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In this region one finds many variations of the ancient fiddle and banjo music of Virginia and North Carolina. This music can be traced to the meeting of the African banjo and the European fiddle in the Tidewater before our nation was created. Here also are found older ballads and religious music that reach deeply into the American past.
The Center celebrates these arts by enabling their presentation, and it is largely concerned with local artists who best show this history, and not with “stars.” The museum that is under construction will open with a display of temporary exhibits in 2005. The permanent exhibits that will be created at this site will trace the history of this music through local artists back to the creation of the music generations ago by persons from Europe and West Africa, and will show how it has been kept in America.
It will also show how this first American ensemble, the fiddle and the banjo, are emblematic of the meeting of European and African cultures in the New World, how the nation has drawn strength from these varied roots, and how many blends of folk and popular music have grown from these roots.
So the fiddle and banjo ensemble is “the root of the root,” the beginning of much of America’s music. Humble and powerful, ancient and contemporary, these instruments are still contributing to America, and the Blue Ridge Music Center is a good place to hear them.
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