.
It is impossible to make a clear definition of folk music excluding other genres of music, there are always overlaps between music cultures, migrants.

Alan Lomax was wrong to exclude accordions from folk music.
Its simply evolution in music history and music instruments history.

 

[Deleted member 101]

Thanks Bruce,
I knew I'd seen and read something about her before. Although I couldn't remember the detail I thought she was an important figure in the folk music revival in the USA.
A truly inspirational person throughout her long life.
I suspect she'll definitely be missed.
Thanks again Bruce.

 

[AccordionUprising]

Thats Jenny Vincent, yes from the US. I wrote about her here:
https://accordionuprising.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/jenny-vincent-the-long-view/

Shes in my Accordion Revolution books chapter about the very few accordionists who played a role in the US folk revival. I tried to explore why folk music proponents in the U.S. basically eliminated accordions, while in most of the world the instruments are part of national folk traditions.

Teaser: influential folklorist Alan Lomax hated accordions; they were part of pop-music (not folkloric enough) at the time; and the huge accordion industry was pushing for inclusion in the classical and jazz world, ignoring the power of folk music. Together these had lasting impact on the instrument, stripping it from some of the traditions that might have supported it after the difficult collapse of he sales-bubble of the 1950s.

Alan Lomax hated accordions ? Not folkloric enough ? 
What is the difference between Il popolo and folklore? Arent these the same people?

Was Alan Lomax aware of the fact that many music composers in medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical and romantic times used folk themes to write variations upon?
There has always been a two way direction of influence between folk music and classical music in music history.

There are no walls between folk music and classical music.
It is impossible to make a clear definition of folk music excluding other genres of music, there are always overlaps between music cultures, migrants.

Alan Lomax was wrong to exclude accordions from folk music.
Its simply evolution in music history and music instruments history.

In my Accordion Revolution book I poke a fair bit of fun at Lomax for this. Its pretty interesting trying to figure out why the American folk revival basically removed the accordion from their construct of folk music (which came to mean almost exclusively singer-songwriters with guitars). Lomax was a quirky guy so hes a pretty interesting example. 

He comes up a lot in Chapter 15: “The Folk Revival: The Accordion Betrayed” [Hyperbole is an authors friend.]

“Alan Lomax and “This Pestiferous Instrument”
In 1960, folklorist Alan Lomax wrote, “When the whole world is bored with automated, mass-distributed video-music, our descendants will despise us for throwing away the best of our culture.” Given his stirring words, it’s ironic that Lomax was partially responsible for the accordion’s erasure from the American folk revival.

By the end of his life, Alan Lomax left a legacy of recordings that will far outlast any faults he may have had. That said, as America’s most well-known folklorist he did the accordion few favors. Lomax eventually grew to be one of the most influential movers behind the mid-century North American revival. He did field recordings all over the world, worked with the U.S. Library of Congress’s Archive of American Folk Song, and published extensively on the origins and development of people’s music. He never had much good to say about the squeezebox, though.

Lomax wrote in one records liner-notes: During the nineteenth century the accordion, which has done such severe damage to the old folk music of Central Europe, penetrated every region of Italy. The Southern Italian folk musicians, however, have worked out ways of playing this pestiferous instrument so that it supports, rather than injures their old tunes.”

Lomax quit North America at a time when anti-accordion opinion was strong among European folklorists. In their eyes, the instrument was displacing ancient and valuable bagpipes, fiddles, and other traditions. If he didn’t have this prejudice before, Lomax seems to have adopted and applied it after returning to his own country. He ended up shortchanging American accordion styles that were older or more threatened than some of the music he championed.

For example, Lead Belly’s non-traditional Mexican twelve-string was given precedence over his childhood windjammer. The fact that accordions had supplanted bagpipes in Italy did not reflect the way nineteenth-century African American accordion players were replaced by blues guitarists. By misapplying these preconceptions, Lomax and others effectively erased the English-speaking African American accordion. Thankfully, such prejudice didn’t succeed in all traditions. Chris Strachwitz recalled Lomax lamenting the presence of accordions in Mexican American music. The border accordion proudly outlived Lomax’s opinion.

Excerpt From: Bruce Triggs. “Accordian Revolution.” 
Its finally available! AccordionRevolution.com

 

[Deleted member 48]

How very interesting Bruce, that you talk about Alan Lomax and his uneasy relationship with the accordion(s), diatonic and chromatic.
His archive contains pics of melodeons and PAs in Italy and other regions.

Alan Lomax has devoted his life to music and folk music, I have great respect for the field work he has done, and all the documents he has left us for posterity.
Do you know his Cantometrics system and theory?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantometrics#History_of_the_theory

But regarding accordions, in my humble opinion, he made a mistake many folklore scientists and musicologists have made before.


Music is never a static art, it is always a living art. Music and musical instruments have always been subject to evolutions in time and geographical border crossings.

The classic mistake is to define the phenomenon of folk music. The word definition has the concept of ending in it, the latin expression finire , to stop, to freeze.
If you search for a definition of folk music, in a way, you kill or stop the flow, the evolution, life. 
Music is part of life, always in evolution.

You can not stop the evolution of inventions of new musical instruments. People have always adopted new musical instruments in whatever musical styles, be it folky, jazzy, classical, ...

The accordion or accordions have every right to be called folk instruments, or jazz instruments, or classical instruments, ...

People switched from bagpipes, fiddles, flutes, ... to accordions, simply because they are very practical instruments. If accordions were not practical, folks wouldnt have embraced them and integrated into their musical life.

Another mistake folklore scientists make is to overemphasize the oral tradition or transmission of music as the only way music passed from one generation to the other. There has been a mixture of oral and written transmission in folk cultures.
Folk music and classical music both influenced each other. 

Maybe some folklorists tried to put up a fight against the chromatic accordion, and even the diatonic accordion.
In the end the accordion(s) won 

In the end scene of the movie The Fearless Vampire Killers the Professor Abronsius is helping to spread over the world what he has been fighting against...