Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Appalachian Studies
Date of Award
8-2018
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Dr. Lee Bidgood
Committee Members
Roy Andrade, Ted Olson
Abstract
David Harrison Macon (1870-1952) is often memorialized for his showmanship rather than his banjo playing. To compartmentalize such a significant American musician yields a wide gap within scholarship about Macon, country music history and the banjo. Macon’s banjo playing, documented through over two-hundred and fifty recordings made between the 1920s and 1950s, represents an array of cultures, eras, ethnicities, and styles all preserved in the repertoire of one of the most prolific country musicians of the 20th century. This study reveals Macon’s playing by considering such factors as influences that preceded his professional tenure, identifying elements within his playing from specific stylistic origins, and by technically notating selections from Macon’s canon that represent those influences. To understand the instrumental playing of one of early country music’s most important figures broadens understanding of banjo influences from the nineteenth century which laid the foundation for the instrument’s renaissance in the twentieth century.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Hayslett, Corbin F., "The Doyen of Dixie: A Survey of the Banjo Stylings of Uncle Dave Macon" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3438. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3438
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Appalachian Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Folklore Commons, Other American Studies Commons