Art Form: Community documentation and collection of traditional music

Location(s): Kinde (Huron County)

Karl Byarksi

Portrait of Karl Byarski

Karl Byarski (1916-2016) was a lifelong resident of Huron County. His family was very musical with many aunts, uncles, and in-laws filling the Byarski home with music. For several years Karl played piano, mandolin, and fiddle.

To make a living, Karl worked in the agriculture business and for a time ran an egg collection, grading, reselling, and chick hatching business, in addition to working as a meat cutter. His passionate avocation, however, was collecting and documenting the musical traditions and stories of people in his region. Karl first purchased a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the early 1950s from Montgomery Ward and his earliest recordings date from 1952. In a region where there was little interest by others in recording this important local knowledge, his basement studio provided a means to record and preserve their stories, songs, and tunes.

This documentation continued up until the early 2000s, when Karl began to focus on organizing and cataloging his collection. To date, 649 reel-to-reel tapes and 1000 cassette tapes have been indexed, with many more yet to be cataloged.

His collection spans a large variety of traditional music styles and culturally significant material, including religious music and celebrations, fiddlers, singers, Polish and early country musicians, interviews with aging community members, and family events. Given the age of some of those that he recorded, the history contained in his recordings spans over 100 years. The collection provides a musical timeline, highlighting popular musical traditions and documenting those that were in jeopardy.

Passing at age 100, Karl outlived many of the tradition-bearers that he documented but his efforts prevented this significant traditional music and knowledge from getting lost. His collection is an invaluable resource. His collection can now be accessed through the University of Michigan - Flint digital collections portal.

- Dave Langdon and Micah Ling, 2014