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Cajun Music for the Mountain Dulcimer | Ron Ewing: Maker and Player of Dulcimers
Hammered Dulcimer: So you’ve learned tunes…now what?

In celebration of my upcoming Mel Bay book, Cajun Favorites for Mountain Dulcimer, I want to invite mountain dulcimer players to try a very enjoyable new repertoire for our instrument. The book and its companion recording can be ordered from Mel Bay or me at my website, http://www.LoisHornbostel.com.

I can remember listening to a New York City radio station as teenager and hearing something wonderful - a kind of music with beautiful accordion and fiddle melodies, and unpolished, heart-rending singing. At the core of this music were strong, infectious rhythms that blended these elements into an unforgettable sound. The singing was in French, but not the continental French we were studying in high school. The radio deejay came on and said it was American folk music - that of the Cajuns of south Louisiana.

Years later, after I began playing the mountain dulcimer, I lived in Louisiana and had the opportunity to hear this music firsthand. A special highlight was seeing the Balfa Brothers at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Dewey Balfa, the fiddler and spokesman of the group, was a natural storyteller, and his sincere affection and reverence for the the music and his people drew us all in. After hearing performances by the Balfa Brothers, the Louisiana Aces with D. L. Menard and Marc Savoy, and hearing the Creole French music of the Ardoin Family, I was hooked.

The historical roots of the Acadiens (or ‘Cajuns’) date back to France. In the early 1600s they sailed to the Americas and established the French colony of Acadia, which today makes up the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and adjacent areas.

The British occupied the area, and in 1755 the Acadiens were exiled from their farmlands. In the next decade they found refuge in southern Louisiana. There the “Cajuns” trapped fur-bearing animals, gathered moss, and raised sugar cane, cotton and corn. In the prairie areas of Louisiana they established cattle ranches and planted rice. They developed a distinct form of folk music all their own, adding to the French songs of their ancestors melodic and rhythmic elements of Afro-Caribbean, Appalachian, Celtic, German, Spanish, Native American music, and African- American blues, coming up with new sounds and songs. Their Creole and black neighbors developed a related style of music, often using the same songs, with more concentrated Caribbean/African/blues elements, and that was later called “zydeco” music.

French is still the first language for many Cajuns. They are famous for their sense of community, their hospitality, their cooking, and for their music. That music is often the focal point of social gatherings, and is usually played by several people together. Today most Cajun bands center around the accordion as the lead instrument, with the fiddle as an important ingredient. Guitar, triangle, and often drums are used to supply rhythm and harmony. Cajun bands have often included different instruments such as pedal steel guitar, string or electronic bass, mandolin, and even banjo.

Cajun music plays very comfortably mountain dulcimer, and several elements make it sound “right” on the mountain dulcimer. Most Cajun music is made to be played on the Cajun accordion, which has a diatonic scale - just like the mountain dulcimer. That makes the notes of the tunes “fit” the dulcimer’s fretboard. Then, strumming across all the strings of the dulcimer traditional style, a dulcimer player can authentically emulate the rhythms of the accordion. Cajun fiddlers are known to play a lot of double stops (bowing more than one string at a time), and that technique produces many of the same harmonies you hear on a strummed dulcimer. Cajun music has simple, pretty melodies with sparse chord changes, and it is not played as fast as fiddle tunes, so it is accessible to advanced beginner players. More practiced dulcimer players can enjoy the challenge and creativity of improvising off these melodies - a Cajun tradition.

One of the best places to learn Cajun music is Cajun & Creole Week at Augusta Heritage Center, Davis & Elkins College, Elkins, WV. I’ll be teaching a full week of Cajun & Old-Time Music at this event, July 10-15, 2005. Details are on my website.

There aren’t too many times you hear Cajun music played where someone’s not getting up and dancing to it. The two basic styles of Cajun dance tunes are waltzes and two-steps. The following is an example of a two-step from Cajun Favorites for Mountain Dulcimer, “J’étais au Bal” (‘I Went to the Dance’). The French lyrics sung by Cajuns to this melody translate into:

I went to the dance last night
and I’ve come again tonight.
If the occasion presents itself again,
I’ll come back tomorrow night!

This arrangement is to be strummed on the mountain dulcimer. This piece is usually played in the key of G, and the music here is true to that. However, dulcimer players tuned to DAD can easily play the tablature and the accompaniment chord tablature above the notation in that tuning in the key of D. Listen to the sound file to get the accents. This is good-time music. Hope you enjoy!

Listen to J’étais au Bal

From CAJUN FAVORITES FOR MOUNTAIN DULCIMER
by Lois Hornbostel ©2005 Mel Bay Publications, Inc.