During the Great Depression, San Francisco-native Sidney Robertson carried out a remarkable ethnomusicological survey—the WPA California Folk Music Project. From 1938 to 1940, with support from the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, the University of California, Berkeley and twenty staff handpicked from the California relief rolls, Robertson recorded and documented the diverse musical traditions in the state.
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and the UC Berkeley Music Library maintain this remarkable archive of songs, photographs, writings, and drawings. This collection inspired “Tunes From Our Backyard,” a musical program by composer and musician David Gerard Steinberg.
“Tunes From Our Backyard” celebrates the musical traditions of California’s ethnic communities, featuring live performances by Bay Area musicians and vocalists, Robertson’s original field recordings with video animation, and artifacts from the WPA collection.
“How can we believe that these successive waves of hard-working citizens contributed nothing to California beyond the work of their hands? What traditions came with them? What were they thinking and feeling?... Their songs will tell us, if we can find them.”
—Sidney Robertson Cowell, San Francisco Chronicle, 1938
Photos: Giuseppe Russo, a barber from Sicily, pictured here in Pittsburg, California. Mr. Russo sang several songs for Sidney Robertson including “Oggi Penza Per Te.” Courtesy, Library of Congress Archive of the WPA California Folk Music Project.
Cruz Lozada of Oakland, California, sang many Spanish-language songs for Sidney Robertson including “La Madre Querida.” Courtesy, Library of Congress Archive of the WPA California Folk Music Project.
Mr. Franks playing an English guitar, Manuel Lemos and Alberto Mendes playing Portuguese songs on violas d’arame. Richmond, California, 1939.Courtesy, Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center.
The Living New Deal documents the vast legacy the New Deal (1933-1942) left to America
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