A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys . . .
Patrick Dupre Quigley admits that he gets "a little misty" whenever he hears those lines from "Puff The Magic Dragon," a song his mother sang to him when he was a child.
"It's a beautiful and cute and darling folk song seemingly for children, but has a sort of really serious ending," says Quigley, founder and artistic director of Miami-based vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire.
The song, co-written by Peter Yarrow of American folk trio Peter Paul and Mary, is one of the tunes featured in Seraphic Fire's "American Folk" program, which kicks off this week.
READ MORE: 'A perfect time for transition': Seraphic Fire founder to depart in 2026
In creating what he calls the backbone of the "American Folk" program, harking back to the songs of his youth turned out to be problematic for Quigley.
He soon found out that many of the seemingly innocent tunes he had in mind — like "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Blue Tail Fly" — had disturbing histories.
The latter was originally penned by a British army doctor in the lead-up to the Revolutionary War; the lyrics were meant to poke fun at American soldiers as being rubes or simpletons.
"And 'Blue-Tail Fly' is actually not folk music at all; it's popular music in the tradition of minstrel theater," says Quigley. "Which usually was white people singing songs that made fun of racial stereotypes of Black people."
As a result, the program instead became an exploration of some of the sources that shaped America's folk music tradition.
For starters, Quigley looked at two large strains of 20th Century music — folk revival and Country/Western.
He then determined that the artists who most typified those two genres were Woody Guthrie and Dolly Parton, respectively.
"American Folk" then became a tribute to the older musical roots that both Guthrie and Parton drew from: Shaker devotional tunes, psalm singing from the New England hymnody, Appalachian fiddle tunes and laments, cowboy songs and Western novelty music.
Quigley says he hopes the program, which he calls a "festival of American song," whets people's appetites to learn more about the genre.
"When I was growing up, we called these 'hootenannies,' but I don't think that they're called that anymore!"
IF YOU GO
Seraphic Fire "American Folk"
Naples
Thurs Feb 19, 4:00 pm
Moorings Presbyterian
Coral Gables
Fri Feb 20, 8:00 pm
Church of the Little Flower
Fort Lauderdale
Sat Feb 21, 7:30 pm
All Saints Episcopal
Miami Beach
Sun Feb 22, 4:00 pm
Miami Beach Community Church
For more information, visit seraphicfire.org
