The Mountain House: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"The Mountain House" is a tune by Jay Ungar, listed under his name alone, in DAD tuning, among the mountain dulcimer arrangements of his and Molly Mason's music sold through the duo's online store.[1] It is printed on page 42 of the duo's tunebook Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs, which, in the store's description, gathers waltzes and airs written over several decades and casts the Catskills as a place where regional American traditions and fiddling from abroad have met.[2] The Traditional Tune Archive has an entry for a waltz by the fiddler Ungar titled simply "Mountain House," in A major in ABB' form, which it says he composed in 1994 for the 125th anniversary of the Mohonk Mountain House.[3]

Pencil sketch of a still lake framed by tall trees and a rocky ledge, with cliffs rising behind, at Mohonk

Daniel Huntington, Mohonk, 1871 (from Sketchbook), graphite on paper, ca. 1870. Lake Mohonk sketched in 1871, two years after the Smiley family took over the inn that became the Mohonk Mountain House; the drawing has no connection to the tune.

That resort stands in the Shawangunk Mountains at New Paltz, New York, and has been owned and run by the Smiley family since 1869, when, by the resort's own account, Albert Smiley, one of a pair of Quaker twins, bought a ten-room inn on Lake Mohonk after his brother Alfred had scouted the site; it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[4] Ungar, who started the Ashokan Music & Dance Camps near Woodstock in the early 1980s, composed "Ashokan Farewell," which Ken Burns chose as the main theme of his PBS documentary The Civil War.[5]

Melanie Johnston sets "The Mountain House" for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, credited to Ungar, in 22 Selections From Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's Book "Catskill Mountain Waltzes And Airs", a download published by Johnston that bundles the 61-page tab book, a separate file for each tune and a piano-sound MP3 generated from each arrangement.[6]

Our book that contains the song "The Mountain House"

Sources

  1. Jay Ungar & Molly Mason store: "Catskill Mountain Waltzes & Airs for Mountain Dulcimer".
  2. Jay Ungar & Molly Mason store: "Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Mountain House".
  4. Mohonk Mountain House: "Mohonk: A Living History".
  5. Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: "About".
  6. Melanie Johnston: "22 Selections From Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's Book 'Catskill Mountain Waltzes And Airs'".
  7. Image: Daniel Huntington, Mohonk, 1871 (from Sketchbook), graphite on paper, ca. 1870. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song