Maurice Matteson (1893-1964)

Maurice Matteson (July 21, 1893- Sept 12, 1964)

[See the article attached to this page, Wanted! Mountain Music by Maurice Matteson c. 1935]

My grandfather, Maurice Matteson, was a folk song collector for part of his career. He was a classically trained singer and was chairman of the music program at the University of South Carolina (1921-1936). He married pianist Augusta Lofton (March 17, 1898- Aug. 16, 1988) on June 26, 1924. In 1932 he was in charge of the vocal work at the Southern Appalachian Music Camp held at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina. During a summer vacation near the camp, he met Mellinger Henry, a folk song collector, who convinced my grandfather help him with the musical scores. [See attached article] Henry had already collected songs from Rena Hicks and others in the area. The next summer (1933) they began collecting songs from Nathan Hicks and others from the area which resulted in his short book, Beech Mountain Folk-Songs and Ballads. [Collected, arranged, and provided with piano accompaniments by Maurice Matteson. Texts edited and foreword written by Mellinger Edward Henry. Schirmer's American Folk-Song Series, Set 15. G. Schirmer, Inc. (1936).]

Other books to his credit are Boone Trail Ballads, 1938; also Folk Songs of the Alleghenies and American Folk Songs for Young Singers. I don't have a copy of the rare books, Boone Trail Ballads, 1938; or Folk Songs of the Alleghenies. In the remains of my grandfather's papers, I have part (p. 21-35) of the publishers copy of Boone Trail Ballads from which I have recovered a dozen ballads and songs.

In September 1936 Maurice and Augusta moved to New York City where Maurice started working on his Masters Degree at Columbia School of Music. A few months earlier his "Beech Mountain Folk-Songs and Ballads" book was released by G. Shirmer.

He had an influence on the shape of folk music indirectly when he met Frank Warner in New York:

In 1937 they [Frank and Anne Warner] met South Carolina folk song collector Maurice Matteson, who had a dulcimer made by Nathan Hicks of Beach Mountain, North Carolina. The Warners wrote to Nathan Hicks and ordered a dulcimer, which he eventually sent them wrapped in a gunny sack and accompanied by a phonetically spelled letter full of archaic words and phrases. The Warners decided they had to pay the Hickses a visit, and Anne Warner describes their first trip to Beach Mountain the next year: "We were so fascinated that we decided to go down, not with the idea of collecting, but just to meet these people. This was before there was electricity in the mountains, and the roads were almost impassable once you got back from the highways, and the Hickses lived way back! When we got there we found Nathan Hicks with a group of kinfolk and neighbors who had to come to meet us, and they were all sitting around the front yard. Among them was Frank Proffitt, Nathan's eldest son-in-law."  -- from "Folk Music: More Than a Song" (1976) by Kristine Baggelaar and Donald Milton.

Frank Warner collected "Tom Dooley" from Proffitt in 1938 and in 1940 recorded him. Warner sang the song and taught it to Alan Lomax who published in the 1947 book, "Folk Song USA." Warner recorded the song in 1952 and the Kingston Trio apparently heard Warner and used the Lomax book as well as the recording on "American Folksay Ballads and Dances, Vol. 2" on Stinson, to based their version. The Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" became the number one song in 1958, selling over eight million copies. It is credited with starting the folk boom of the late 1950s and 1960s. Although my grandfather's role was minimal, he triggered Frank Warner's interest in folk song collecting.

My grandfather and grandmother moved to Frostburg, MD in the fall of 1937.  He taught at State Teachers College in Frostburg from 1937 until June 1954. During this time his second and final short book, American Folk-Songs for Young Singers was published. He and his wife Augusta (piano) did "ballad bagging" concerts which he sang, sometimes accompanied by piano, dulcimer, zither, and "a one-stringed folk instrument, of Swedish origin," called a salmonikon.  These programs were a combination of performance and lecture- when he talked about collecting and the history of the ballads.

He recorded four ballads in 1938 that can be purchased from the Library of Congress: AFS 9851B-9852A2; 9861B1-2: Three discs containing four ballads with Appalachian dulcimer played and sung by Maurice Matteson of the State Teachers College in Frostburg, Maryland. Recorded at the National Folk Festival, Washington, D.C., in May 1938 by the U.S. Recording Company. He also published some arrangements of folk songs and wrote several original songs.

