Powhatan Transfer: A Song History
"Powhatan Transfer" is listed twelfth of the sixteen duets in DulciFlute, John Keane and Karen Keane's book for mountain dulcimer and Native American flute, published by Fingers Of Steel.[1] The listing calls every piece in the book an original tune, gives the flute part in notation and the dulcimer part as chords, and includes a recording of each tune by the authors, but it does not credit individual tunes, so it does not say which of the Keanes wrote this one.[1] The pair come from Shreveport, Louisiana, hold music education degrees from Northeast Louisiana University (today the University of Louisiana-Monroe), and have several books and CDs of their own dulcimer-and-flute music.[2][3] The sources consulted here give no date for the tune and say nothing about what lies behind its title.[1][2][3]
Edwin Kaufman, Ferry Slip, etching, 1927. A ferry slip, shown loosely for the word "transfer"; it has no connection to the tune.
Taken simply as a name, apart from the tune, Powhatan belongs to both a historical leader and a place.[4][5] It is the name by which Wahunsenacawh is known, the paramount chief who drew several dozen tribes of Virginia's tidewater into the alliance called Tsenacomoco around the turn of the seventeenth century and who died in 1618.[4][6] It is also the name of a small village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.[5][7] The sources consulted here do not say which of these, if either, the Keanes had in mind, or what the "transfer" in the title refers to.[1][2][3]
Sources
- Fingers Of Steel: "John Keane And Karen Keane, DulciFlute".
- DulcimerDownloads: "John Keane".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Karen Keane".
- National Park Service: "Powhatan".
- Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau: "Powhatan".
- Encyclopedia Virginia: "Powhatan (d. 1618)".
- Wikipedia: "Powhatan, Louisiana".
- Image: Edwin Kaufman, Ferry Slip, etching, 1927. The Cleveland Museum of Art.