Daniel Womack Mouth Bow Video

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY
Clip from Black Musical Traditions in Virginia, a three-part video series produced by the Blue Ridge Institute, Ferrum College, Ferrum, Virginia, with support from the VFH and WDBJ-Television, Roanoke, Virginia.
Daniel K. Womack born in Pittsylvania, Virginia, USA on the 24th of December in 1904, passed away on the 13th of February, 1996 in Peabody, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.
Daniel Womack, born to Alex Womack and Mary Manerva on a Pittsylvania County tobacco farm in 1904, He has been throughout his long life a rare musical treasure, and music and storytelling were constant traditions in the Womack household.
Daniel Womack, who became completely blind at the age of 14, took those traditions with him when he attended the Virginia State School for the Deaf and Blind in Newport News and at the school, Daniel taught himself to play the piano and formed the Virginia State School Quartet, an example of the African-American quartet tradition for which Tidewater has become famous for.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Daniel Womack became locally famous near his home in Pittsylvania County for his singing in various acapella harmony groups and, after learning to play the
guitar as a blues performer, after learning the distinctive Piedmont finger-picking style of playing the guitar, Daniel Womack drew large crowds at local tobacco auctions in Danville, Farmville, and South Hill Virginia.
from 1956 to 1971, Daniel Womack worked at the Hotel Roanoke, and his musical career experienced a hiatus, to be revived after his retirement when his music caught the attention of the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College, Daniel Womack has since performed at national and international folk festivals,including the Winnipeg and Toronto Folk Festivals, the National Folk Festival at Wolf Trap, and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C.
his unique talents and musical artistry have made Daniel Womack one of the finest of the Commonwealth's musical ambassadors and an invaluable representative of Virginia's folk heritage.
Daniel passed away on the 13th of February, 1996 in Peabody, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. at the age of 92.
You can find the original here along with the full three-part video series produced by the Blue Ridge Institute, Ferrum College, Ferrum, Virginia, with support from the VFH and WDBJ-Television, Roanoke, Virginia.
www.discoveryv...
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

[@hilmarwensorra1215]

In very loving memory of Mr. Daniel King Womack (1904 - 1996 R.I.P. Gone but NOT forgotten).

[@joshbelis2376]

Thanks

[@bluesmusicandwhatnot2845]

Native Americans did not invent this instrument, and you will find no evidence supporting the claim that they did, nor any videos or historical accounts whatsoever of them playing it or anything like it in a traditional setting. Meanwhile, a simple search for, “musical bow”, or, “mouth bow” will yield many examples of the extensive musical bow traditions throughout the sub-Saharan African continent. The musical/mouth bow originated among the San/Khoisan peoples of South Africa. Contact with migrating Bantu-speaking people brought the musical bow to West, Central and Southeast Africa, where it developed into various different versions such as the the gourd bow (the family of instruments that the Afro-Brazilian berimbau belongs to), the ground bow, and most probably the monochord zither. It was then transported to the Americas with enslaved West, Central, and Southeast Africans via the Atlantic slave trade, and was transferred into the musical culture of White Americans, especially in the Ozark and Appalachian mountains. Sources: “Africa and the Blues” by ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik, Bitter Melons (a documentary which covers the lives and culture of a group of nomadic San/Khoisan people, and features traditional musical bow playing), “The Berimbau and Capoeira” by QE Stokes (a documentary which covers the connection between the berimbau and African gourd bows, as well as its broader connection to the musical bow tradition)

[@Chelsea123Chii]

Every culture all over the world that has ever shot an arrow has played this lol

[@bluesmusicandwhatnot2845]

@@Chelsea123Chii This is only speculated by some paleoanthropologists. There is no evidence that this type of instrument has been played anywhere except in Africa and Afro-diasporic regions. It’s also a flat out myth that “this instrument has been used anywhere people have shot an arrow”. It has been pointed out, in review of the aforementioned theory, that arrow-loading bows *cannot* be used as musical instruments, and would need to be converted for specific use as musical bows. It’s almost near lack of presence in Eurasia (except for the Malunga in India, where it originates among an African descended people, and in Cambodia, where it very likely derived from the Afro-Indian instrument), yet large presence in only Africa and the Americas in places where African slaves were historically brought to strongly supports the idea that it is an exclusively African instrument. Even if it were to be found native to some parts of the Americas, there is zero evidence that Indigenous North Americans played it, and it has been thoroughly demonstrated, namely by Gerhard Kubick, that the varieties found in North America are directly traceable to Mozambican musical bows, particularly the chipendani and the nyakatangali.

[@Orpheuslament]

@@bluesmusicandwhatnot2845 This instrument is much much older than the Bantu expansion, which happened at most 4-5,000 years ago. They had flutes in Europe, and elsewhere over 30,000 years ago - you think they couldn't figure out that the bows they used for hunting could make music? It might be that the mouth bows used in Appalachia derive chiefly from instruments created as products of the slave trade but you are out of your mind to imply the only group to independently invent a musical bow came from Southern Africa and somehow spread everywhere else from there alone.

[@hubertsumlin9697]

Take it easy pardner

[@waryung]

this would be like if we debated who invented the wooden club

[@chamboyette853]

Ironic that the announcer says it was played by both whites and blacks, but fails to mention Native Americans who invented it.

[@Ronaldo-rt7hl]

there may be a native version but this version comes from Africa. There’s an African version as well so it’s more likely that our ancestors created that version rather than the native version

[@chamboyette853]

@@Ronaldo-rt7hl Link or it's BS what you are saying. And if you aren't African, your ancestors are also likely from Europe and/or Asia too.

[@Ronaldo-rt7hl]

@@chamboyette853 my ancestors are from africa, europe, native but y’all see Black Americans as African descent y’all don’t claim us as Native and definitely not white. If you look up “mouth bow” on youtube or google the African version comes up first yo fingers obviously work use em.

[@Ronaldo-rt7hl]

@@chamboyette853 kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYKko6elodaDas0

[@chamboyette853]

@@Ronaldo-rt7hl What a racist you are, assuming since I'm white I see you as African. Well I don't, I see you as mixed. YOU are the racist who sees you as African inspite of being mixed. And I looked, it doesn't even say where in Africa it comes, since as you are probably not aware with your Eurocentirc view, being part European, that Africa is very diverse. Racist.