In 1952 he "retired" in Beaufort, SC where he wrote a short musical "Southerns All."

R. Matteson Jr. 2012]


Below are some published reports and reviews:
-----------------------------

AFC 1950/017: National Folk Festival, 1938
One 12-inch and thirty-nine 16-inch discs of instrumentals, radio programs, and songs. Recorded primarily at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Recording Company, May 6-8, 1938. The collection includes 3/4 linear inch of song lists, newspaper articles, and programs. [catalog record]

AFS 9851B-9852A2; 9861B1-2: Three discs containing four ballads with Appalachian dulcimer played and sung by Maurice Matteson of the State Teachers College in Frostburg, Maryland. Recorded at the National Folk Festival, Washington, D.C., in May 1938 by the U.S. Recording Company.

---------------------------------------------------

A Brief History University of South Carolina- The School of Music

The First Sounds of Music

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Glee Club sounded the first musical notes on the USC campus, giving music its initial entrance into the University’s heart and soul. Actually, it was commonplace at many American colleges and universities during the early 1900s for music to be a student activity with no official sponsorship. Fortunately for the University, the talented Glee Club members were also instrumental musicians, playing violin, piano, cornet, flute, cello, and drums.

Recognizing the musical interest and talent that existed on campus, incoming President William Currell provided the first direct University support for music in 1914. By the 1921–1922 academic year, Maurice Matteson was serving as music instructor and J. C. Lanham as the first band director. Music was alive at the University of South Carolina and destined to play an increasingly important role in the lives of future University students.


Getting Attention

Musical interest had risen substantially by 1924 when Flinn Hall became the home of the new Department of Music. During the summer session, music education classes were added, and by the following year campus enrollment in music studies had reached 147.

The school year 1926–1927 saw the initiation of credit for applied studies in piano, voice, and violin. Organ study was added the next year and cello the year after. Under the direction of Mr. Matteson, the Glee Club made several out-of-state tours—to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, and Miami.

The Best and Worst of Times

Significant changes occurred in 1929 with the hiring of Madame Felice de Horvath, who had been teaching violin at Columbia College. After moving into her studio, a remodeled carriage house adjacent to Flinn Hall, de Horvath introduced an extensive course of violin study, including the first on-campus "Teacher’s Training Course" comprised of both classroom instruction and student teaching. The course was open, however, only "to pupils over 20 years of age."

In 1929 Madame de Horvath also established the University Symphony Orchestra, which was composed of both USC students and members of her existing municipal orchestra. During the first four years of its existence, the Orchestra presented four concerts annually in the small University (Rutledge) Chapel. In 1933 the group moved its concerts to Drayton Hall, the University’s new auditorium.

Unfortunately, the Great Depression put a damper on the Music Department’s efforts and made a shambles of university funding. Faculty salaries were cut 60 percent in three years and the Music Department struggled, with the bulk of faculty incomes coming from student lesson fees. In the midst of these troubled times, Chairman Matteson resigned just before the beginning of the 1936–37 school year. It is interesting to note that the $970 annual salary the University offered potential replacements for the position failed to attract suitable candidates.

---------------
University records show that Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs were first offered for credit in the 1925-26 school year. Maurice Matteson was the first director of these groups. Evidence shows that these groups existed before as non-credit ensembles because in 1923 they traveled to Atlanta and sang on the Atlanta Journal’s radio station for three days giving concert enroute. The entire trip lasted a week or ten days. As the 30’s dawned they performed in Washington and had a picture made with President Hoover at the White House. In December of 1930 the choir now called the Glee Club and Folk Singers  sang in Chicago performing enroute. The following year they traveled up the East coast culminating the tour in New York at Steinway Hall. Subsequent tours took them back to Chicago and to Miami. When one considers the economic realities of the 1930’s, especially the way University appropriations were slashed, one must respect the effort and management necessary to enable the Glee Club to make these trips. (Dunbar, A History of the USC School of Music, 1920-1993, Ph.D. Dissertation 1993).

----------------------------

SOUTHEASTERN FOLKLORE SOCIETY
By ALTON C. MORRIS

From North American Folklore Societies
Wayland D. Hand
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 221 (Jul. - Sep., 1943), pp. 161-191

The Southeastern Folklore Society was founded in I934 at the University of South Carolina, where a group of folklorists sensed the need of a society that would be broad in its interests and inclusive in its membership. Though the credit for the founding and early shaping of the Society's interests is due to Maurice Matteson, first president of the organization, the whole-hearted support of such folklorists as Reed Smith, Mellinger Henry, George Pullen Jackson, John Powell, Julia Peterkin, A. K. Davis, Annabelle Buchanan, and Nancy Telfair has assured for the Society's program in the Southeast a high standard of excellence.

