Helen Bonchek Schneyer, 84, a mesmerizing, passionate folk singer
Hoodoo
Washington Post
July 23, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Helen Bonchek Schneyer, 84, a mesmerizing folk singer who
delivered emotionally electric ballads, work songs, African
American spirituals and Baptist hymns, died of cancer July 16 at
Berlin Health and Rehabilitation Center in Barre, Vt. She had cancer.
She was a nationally known performer who sang at concerts and
major folk festivals across the country, as well as in Europe.
She shared the stage with many of American's best-known folk
singers and songwriters, including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger,
who urged her at an early age to sing.
Ms. Schneyer, who lived in the Washington area on and off from
the 1940s to 1986, was a founding member of the Folklore Society
of Greater Washington.
In recent years, Ms. Schneyer was a regular guest on Garrison
Keillor's radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion." With her
booming contralto voice and imposing stage presence, she belted
out songs about the human condition with such power that people
felt compelled either to sing along or to flee the performance.
"A lot of agnostics, atheists and people of no particular
religions sang about the hope of heaven for the redeemed,"
Keillor said in an interview. "It was quite amazing for her to
perform."
For those who came "looking for something sweet," he added,
"Helen was not sweet." Instead, said Keillor, her music "was
heart-rending and blood-curdling."
Whether singing such tragic ballads as "Avondale Mine Disaster,"
or such traditional folk hymns as "Fountain Filled With Blood,"
or even the somewhat silly "Heaven Will Protect the Working
Girl," Ms. Schneyer delivered passionate, heartfelt music. Her
deep reservoir of songs transcended eras, from the Civil War
through the 1940s, and races -- she loved gospels sang in white
and black churches.
By her own account, Ms. Schneyer, who also played the piano, was
clear about the nature of songs she chose to perform. In an
interview with The Washington Post in 1982, she said: "The only
kind of songs that I sing are songs that have some sort of
significance for me. I have a lot of trouble singing about kings
and queens unless what befalls them is exactly the same thing
that would befall me or the janitor."
Helen Bonchek was born Jan. 21, 1921, in New York. From
childhood, she studied classical piano, and was drawn at a very
early age to the hymns and spirituals of African American Baptists.
"The first music that I remember as a babe in arms was from a
black Baptist church in New York," she recalled in The Post. "So
it's no accident that I sing so much Baptist stuff. As far as I
am concerned, they sing better than anybody because they haven't
been shriveled up with good manners in their expressions of their
love of God, or fear or hate, or whatever it is."
She was a graduate of the University of Buffalo and received a
master's degree in social work from Columbia University during
World War II.
After college, she lived in Washington and, with folklorist Alan
Lomax, was a member of the Priority Ramblers, singing songs about
working and living conditions infused with patriotism. She was
with the group when first lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited it to
sing labor songs at the White House.
For a time, Ms. Schneyer worked as a psychiatric social worker
for agencies in Buffalo and Syracuse, N.Y., before returning to
Washington in 1960.
She had a longtime psychotherapy practice in Kensington until
1986, when she retired to Plainfeld, Vt. She continued practicing
there until becoming too ill last year.
While in Washington, her home became a focal point for the
folk-life community, said Andy Wallace, a longtime friend and a
Folklore Society founding member. "We met there, sang there and
partied there," and out-of-town entertainers often would stop by,
he said. "She was a very important person in the music community
in Washington."
In addition to helping found the Folklore Society in 1964, she
served on its board in a number of positions, including
president. She also was on the board of the National Folk
Festival Association (now the National Council for the
Traditional Arts).
In 1976, Ms. Schneyer was invited by composer John Cage to
participate in a world tour of his bicentennial composition,
"Apartment House 1776." As part of that tour, she performed with
symphony orchestras in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Europe and
Japan.
A devoted collector of traditional folk songs, Ms. Schneyer
conducted a considerable amount of fieldwork in her back yard,
said her sister, Mona Masow of Madison, Wis. She would go to
black churches in the Gum Springs neighborhood of Alexandria and
learn African American spirituals from singers who knew them.
"She was just fascinated with traditional music, the kind that
gets passed along from person to person," her sister said.
Ms. Schneyer released three solo recordings, "Ballads, Broadsides
and Hymns" (1974) , "On the Hallelujah Line" (1981) and "Somber,
Sacred & Silly" (1992). A fourth recording, "What a Singing There
Will Be," scheduled for release in August, was recorded in a live
concert in Maple Corners, Vt., when she was 82.
She also performed and recorded with her daughter, Ericka "Riki"
Schneyer of Takoma Park, and with folk singer Jonathan Eberhart.
Her marriage to Solomon Schneyer ended in divorce.
In addition to her sister and daughter, survivors include a son,
Joshua Schneyer of Santa Barbara, Calif.; a brother; and a
granddaughter.
--
It's a big old goofy world. - John Prine