Fun_People Archive
16 Jan
Samuel Bayard

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 97 13:08:15 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: Samuel Bayard

Forwarded-by: ErikThor@aol.com
Forwarded-by: pfwells@FRANK.MTSU.EDU (Paul F. Wells)
Forwarded-by: Michael Broyles <meb11@PSU.EDU>

I am sorry to report that Samuel Bayard died yesterday (Friday).  He was
eighty-eight years old.  He was one of the great folklorists in the
twentieth-century, and two of his books, *Hill Country Tunes,* and *Dance
to the Fiddle March to the Fife: Instrumental Folk Tunes in Pennsylvania,*
are exemplars of brilliant, dedicated, thoughtful and thorough folk music
research.

Although long retired, officially, Sam maintained an office on the Penn
State Campus, and until near the end was working on a publication that would
do with folk song what he had done with fiddle tunes.  I understand that he
was near completion of that project.

Samuel Bayard's presence at Penn State was one of the many reasons I was
attracted to this university three years ago.  I vividly remember his
warmth, friendliness, and enthusiasm when I first visited his office, and
I was amazed at how keen his mind and his ear remained.  He entralled a
group of younger students when his visited a seminar, and astounded us when
he could remember and sing different versions of tunes he had collected
forty years earlier, with all the various ornamentation and nuances,
including sometimes neutral thirds.

The world of musical scholarship has lost a pioneer and a giant.

Michael Broyles
Penn State University

© 1997 Peter Langston