The Society has as its aims collecting, preserving, and publishing the folk material of the Southeast. Its membership is open to those of any section of the country who are interested in the study of folklore as a living tradition and to those who are using the folk material in creative art. The programs of the annual meetings of the Society have centered around two general aspects of the folk tradition: The science of folklore with its emphasis on scholarship, and the functional aspect of folklore with its emphasis upon the creative artists' utilization of folk materials in literature, music, and other arts. Featured on the annual program from time to time have been such artists as Julia Peterkin, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Charles Wakefield Cadman and John Powell, and such students of folklore as George Herzog, George Pullen Jackson, Ralph S. Boggs, A. P. Hudson, Reed Smith, Arthur Kyle Davis, Alan Lomax, Frederick Koch, Charles Seeger, B. A. Botkin, Carlton Sprague Smith, Gertrude Knott, and others.

The Society has held its annual meetings in various sections of the Southeast. The first and second meetings were held at the University of South Carolina. The third annual meeting was held at the University of North Carolina, the fourth at the University of Tennessee, the fifth at the University  of Virginia, the sixth at the University of Florida. The conduct of the Society rests with the annual meetings; but the executive committee, which is at present composed of Roosevelt Walker, acting president, Thomas B. Stroup, secretary and treasurer, and Alton C. Morris, editor of Southern Folklore Quarterly, acts for the Society in the interim between annual meetings.

At the second annual meeting, held at the University of South Carolina in 1936, the Society projected a folklore publication for the Southeast. The first issue of Southern Folklore Quarterly, published in March 1937, bore the imprimatur of "The University of Florida, in cooperation with the Southeastern Folklore Society," with a masthead describing the scope of the Quarterly as "a publication devoted to the descriptive study of folklore and to the discussion of folk material as a living tradition." The reception accorded Volume I merited rescission of the regional limitations first conceived for the Southern Folklore Quarterly, and thus it became early in its history a folklore publication with broad interests and aims.

In addition to publishing collectors' items, articles on various folklore genres, news items concerning folklore meetings, and articles discussing trends in folklore study, the Quarterly publishes an annual folklore bibliography in the March issue of each volume. The bibliography, prepared by Ralph S. Boggs of the University of North Carolina, is cosmopolitan in interest and covers such headings as General and Miscellaneous Folklore; Mythology; Legend and Tradition; Folktale; Festival and Custom; Drama; Art, Craft, Architecture, including Dress and Adornment; Food and Drink; Belief, Witchcraft, Medicine, and Magic; Folkspeech; Proverb; Riddle. Policies for the Quarterly and the selection of manuscripts for publication rest with an editorial board, which is composed of Alton C. Morris, editor; J. E. Congleton,  managing editor, acting for Thomas B. Stroup; Ralph S. Boggs, bibliographer; and H. W. Chandler, Norman Eliason, A. P. Hudson, Clifford P. Lyons, Charles A. Robertson, and Reed Smith, members of the Board.

The Southeastern Folklore Society and the editors of its journal are aware that the folklore of any region transcends regional limitations, but they are also cognizant that folklore of each section contributes its share to the understanding of the complex American cultural tradition. It is to be hoped, therefore, that in the years to come a closer unity may be realized in this country whereby the state, regional, and national folklore societies may unify their efforts toward the advancement of research in folklore and its justifiable utilization. To the preservation and interpretation of the folklore of the Southeast as a small but valuable part of a national culture the program of the South. eastern Folklore Society is, and will continue to be, dedicated.
--------------------------
REVIEWS

BEECH MOUNTAIN FOLK-SONGS AND BALLADS
Review by Frances Densmore
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 197 (Jul. - Sep., 1937), p. 299

BEECH MOUNTAIN FOLK-SONGS AND BALLADS. Collected and arranged by Maurice Matteson. (Schirmer's American Folk-Song Series, Set 15. 59 PP. $. 75. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1936.)

