Published Articles

Interviews and articles about music and musicians, some published, others not.

Articles About Fiddlers

Benny Thomasson and the Texas Fiddling Tradition
JEMF Quarterly, Volume 10 #35 (Autumn 1974)

High resolution image of “Cripple Creek” transcription

An Interview with Benny Thomasson
with Michael Mendelson, David Garelick & Nancy Dols, June 1973
JEMF Quarterly, Volume 10 #35 (Autumn 1974)

The Farr Brothers: Texas Crapshooter (PDF, 7MB)
A musical & family history of Hugh & Karl Farr, the fiddler and guitarist with the original Sons of the Pioneers
(Liner notes to JEMF LP 107)

Farr Brothers MP3 tune clips

The Farr Brothers: Texas Crapshooter (text only)

An Interview With Tiny Moore - May, 1978 (unpublished)
An in-depth interview with the western swing fiddler and electric mandolinist of the Bob Wills and Merle Haggard bands.

Tiny Moore: Western Swing's Great Mandolinist
Frets Magazine, February 1980

Fiddle Tunes and Physics

The year 2005 was the “World Year of Physics” - the centenary of the year Albert Einstein published four of his most influential papers, including the Special Theory of Relativity. These tunes were commissioned to commemorate that year by musician and editor-in-chief of Physics Today, Stephen Benka.

The story behind writing the tune: El Baile de los Entrelazados (FolkWorks)

A Physics Songbag
featuring “El Baile de los Entrelazados”
A tune by Michael Mendelson in honor of the World Year of Physics.
[Physics Today Volume 58, Number 7 (July 2005), pp. 56–61]

A Physics Songbag Redux
featuring “El Baile de los Entrelazados” & “Physics Today Rag” by Michael Mendelson.
[Physics Today Volume 58, Number 12 (Dec. 2005), pp. 57–58]

Note - These articles are Copyright (2005) American Institute of Physics. These articles may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

A Bibliography of Fiddling in North America (Parts 1 - 6)

An annotated listing of materials from the JEMF, UCLA Ethnomusicology Library, University of California Research Library System, Personal Correspondence, etc.

JEMF Quarterly Volume 11 #38 (Summer 1975)

JEMF Quarterly Volume 11 #39 (Autumn 1975)

JEMF Quarterly Volume 11 #40 (Winter 1975)

JEMF Quarterly Volume 12 #41 (Spring 1976)

JEMF Quarterly Volume 12 #43 (Autumn 1976)

JEMF Quarterly Volume 13 #46 (Summer 1977)

Violin Acoustics

Violin Acoustics - Mechanical Engineering 199
(Independent Study - UC Berkeley, 1971)

Appendix