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MANY SOUNDS, ONE VOICE STORY BY
Abrianna Belvedere
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front porch is more than just an entrance to one’s home. It’s often a gathering place where elders share stories, young people court, and neighbors join together as a community. In Appalachian history, the front porch also served as a musical workshop. Musicians and families would gather on the front porch of their homes, transforming it into a stage, just as our stage has transformed for music on the front porches of a cabin and public stoops outside of the general store. Through these makeshift performances, communities shared music, techniques, and traditions. Appalachian music was a product of the constant collaboration and change from these gatherings, each musician mining whatever styles and forms were suitable for new adaptations of raw material. Appalachian music and culture developed through the act of sharing and synthesis, becoming a musical scrapbook of the styles and genres of the many ethnic and cultural traditions of the Appalachian region. Over time, Appalachian music has borrowed and adapted elements from a variety of musical traditions, including jazz, blues, bluegrass, honky-tonk, country, gospel, and pop. Even the instruments common in Appalachia came from a variety of places. The fiddle was brought by Anglo-Celtic colonists, and
