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Samuel Preston Bayard (born April 10, 1908 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died
January 10, 1997 in State College, Pennsylvania) was an internationally known
folklorist and musicologist. He received a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania
State University in 1934 and earned an M.A. from Harvard University in 1936.
He collected fiddle and fife tunes in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia from 1928 to 1963. He is known for his interest in the melodies of traditional music at a time when often only the texts were collected. He introduced the concept of "melodic families", which are groups of tunes that appear to be structurally related. He traced the origins of many traditional American fiddle tunes back to the British Isles. In addition to his work on fiddle tunes, he was the expert on the use of the fife in traditional American music. He is fondly remembered by former students for his large collection of snuffboxes, which he used regularly. He established the folklore program at Pennsylvania State University, and taught there from 1945 to 1973. He was a fellow of the American Folklore Society and its president from 1965 to 1966. I studied with Samuel Bayard from fall term 1966 through spring term 1968. His encyclopedic knowledge of folklore and folk music have inspired me to go beyond just performance of tunes to investigate and dig out the roots of "roots" music. His collections of traditional tunes are: Hill Country Tunes, American Folklore Society, 1944 Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife, Penn State Press, 1982 |
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