{"id":420,"date":"2016-03-11T15:34:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T15:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berea.edu\/appalachian-center\/?page_id=420"},"modified":"2022-09-26T11:40:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:40:56","slug":"ctm-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/legacy.berea.edu\/appalachian-center\/ctm-history\/","title":{"rendered":"CTM History"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]CTM Home<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02019 CTM Performers<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CTM Photo Galleries<\/a><\/p>\n

2019 CTM Schedule<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0CTM History <\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Berea Sound Archives<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

View past CTM schedules and the occasional list of performer bios.<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Appalachian Center was created in 1970 as a focus for Berea College\u2019s long-standing interest in and service to the Appalachian Region and its people. The Center\u2019s founding director, Loyal Jones, is well-known for his delight in Appalachian culture, especially in music, religion, story-telling, and humor, as well as his scholarship, organizational ability, and people skills.<\/p>\n

A Traditional Music Committee was organized in 1972 to advise the College on music collections, records, video tapes and sound tapes for the library and musical instruments and other materials for the museum. The first committee\u2019s members were Jean Ritchie, John Lair, Bradley Kincaid, Asa Martin, Buell Kazee, Dean William Jones, Ethel Capps, Raymond McLain, Dr. Rolf Hovey, and Loyal Jones. An early report by Loyal Jones for the period 8\/70-9\/71 talks about \u201cdeveloping a series of concerts that will give us an opportunity to make videotapes of traditional singers for our collections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival is an outgrowth of that effort, for in 1974, the committee\u2019s duties were expanded to include advising Loyal Jones and the Appalachian Center on policies and performers for the first Celebration. The Celebration of Traditional Music (CTM) was first held in the fall of 1974 and has continued every fall since then, except for two years (1999 and 2000), when a May weekend was tried out to see if that would increase the audience. The Celebration continues part of the Appalachian Center\u2019s overall mission of encouraging and coordinating many of the Berea College\u2019s special Appalachian programs, involving students and faculty, serving the region, and documenting the region\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

According to the Appalachian Center\u2019s Newsletter (Vol. 3 No. 3, p. 1),<\/p>\n

The purpose of the festival, which will be both a recreational and a scholarly occasion, is to encourage the music and instrumental musicianship traditional to Appalachian people. This is actually not a new aim at Berea, since a spring dance festival and the Christmas Country Dance School have been fixtures in the calendar for many years and the college has a long-time interest in the collection and preservation of songs and ballads\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was put on \u201cunder the direction of the Appalachian Center, with the assistance of the music department and the Berea Country Dancers.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe celebration is being held both for the sheer fun of it and for the advancement of music scholarship\u201d (Newsletter 3:4: p.1). The combination of education and entertainment has continued into the present, including interpretation and context for the music by the hosts in their introductions. The musicians have always been encouraged to provide their own contexts and communicate that to the audience as well.<\/p>\n

The Celebration always includes an afternoon symposium, in which some aspect of traditional music is presented by an authority in the field. Subjects for the symposium have ranged from music of the Civil War, to shape note music, Kentucky fiddlers, women banjo players, and biographical presentations on influential musicians.<\/p>\n