>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 22:36:13 -0500 (EST)
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Temperance and Music
>To: [log in to unmask]
>X-Mailer: Windows AOL sub 124
>Original-recipient: rfc822;[log in to unmask]
>
>Hi, David --
>
>Let me begin by stating that I'm not a member of the ATHG ListServ and not
>particularly into temperance issues.  However, in attending a concert by a
>German-American couple tonight in Maryland, it occurred to me that a
>connection with people involved in the history of temperance might be useful
>to them.   I happened to have spent my childhood in Evanston, Illinois, so I
>had a passing awareness of the temperance movement.
>
>The married German-American couple, Armin Hadamer and Susanne Koehler, go
>under the professional entertainment name of New Minstrels of the Rhine.
>They are also serious music researchers engaged in tracing the evolution of
>German music into American songs.  They have a grant from the Folk Alliance
>which has enabled them to work on a book which will be called "German
>Melodies in American Songs."
>
>In performing before audiences, they both play guitars and sing.  One of the
>numbers they performed tonight was a song called "Strong Drink is a Bane."
>Armin has determined that it dates in the American temperance movement back
>to the 1840's.   But the irony of this song is that the lyrics have been
>attached to a much earlier German melody which was the epitome of a
>rough-and-tumble drinking song.  Armin cannot explain the connection, but
>presumes that the authors of the temperance lyrics deliberately adopted the
>older drinking song melody so that it could become a parody on drinking.
>
>So here are my questions for you.  Do any of your associates in temperance
>history get into the area of folk songs which accompanied the movement?
>Would any of them be able to shed any light on why the particular melody was
>chosen in the formation of the song mentioned above?
>
>Thank you, in advance, for any assistance you may be able to give me on this.
>  If there is anyone who wants to communicate directly with Armin Hadamer, I
>would be glad to provide the link and remove myself as the middleman on this
>research issue.
>
>Bill Hickman
>Rockville, MD