In the Foreword to this interesting work Mr. Mellinger Henry states that Beech Mountain, North Carolina, where these songs were recorded, "looms up near the borders of both Tennessee and Virginia and looks across the Elk River Valley." The people of the region are descendants of some of America's finest pioneer stock and have preserved the folk-songs, together with the traditions, customs and high spirit of their ancestors.

The present collection of songs was made by Mr. Matteson, in charge of the vocal work of the Southern Appalachian Music Camp at Banner Elk, North Carolina. To the songs he has added musical accompaniment "suggestive of the simple harmonic and rhythmic idiom used by the mountain musicians when accompanying the ballad singers." The subjects range from quaint and humorous songs to the dramatic "Come, O my love," which begins pianissimo, rises to fortissimo and declines to a pianissimo ending. On the page with each song is a credit to the singer who recorded the melody and the date of recording, also a credit to the informant who supplied the words if they were not given by the singer. The book is attractive in format and the work is conscientious throughout. From the standpoint of both folklore and music it is a noteworthy contribution to the literature of the subject.

Red Wing, Minnesota. FRANCES DENSMORE.

--------------------------
American Folk-Songs for Young Singers
Review by  Asher E. Treat
Notes, Second Series, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jun., 1948), p. 415

Maurice Matteson: American Folk-Songs for Young Singers. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1948. [102 p., $1.50]

In this collection, Schirmer's American Folk-Song Series reaches its twenty-fifth number. Maurice Matteson has also contributed to an earlier set in the same  series, "Beech Mountain Folk-Songs and  Ballads," number fifteen. The present  offering contains forty-nine songs arranged by the collector for children's voices  (unison, or one or two sopranos and alto) with piano accompaniment. A geographical index reveals a sampling of regions east of the Mississippi, both north and  south, together with four songs from  Texas (borrowed from Dorothy G. M.  Howard), one from California, and one  from Colorado.

The material is rather  arbitrarily grouped under such headings  as "Folk-songs inspired by the music of  other lands or peoples," "Home life," and  "Folk-songs of travel, places, nature." Sources and informants are identified in brief descriptive paragraphs. There are  some illustrations, including one of  Matteson with a dulcimer, a zither, and "a one-stringed folk instrument, of Swedish origin," called a salmonikon.

The fact that the collection is addressed to "Young Singers" makes it no disappointment to find that the tunes have been somewhat ruthlessly simplified. The accompaniments carry simplicity almost tototal vacuum. Maybe, as Grace L. Alder suggests in the foreword, this makes thematerial "adaptable to the level of experience and the understanding of children." I think most children pass this level of experience and understanding before the age of four. Nevertheless many of the tunes are close to the common versions, some represent interesting departures from the familiar, and a few were quite new to this reviewer. The copy supplied for review was printed on poor quality paper and was bound with pages 81 to 96 missing.

Mr. ASHER E. TREAT

------------------
Beech Mountain Polk Songs and Ballads
Review by Will Earhart
Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Oct., 1936), pp. 66+68

Beech Mountain Polk Songs and Ballads
(Set 15 of Schirmer's American Folk Song Series), Collected and arranged by Maurice Matteson; texts and foreword by Mellinger Edward Henry. [C. Schirmer, Inc. 75c.]

Of more value than hundreds of sentimental ballads that pour from the presses are these songs, redolent of the soil and of the human beings whose lives have a strength and naturalness as great as that of the soil itself. If we would seek the germinal centers of the distinctive American culture that will slowly emerge, regardless of our self-conscious efforts about it, we will find them in the folk songs and folklore of our wide-flung peoples. Even though in some quarters this is but British folklore surviving here, the truth holds. The firm of Schirmer deserves our gratitude for gathering and publishing in a simple and inexpensive format these "natural flowers of folk song," as Wagner termed them. (I do not recall the exact words, but Wagner said something to the effect that Rossini gathered the natural flowers of folk song, drenched them with artificial perfume, and handed them out for the delectation of his Parisian audiences.)

The songs in this volume, as in others, have not been unduly prettified and conventionalized by their arrangers. Indeed, both Mr. Matteson and Mr. Henry have done a most thoughtful and discerning piece of work. "O Judges" ("The Hangman's Tree")-a piece so elemental and gripping that one experiences a delectable torture for hours after reading it---could easily have been spoiled, but was not. May our American composers find their themes in such quarters - and neither "drench them with perfume" nor stud them with cacophonous spikes.