The Ghosts Of Natchitoches: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"The Ghosts Of Natchitoches" is one of sixteen duets for mountain dulcimer and Native American flute in DulciFlute, a book by John Keane and Karen Keane published by Fingers Of Steel, where it is listed eighth.[1] According to the listing, every tune in the book is an original, the flute part is given in notation while the dulcimer part is given as chords, and the download includes the authors' own recording of each; no composer is named for any single tune.[1] Both Keanes come from Shreveport, Louisiana, and earned music-education degrees at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana-Monroe); their artist pages describe them as active composers who have released books and CDs of their own music for mountain dulcimer and Native American flute.[2][3] The sources consulted here record no date for the tune and no recording of it beyond the one packaged with the book.[1][2][3]

Lithograph of Hamlet being held back by two men on a castle terrace at night while an armored ghostly figure stands in the distance

Eugène Delacroix, Hamlet: Hamlet Rushes to Follow the Ghost of His Father, lithograph, 1835. Shown for its ghost; it has no connection to Natchitoches or to the tune.

Natchitoches, seat of Natchitoches Parish since 1807, lies on Cane River Lake in west-central Louisiana, roughly 68 miles southeast of Shreveport.[4] The French-Canadian Louis Juchereau de St. Denis founded it around 1714 as a post on the Red River, and both Britannica and the National Park Service call it the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory.[4][5][6] The town takes its name from the Natchitoches, a people of the Caddo confederacy.[4][6] The sources consulted here say nothing about which ghosts, if any, the title has in view, or what drew the Keanes to the town.[1][2][3]

Our book that contains the song "The Ghosts Of Natchitoches"

Sources

  1. Fingers Of Steel: "John Keane And Karen Keane, DulciFlute".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "John Keane".
  3. DulcimerDownloads: "Karen Keane".
  4. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Natchitoches".
  5. National Park Service, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail: "Fort Saint Jean Baptiste State Historic Site".
  6. 64 Parishes: "Natchitoches Settlement".
  7. Image: Eugène Delacroix, Hamlet: Hamlet Rushes to Follow the Ghost of His Father, lithograph, 1835. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song