Sheet Music: “The Grumbling Old Woman” By Donna Hébert
EditorEdited by
Donna Hébert
Date1995
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
DescriptionSouthern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program ephemera relating to teaching artist Donna Hébert, submitted with her application to the program.
Sheet music booklet titled, “The Grumbling Old Woman” edited by Donna Hébert (1995).
Sheet music booklet titled, “The Grumbling Old Woman” edited by Donna Hébert (1995).
Object number2015.196.21.2
CopyrightIn Copyright
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.Biographical Note: Fiddler Donna Hébert is a fiddler in French Canadian and Celtic styles. She learned contradance fiddling, Quebecois swing, and Acadian rhythms and tunes from masters Alan Block, Louis Beaudoin, and Gerry Robichaud. Donna herself has both played and taught extensively throughout New England, performing and recording with Josée Vachon and the group Chanterelle, as well as other music groups. She has been: Founder and Director of the Great Groove Band at the Old Songs & Philly Folk Fests; fiddler and singer with the band “Mist Covered Mountains” playing Celtic & contemporary folk music; fiddle instructor at Philadelphia Folk School; former fiddle Instructor at Amherst and Smith Colleges; and author of the book “Fiddling Demystified For Strongs.” Donna won a Fellowship in Folk Arts from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is committed to presenting and interpreting the authentic Franco-American and French-Canadian elements of style and repertoire, especially as the masters of these forms are aging or have passed on. She has developed a project to research, record, and perform the songs of Louis Beaudoin of VT.
Donna has taught in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program three times: in Year 4 (2001-2002) with apprentice Daniel Boucher, teaching fiddle tunes by ear, defining the tune’s structure and beat placement as well as melody and harmony elements, and showing where the authentic ornamentations fit into the tune and drive the rhythms; in Year 8 (2005-2006) with apprentice Nate Ouellette; and in Year 9 (2006-2007) with apprentice Colette Fournier.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this artist and this project.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
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Jampa Tsondue
2018 March 10
