West Virginia fiddle tunes are now, in the digital age, known and respected around the world. Among old-time music followers and enthusiasts, one distinct subcategory of the state’s tunes, those played in the ancient modal musical scales, draws particular attention. Practically all popular music is played in major scales and in the “Ionian” mode, known for an upbeat feeling. The major Ionian scale is well-represented in West Virginia’s traditional music.  However, many of our oldest and best fiddle tunes are played in the Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, or other rare diatonic modal scales, which have persisted throughout millennia.

Albert Einstein once said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art.”  The ancient Greeks connected the mysterious impact of various musical modes to the concept of ethos, meaning how music made the listener feel. They claimed that different modes reflected the various “humors of the body.” This ancient sentiment is often echoed by contemporary performers: Respected fiddler Melvin Wine, for example, said that when his father, Bob Wine, played the modal tune “Hannah at the Springhouse,” Bob would scream ecstatically while playing the high E note in the second part. Emma Belle Miles, in her book Spirit of the Mountains, said of the mountain music she observed that it “hinted of the spirit world.” Einstein’s “mystery” and other deep emotions or ethos are present in our fiddle tunes, instigating strong feelings in the listener. However, the actual musical theory itself is frequently not a primary consideration for old-time fiddle players, most of whom do not read music. As one old-timer expressed it, “I know as much about music as a hog knows about Sunday school.” Fiddlers intuitively express this ethos as they learned it and feel it, without needing to read it or know the musical theory or written explanation behind it, a circumstance common to folk music the world over.

Modal tunes often do not resolve to the dominant keynote. They thus leave the listener with a sense of anticipation or uncertainty. Some listeners have a strong reaction to such music, which seems to elicit a mixed emotion that is at once melancholy and suspenseful, suggesting a feeling of people having played this music for eons without consciously knowing why. The meaning of both the music and the impulse to play the music might thus be said to be buried or unexplainable. Melvin Wine said that when he was in bed as a young child, his father would play the fiddle late at night. He said the experience of listening to one particular tune he played “touched me all over.” He would silently weep in bed whenever his father played that tune. Many listeners report a similarly gripping experience when hearing certain tunes, especially in the modal keys, when played well by capable musicians.

Aural music is much older than its written representation on the musical staff, just as speech is older than print. Even ancient symbols chiseled into stone were preempted by defining speech. Numerous fiddle players, most in fact, have never ascribed to the static written form and continue the longstanding and slowly evolving tradition of the folk art in its purely aural form. For such players, sight-reading of music is not part of their process. Some of the most acclaimed older Appalachian fiddlers and folk musicians were blind, such as Ed Haley. Fiddle music and tunes, much like speech, developed slowly and progressively through time. The author Johann Wolfgang Goethe said, “The word dies when we seize the pen, wax and leather lord it then.” This is true of both oral traditions and aural (music) traditions: Music becomes static when written down, and arguably, to some extent, when it is recorded. Prior to these mechanical processes, tunes slowly evolved, creating much variation in the expression. West Virginia fiddle music expresses values based on the past, but they must exist in the evolving present to be a traditional form of expression. Tunes continue to change slowly over time. As folk art, these tunes are an expression of values. Often the “value” is that the music is historical, sometimes personal or nostalgic, or reflect the cultural ethos of the community from which it emanates.

The roots of West Virginia’s old-time fiddle tunes are in the Old World, and various ethnic groups have contributed to the state’s fiddling tradition in New World history. There is a heavy Celtic/Anglo connection within tune sources. German aspects include both melodic form and timing, as in the waltzes that have crept into fiddlers’ repertoires, having first been a popular form in Germany well over 200 years ago. Some scholars have pointed to Native American influence. African Americans originated and/or influenced the blues, rags, and hot-tinged breakdowns with syncopated rhythms that pervade old-time tune lists. These African American influences can be found in most American musical forms, now popular, that originated in the American South. As original ethnic identities faded and an Appalachian regional identity emerged, the surnames of West Virginia’s many respected old-time fiddlers are now disassociated from any ethnic derivation of the evolving fiddle tradition.

The state’s fiddle music identifies with the region through many tunes that celebrate geographical places, a rare occurrence in Old World tunes. This honoring of place shows a distinct connection to the land through a sense of place, a trait found in West Virginia’s people. Tunes celebrate rivers, creeks, mountains, and even “rock houses” or “shelving rocks,” traditional terms for cave-like overhanging rocks that sheltered people in early times. Tunes like “Cranberry Rock” and “Shelvin’ Rock” honor such places and show their importance. Even in purely instrumental variations, these tunes tell stories and are often associated with oral traditions.

Named for a tributary of the Kanawha River, the tune “Cabin Creek” is a variation of “The Barlow Knife.” The tunes “Cheat River,” “Three Forks of Cheat,” “Wading the Cheat,” and “Old Cheat Mountain” emerge from just one West Virginia watershed. Also, “Hell on the Blackwater” honors a major tributary of the Cheat River watershed. One tune associated with the Cheat, “The Three Forks of Hell,” reflects the brutality of Civil War events in the upper part of that region and is an example of another category of tunes—ones that commemorate events.

Greenbrier County fiddler Mose Coffman played “The Battle of Droop Mountain” to commemorate the event in which his opposing grandfathers clashed. Another such Civil War tune is “Abe’s Retreat,” set in a modal scale, otherwise known as “The Battle of Bull Run.”

Some tunes reflect rural values, like “The Fox Chase,” in which the entire spirit of the hunt is evoked, through mimicry of the voices of various hounds and a running vocal commentary. “Chicken Reel” perhaps celebrates the value of that particular creature to the rural lifestyle. Others mirror agrarian chores, such as “Digging Potatoes” or favored traditional activities like “Flatfoot in the Ashes.” “Let’s Hunt the Horses,” “Little Rose is Gone,” and “Little Boy Stole My Jacket” are among numerous tunes instigated through everyday personal events. Even food-related tunes like “Sour Apple Pie” and “Shortening in the Bread” reflect values found in regional foodways.  

Modal scale tunes are evident across all categories of West Virginia’s fiddle tunes. Other localized traits include sliding into notes, both up and down, adding grace notes, and certain endings, or “tags,” that might distinguish tunes. The best players often demonstrate their individual personalities through the way they play, a mark of distinction. This music, once completely community based, has become increasingly widespread through the recording and digital age. The music-listening masses have piled onto popular commercial music that is often dictated by powers-that-be in the country’s urban music centers. Still, there is a community of people who, unlike the masses, are deeply affected by the ethos of old-time West Virginia fiddle tunes. These musicians and listeners identify with place and culture more than time period or popularity. This ensures the survival of the tunes and the art form into the foreseeable future.