Crooked River Choral Project: FOCUS on American History through Folk Song
Author: Georgia Newlin
Cyndee Giebler has arranged an easy to sing, crowd-pleasing American folksong, The Erie Canal Song.
The Crooked River Choral Project is a collection of artful choral music composed specifically with music teaching and learning in mind. Our selections are beautiful pieces of music, rooted in solid pedagogical thinking that provide music educators with rich teaching opportunities through quality literature. Each edition includes teaching plans as well as vocal health plans with integrated warm-ups and a solid teaching
process unfolding over the course of six to ten rehearsals. By using these guides, not only will your students sound beautiful at their concert, but they will have improved their musicianship skills in the process of getting ready for the performance. Both performance and rehearsal recordings as well as reproducible scores are included.
The Erie Canal Song (CRCP #5)
Teaching Strategy:
This well-known folk song is easy to sing in two parts but is enjoyed by a wide age-range of singers. The arrangement allows singers to focus their music reading skills on mixed meter (just two measures) and the aural change between singing in minor (each verse) and major (the chorus).
A focus on singing with a brighter, not-so-proper sound with a resonant, ringing quality would be the appropriate vocal tone color for this folk song. A move toward more authentic color will also reward singers with increased energy and enthusiasm in this piece. The teacher, however, must use care to always model in the desired tone color, dynamic, articulation, and style of diction, as well as monitor student singing for the desired quality of sound to avoid over-singing of this iconic work song.
The Music:
In D minor/F major, Part I vocal range lies between C4 and D5; Part II vocal range lies between C4 and C5. This piece is easy to teach and lively to sing in shifting minor/major tonalities. Part I sings a high-spirited descant with the final chorus performed by Part II. It includes a woodblock solo your students will fight for.
American History:
The Erie Canal is a human-made waterway in the state of New York. It was created to help connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The 363 mile canal runs from Lake Erie at Buffalo, NY to Albany, NY. From there, the Hudson River continues the waterway to New York City and empties into New York Bay at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Work began in 1817 and was completed in 1825 (two years ahead of schedule). In order to move boats through more than 500 feet of differing elevation, the Erie Canal required 83 locks, each made of stone. Amazingly, the locks were designed so that each needed only one person for its operation. These locks allow boats to be raised or lowered by changing the level of the water beneath them to float on to the next section of the canal.
The canal was an instant commercial and financial success. Pulled by mules or horses, canal boats were capable of carrying 30 tons of produce—far more than wagons could—significantly lowering the cost of transporting products from Buffalo to New York City. Settlers moved into upstate New York and western territories because of the availability of markets in towns such as Syracuse, Rochester, Utica, Rome, and Buffalo. Farm produce from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Canada flowed through Buffalo on its way to New York City.
Trade also returned westward as manufactured goods from eastern cities were carried on the canal barges into western towns and villages. In just nine years, tolls charged on the Erie Canal had completely repaid the cost to build it. Today, the Erie Canal is used for recreation.
Song History:
“Low Bridge! – Everybody Down (or Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal)” is a folk song credited to Thomas S. Allen (although it’s actual origin and authorship remain in question). The song was first recorded in 1912, and published by F.B. Haviland Publishing Company in 1913, but has since become part of American folklore. The first appearance of the text “fifteen miles” (instead of “fifteen years”) in print is 1926. Interestingly, the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, ruled that the song had been in circulation before Allen’s copyright (based on memories of two individuals) and didn’t belong to him.
The song itself was actually published after the construction of the New York State Barge Canal was well underway. Because the new canal would use engine power rather than mule power, increasing the speed of travel, it eventually replaced the Erie Canal for business. The song memorializes the years from 1825 to 1880 when the mule barges of the Erie Canal transformed New York into the Empire State due to increased commerce all along the canal.
The chorus refers to travelers who typically rode on top of the boats. A ‘low bridge’ would require them to get down, and out of the way, to allow safe passage under a bridge.