THE VOLGA GERMANS IN PORTLAND
  • Home
    • About This Website
    • Reviews
  • History
    • Historical Timeline
    • Migration to Russia
    • Emigration from Russia
    • Settlement in America
    • Migration to Portland
    • Little Russia
    • A Short History of Albina
    • World War I
    • The Volga Relief Society >
      • Portland Volga Relief Society Subscribers 1921
    • World War II
    • Assimilation and Dispersion
  • Beliefs
    • Churches >
      • Albina Seventh-day Adventist Church
      • First United Mennonite Baptist Church
      • Ebenezer German Congregational Church
      • Free Evangelical Brethren Church >
        • German Evangelical Congregational Brethren Church
      • Second German Baptist Church
      • St. Pauls Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • Second German Congregational Church >
        • Evangelical Congregational Church
      • Zion German Congregational Church >
        • Rivercrest Community Church
    • Pastors
    • The Brethren
    • Denominations >
      • German Reformed Church
      • German Evangelical Synod of North America
      • Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • German Congregational Church
      • Seventh-day Adventists
      • United Church of Christ
  • People
    • Our People
    • Notables
    • Pioneers 1881-1892
    • Stories
    • Photographs
    • Help Identify These People
  • Community
    • Characteristics
    • Businesses >
      • Bakeries Retailers and Services
      • Garbage Haulers
      • Grocery and Meat Markets
      • Restaurants >
        • Helsers on Alberta
        • McCormick & Schmicks
        • Wildwood
      • Saloons and Taverns
      • Suppliers and Manufacturers
    • Employers
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Maps
    • Documentary
  • Traditions
    • Foods
    • Folk Medicine
    • Expressions
    • Weddings
    • Holidays
    • Folk Music
    • Funerals and Burial Sites
  • Resources
    • Family Research
    • Books and Video
    • Works Cited
Community > Folk Music

Folk Music

The Volga German colonists carried to Russia the traditional folk and religious music of their German homelands. Although there were no songbooks with notes in the Volga colonies, the music lived on in the memories of older people and was constantly renewed through the singing of younger people. And so, the music of the Volga Germans was passed down from generation to generation and carried again to their new homeland in America.
Volga German musicians
Painting of Volga German musicians.
​Homeland songs, maternal tones,
folksongs dear and trusted,
whether spun in distant land,
or in native homeland,
move so gently through your soul,
leave behind there deepest tracks.
-- Peter Sinner
Bands would play on festive occasions such as holidays and weddings. Commonly used instruments were the Hackbrett (hammered dulcimer), Zieharmonika (accordion), violin, and various brass instruments. The accordion was invented about 1845 in Vienna, Austria and it would have taken some time for it to find its way to the lower Volga region. Prior to that time, the violin provided the primary structure to the music.
Traditional Volga German polka music and dance became known as Dutch Hop in many parts of the midwestern United States and Canada. The word Dutch is a misnomer that most likely came from a misunderstanding of the word Deutsch (German). Many Volga Germans say their ancestors deliberately ignored the misunderstanding because of the widespread anti-German sentiments they encountered during World War I and World War II. As a result, the music remains known as Dutch Hop to this day. Although the music was the same, the term Dutch Hop doesn't seem to have been in common use in the Portland community where the performances were typically known simply as "German Dances".
The best known Volga German musician in Portland was Billy Starkel. ​Billy played regularly in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and for many years at the Hilton Hotel in Portland. Billy's father, Henry Starkel, was an accordion player who performed at weekend dances in a large hall above Weimer's Hardware and Furniture Store on Union Avenue.
My father was an ‘old country’ accordionist and he started me out on the old button row accordion. We’d sometimes play in grange halls and they’d only heat these halls up once while. The old piano would sit there in the cold for weeks and then they’d light up the big-potbellied stove and the piano would swell up. Then, my father would have to get bailing wire to help tune the piano so my mother could play it. -- Billy Starkel
Last updated March 17, 2018.
Billy Starkel also led a local Vaudeville style act known as the "Volga Warblers". The group of eleven members included Pete Beech, Wally Borgens, Bill Krieger, Pete Koch, Adam Koch, Al Macht, John Ehrlich, Pete Hohnstein, Mr. Baker, and Jack Deines.
The
The "Volga Warblers" performing at the 1987 American Historical Society of Germans from Russia convention held at the Red Lion Inn - Lloyd Center in Portland. Billy Starkel stands at the far right. Courtesy of the Oregon Chapter of AHSGR.

Sources

Early, Dean. "Gun-music trade pleases Starkel." The Oregonian, February 5, 1975. A15.

Goldenstein, Kurt Edward. Colorado Dutch Hop Music Arranged for the Accordian: The Music, History, and Culture of Colorado's Germans from Russia. Colorado: Colorado Council on the Arts, 2000. Print.

Krieger, Marie Trupp. 

Starkel, Randy. "​Short Stories About My Father, Billy Starkel."

"Portland musician Billy Starkel dies; career included radio, hotel bands", The Oregonian, Thursday January 21, 1988, pg. E5.
Last updated March 18, 2018.
Copyright © 1998-2023 Steven H. Schreiber
  • Home
    • About This Website
    • Reviews
  • History
    • Historical Timeline
    • Migration to Russia
    • Emigration from Russia
    • Settlement in America
    • Migration to Portland
    • Little Russia
    • A Short History of Albina
    • World War I
    • The Volga Relief Society >
      • Portland Volga Relief Society Subscribers 1921
    • World War II
    • Assimilation and Dispersion
  • Beliefs
    • Churches >
      • Albina Seventh-day Adventist Church
      • First United Mennonite Baptist Church
      • Ebenezer German Congregational Church
      • Free Evangelical Brethren Church >
        • German Evangelical Congregational Brethren Church
      • Second German Baptist Church
      • St. Pauls Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • Second German Congregational Church >
        • Evangelical Congregational Church
      • Zion German Congregational Church >
        • Rivercrest Community Church
    • Pastors
    • The Brethren
    • Denominations >
      • German Reformed Church
      • German Evangelical Synod of North America
      • Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • German Congregational Church
      • Seventh-day Adventists
      • United Church of Christ
  • People
    • Our People
    • Notables
    • Pioneers 1881-1892
    • Stories
    • Photographs
    • Help Identify These People
  • Community
    • Characteristics
    • Businesses >
      • Bakeries Retailers and Services
      • Garbage Haulers
      • Grocery and Meat Markets
      • Restaurants >
        • Helsers on Alberta
        • McCormick & Schmicks
        • Wildwood
      • Saloons and Taverns
      • Suppliers and Manufacturers
    • Employers
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Maps
    • Documentary
  • Traditions
    • Foods
    • Folk Medicine
    • Expressions
    • Weddings
    • Holidays
    • Folk Music
    • Funerals and Burial Sites
  • Resources
    • Family Research
    • Books and Video
    • Works Cited