New Harmonies at Western Illinois Museum

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May 13 - August 20, 2013

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Current Exhibition at Western Illinois Museum

New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music

October 23 through December 4, 2010

New Harmonies is a traveling Smithsonian exhibit. The exhibit and programs are funded by the Illinois Humanities Council.

Listen to America's music and hear the story of freedom. It's the story of people in a New World: places they have left behind, and ideas they have brought with them. It is the story of people who were already here, but whose world is remade. The distinct cultural identities of all of these people are carried in song¾both sacred and secular. Their music tracks the unique history of many peoples reshaping each other into one incredibly diverse and complex people—Americans. Their music is the roots of American music.

New Harmonies at Western Illinois Museum The music that emerges is known by names like blues, country western, folk ballads, and gospel. The sounds are as sweet as mountain air and as sultry as a summer night in Mississippi delta country. The instruments vary from fiddle to banjo to accordion to guitar to drum. But a drum in the hands of an African sounds different than one in the hands of a European. And neither is the drumbeat of an American Indian. Yet all the rhythms merge, as do the melodies and harmonies, producing completely new sounds -- new music. The music merges because this is America. New waves of music ride ashore in the hearts and heads of new immigrants and they create still newer sounds from what they have brought with them and what they find here. And nothing expresses the tensions—or the triumphs—of this journey into democracy quite like the music that it spawns.

The main beat of the exhibition is the on-going cultural process that has made America the birthplace of more music than any place on earth. The exhibition provides a fascinating, inspiring, and toe-tapping listen to the American story of multi-cultural exchange. The story is full of surprises about familiar songs, histories of instruments, the roles of religion and technology, and the continuity of musical roots from "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to the latest hip hop CD.

The exhibit will explore the notion that local roots music was key to building community, providing a place for people to share idea and concerns, live traditions, while providing a respite from the demands of rural life. The exhibit includes oral histories from the 1986 Schuyler Arts Folk Music Project of local instrument makers, musicians and even square dance callers who share their stories about regional roots music and its impact in their lives. Drawing from the museum’s extensive radio collection, the exhibit will also look at how radio changed the way music was played and listened to in our community. The diversity of genres is a source of pride for the West Central Illinois region. The exhibit will explore the career of Al Sears as an example of diversity and pride that continues to impact the musicians in the area.

New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music has been made possible at the Western Illinois Museum by the Illinois Humanities Council.

New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

Local support for the exhibit has been provided by Business Partners: