April 2020 - "Dona Nobis Pacem"
UPDATE!
Sales from the book will be donated to Maddie’s favorite charities. One of the charities is The Museum of the Shenandoah, where plans are underway for an exhibit to honor Maddie and her contributions to the tradition and culture of the dulcimer community. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE FROM BLUE LION INSTRUMENTS.
Maddie in her back yard in Berryville, VA. Photo courtesy of Rick Hopper.
The music world in general, and the dulcimer world in particular, lost another one of its iconic figures with the passing of Madeline Reed MacNeil in 2020. Maddie started her career as a folk singer at various venues in her beloved Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia in the 1960’s, accompanying herself primarily on guitar. She was introduced to both the mountain and hammered dulcimers sometime in the 1970’s, and began a career of performing with and teaching both those instruments that spanned over 45 years. She was mesmerizing as an instrumentalist, and captivating as a vocalist. For nearly 30 years she was the editor and publisher of “Dulcimer Players News”, a quarterly journal that seeks to promote both kinds of dulcimer, and bring together the community of players from across the nation and around the world.
“Angelic” was the word most often used to describe her unmistakable voice, and omni-present smile, but it also described her as a person. She seemed to radiate peace and serenity, and her compassionate love and understanding towards everyone she met seemed boundless. You couldn’t come away from a conversation with Maddie without feeling better about yourself, and she made the world a better place just by being in it.
One of my favorite Maddie stories has to do with the way she used to tune her mountain dulcimer. Most everyone in the dulcimer world tunes their instrument to either the key of "C", or today, more commonly the key of "D". When Maddie and I were at dulcimer festivals together, she would sometimes honor me by asking me to accompany her on a tune on her concert set, or agree to sing something with me. On those occasions, I would usually need to tune my instrument up a bit higher than normal, to the key of "Eb", which is where Maddie often kept her instrument tuned. Maddie used to say that the higher key just seemed to suit her voice better. Years later, I came across an article that talked about the fact that scientists had somehow figured out that if you could hear the pitch that the Earth makes as it spins on its axis in the vacuum of space, that note would be Eb. That means that Maddie was "in tune with the universe" .... which seems about right.
Maddie liked nothing better than to get her audiences to sing with her, and she was particularly fond of leading them in rounds, and letting everyone revel in the rich vocal harmonies that would result. With that in mind, this month’s free tab is an arrangement of the 3-part round “Dona Nobis Pacem”, which translates as “Grant Us Peace”. Maddie often used this in concerts and classes, and also had recorded it on a CD she released in 2008 entitled “Morning Has Broken”. She invited 2 friends to join her on that acapella version - Kristin Hopper, a young girl Maddie had become close friends with; and Father Robert Barnes, one of the monks at the Holy Cross Abbey monastery that bordered on Maddie’s property in Berryville, VA. Together, the 3 of them sat in Maddie’s kitchen and recorded that track.
Here is a YouTube video of a slideshow I created of various photos of Maddie and some of her friends, using the “Dona Nobis Pacem” cut from her CD as the soundtrack. I’m sure it would give Maddie no greater pleasure than to have you all pick up your dulcimers, ALONG WITH YOUR VOICES, and join in with them!
Be well!
In music and friendship,
—Tull