The Angel's Part: A Song History

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"The Angel's Part" appears, in CGDC tuning, in Song By Song, Vol. II, Aubrey Atwater's book of dulcimer tablature, whose listing says its songs were gathered from artists, songwriters and composers.[1] It is a modern composition rather than a traditional song: the notes Atwater-Donnelly publish for their album The Weaver's Bonny credit both words and music to Daniel Dutton, with a 1998 copyright in the name of Dan Dutton.[2] According to those notes, the song draws on a family story: as a girl in rural Kentucky, Dutton's mother, Cebah, wanted the angel's role in the play at her one-room school, and year after year she was passed over.[2] In her eighties she still spoke of it, and hearing the tale once more is what set Dutton to writing the song, the notes say.[2]

Figure of an angel with gilded wings and a tattered blue-green dress, shown against a gray background

Angel with Blue dress (tattered) with detachable wings, mixed media, second half 18th–mid-19th century. An angel figure, shown for the title; it has no connection to the song.

The credit lists the web address dandutton.com, which is also the site Sing Out! links for the Kentucky artist, musician and composer Dan Dutton, so the songwriter appears to be that Dan Dutton; the identification rests on the shared name and web address.[2][3] A 2011 University of Kentucky announcement placed him on a farm in the knobs around Somerset, Kentucky, and described him as a painter, balladeer, composer and storyteller who had written the operas The Stone Man and Secret Commonwealth.[4] In a 2015 Sing Out! feature he recalled learning the dulcimer from Jean Ritchie, whom he had first heard sing at the first Berea Craft Fair when he was about fifteen.[5]

Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, self-taught Rhode Island musicians who formed their duo in 1987,[6] placed the song sixth on The Weaver's Bonny, released in 2009.[7] On that track Atwater plays mountain dulcimer and sings, joined by Donnelly on guitar and vocals, Cathy Clasper-Torch on cello and vocals, and Kevin Doyle on chimes.[2]

Our book that contains the song "The Angel's Part"

Sources

  1. Aubrey Atwater: "Song By Song, Vol. II".
  2. Atwater-Donnelly: "Lyrics & Notes for The Weaver's Bonny".
  3. Sing Out!: "Dan Dutton, Part 2 – Ballads of the Barefoot Mind" (Patrick Blackman, 2015).
  4. University of Kentucky, UKNow: "Niles Center Concerts to Feature Karly Dawn and Little Sarie, Dan Dutton".
  5. Sing Out!: "Dan Dutton, Part 1 – The Sweet Music of the Chase" (Patrick Blackman, 2015).
  6. Atwater-Donnelly: "Atwater~Donnelly".
  7. Atwater-Donnelly: "Shop: Recordings and Books".
  8. Image: Angel with Blue dress (tattered) with detachable wings, mixed media, second half 18th–mid-19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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