TTA:About

Although I am not a trained musicologist, and make no pretense to the profession, I have tried to apply such professional rigors to the Semantic Abc Web as I have internalized through my own formal and informal education.

This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.

Many musicians, like myself, are simply curious about 'itles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?

Knowing the history of the melody I play, or at least to have a sense of its historical and social context, makes the tune 'present' in the here and now, and enhances my rendering of it.

Andrew Kuntz, c/o Staggerin' Willie Music Publishing, 8 Veatch St., Wappingers Falls, N.Y. 12590 or email to [Andrew Kuntz].