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Emilie Carroll ’27 is a music liberal studies major who received a Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) grant from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research in 2024. In this blog post, she explains what she did, how she did it, and some of the challenges she faced throughout her experience. Emilie will present her research, Tradition and Transformation: The Changing Role of Chestnuts in New England Contra Dance Music, at The Naked Arts—Creativity Exposed! (Act III) event on April 25 during UNH’s Undergraduate Research Conference (URC). Emilie also just published an article in Inquiry, UNH’s online undergraduate research journal.

What was your research topic?

 I focused on the history and evolution of New England contra dance. Contra dance is a form of social dancing similar to square dancing that has been done in New England for centuries and continues to be done all over the world. Specifically, I focused on a subset of tunes called “chestnuts," which are old and common tunes that are used throughout the dance repertoire. For my project, I did archival research through the Library of Traditional Music and Dance in the Dimond Library archives, and I also conducted ethnographic fieldwork at fiddle camps and gatherings in New England and in the surrounding area over the summer.

What did you learn through the research process?

Through this experience I learned so much about contra dance as a tradition. Before beginning my project, I had some knowledge of contra dancing as I play Celtic fiddle and there is a lot of overlap between that and the New England fiddle tradition. However, I learned so much about the history of contra dance and the importance of the old tunes and dances in the tradition. This kind of knowledge is valuable for me as a traditional musician because I feel like a lot of younger musicians who play “contemporary” traditional music do not have that context and history, and I believe we should all know what we are coming from to know where we are going in traditional music. 

Additionally, I gained so many skills in both archival and ethnographic research. I had never done either of those kinds of research before and so that was a steep learning curve for me. I needed to get IRB (Institutional Review Board) certification to work with human subjects, learn how to conduct interviews with my subjects, and how to work with old documents in the UNH archives.  I am so glad I had the chance to do learn these skills through my research project and am incredibly grateful for the help of my mentors, Professor Rose Pruiksma and my fiddle teacher, Katie McNally. 

Dancing a waltz at a nightly contra dance with one of my interview subjects, musician Emily Troll, at the Acadia Festival of Traditional Music and Dance (my first fieldwork site) in June 2024.

What was the best part of doing this research project, and what did you find the most challenging?

The best part of doing this project was being able to conduct ethnographic research and fieldwork.  I did my fieldwork at various fiddle camps around the country, where I feel very comfortable and spend many of my summers anyway. But fiddle camps are very intense and there is a lot of music learning and music playing, and the days are packed with activities and socializing. So, to add fieldwork observation (which is an all-encompassing process) and fieldwork interviews to the day was particularly challenging. However, it was also rewarding because I got to make some amazing connections with professional musicians, and everyone was so excited and willing to be a part of my project that it was very easy and fun to talk to my subjects. I had so many people help me with my project that I cannot even name them all in my article! But it just speaks to the community nature of folk music that so many people were willing to step up and offer me their expertise. 

Although the fieldwork was challenging, the most challenging part of the project was the archival research I did in the Milne Special Collections in Dimond Library. I had some help from my mentors but mostly I was in the library by myself all day, and I needed to look through over 25 boxes of archival materials and decide what was useful and document it. The Library of Traditional Music and Dance in Milne is so amazing, and there are so many things to look at. However, when I first started the process, I did not know what I was looking for, so in retrospect I got distracted by all the routes I could take my research, and it was overwhelming! I did learn a lot from this challenge though because I was forced to become independent in my research right away and develop a clear idea of what I was looking to accomplish so as not to get too overwhelmed.  

What’s next for you? 

I am excited to present this research at the URC and I just published an article about my project and my findings in Inquiry, UNH’s online undergraduate research journal. I plan to share those findings plus some other tidbits (and some music!) during my presentation at the URC!

I feel lucky that I found opportunities in the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research early in my career at UNH so that I still have a lot of time to explore other options. I would love to conduct more research on a slightly different topic, maybe more related to cultural anthropology and its relationship to musical traditions such as contra dance. Because I know more about contra dance now, I would love to start up a contra dance here at UNH! I co-founded the Fiddle and Folk Club this semester, and we are starting to plan to host events like that so that members of the community can enjoy contra dancing too. Additionally, I plan to go abroad next spring (to Ireland or Scotland), and they have excellent traditional music archives over there, so I would love to work in those archives and continue to do ethnomusicology research in one way or another. I would love to continue to explore my passion for Irish and Scottish music in addition to contra dance. There are so many opportunities for research in music both at UNH and abroad which I am so excited about!