.
 | ||||
Made in USA
American History Pioneer Folk Toys, Games, Crafts, and Music from Homestead Folk Toys in the Historical Village of Nashville, Indiana
A Homestead site. Site designed and hosted by Homestead Folk Toys.
Product images and designs Homestead Folk Toys and their respective owners. All rights reserved.
| ||||
Return to Top
Return Home
©
Site Map
Featured Product
| ||||||
#001 HOMESTEAD MEMORIES CD~ Instrumental collection of American folk songs and melodies, as recorded by George Rice, our chief toy-maker. Features such songs as: "Long, Long Ago' "Simple Gifts" "The Ash Grove" and many more. Instrumentation : Piano and Heartwarming strings.
Free promotional CD with purchase of 6 or more CDs.
As a promotion for our featured product for a limited time we are offering it at the reduced price of $5.00
Play this CD in your gift shop and it will sell!
Click here for sound samples.
Music has always placed an important part in American households, from the early colonial days through the centuries that followed. HOMESTEAD MEMORIES offers a nostalgic glimpse into America's past through a varied collection of American folk songs and melodies.
The Piano in America
and the Piano Folk Style
It is of great historical interest that in 1771, Thomas Jefferson ordered a piano from England for his wife, Martha. At that point, the pianoforte was all the rage in Europe, but had yet to make its mark in the colonies. The first piano built in America was made by Johann Behrent in Philadelphia in 1775. Gradually, the piano became the most prominent instrument in America. The writer of the section on pianos for the Eighth Census of the United States gives us an insight into the high status regarded this noble instrument in the middle Nineteenth Century. "First in importance among musical instruments stands the pianoforte. In our country, where wealth is more equally distributed the piano is no umcommon appendage to the farmhouse and is often found in the cottage of the humbler class of artisans and laborers in our cities."
"Homestead Memories features the sounds of an early American piano; therefore, the sound and ability to move from key to key will not be as sophisticated as today's concert grand piano. The early American piano was selected because I felt it was more appropriate for the material that was being recorded. I also chose to employ the pianofolk style of piano playing, derivative of the earlier folk guitar finger-picking style and the alberti bass pattern of earlier keyboard instruments. Playing in this manner keeps the performer truest to the intended melody." ---George Rice
About the Artist
As a composer and arranger, George Rice believes that
recording original and arranged music is much like painting on a canvas, with a colorful palette of exotic colors, textures and brushstrokes.
George's non-traditional method of composing and arranging has evolved over a long period of time. A product of early classical piano training, he began composing and writing almost as soon as his formal instruction began.
"I consider myself an American impressionist, musically, in the spirit of the French impressionist painters---Monet, Manet and Degas. Those painters worked with palettes of color and emotion and light and had a reflective spirit that I strive for today in my music. "
