Clarence Langen

Our grandfather, Clarence Langen, was born in 1911 in South Tilley, New Brunswick, Canada into a family of musicians of Irish and Scottish heritage, living at the foot of the Tobique Reserve. Clarence’s early musical influences spanned from Irish-Canadian and Scottish-Canadian to Vaudeville, and to Maliseet.

His mother taught organ and piano, and his aunt had a well-known local band. Around age ten Clarence got his first fiddle - a hand-me-down from his older brother, Royce. He learned to play traditional tunes from family friend Oliver LaFrance as well as by going to the weekend dances. He would hum his favorite tunes from the dance while walking home. If he could still hum the tune when he arrived home, he would always be able to play it on the fiddle. During his teenage years Clarence played as often as he could - especially weekend dances.

By 1930, the Great Depression had engulfed Canada. Clarence decided to follow others from New Brunswick and hop the freight trains in search of work. The first act of Clarence’s life as a traveling musician of the Americas took place from 1930 to 1934 as he hoboed his way across the continent. This time became a foundational period of musical influence.

As Clarence and the men he traveled with stopped in town after town searching for work they found jobs were scarce. Clarence learned to ask if there would be a dance on the weekend and discovered that musicians were always welcome. In this way, Clarence worked his way across the great prairies of Canada doing farm labor, mechanic work and playing at the local dances. The ear he developed in New Brunswick for learning tunes helped as each town had its own tunes and variations. Clarence was able to listen to the tune the first time through and then join in on the second round. We believe you can hear the influence of playing week after week, to new audiences and with different tunes and variations each week in Clarence’s style- there’s a wink and sparkle that shines through and open welcomeness to participate with the music- whether dancing or just tapping your foot.

Clarence travelled from New Brunswick to Vancouver, British Columbia and back from 1930 to 1934, leaving New Brunswick in the late spring, playing and harvesting his way across the continent. These journeys introduced Clarence to two additional sources of influence on his musical style. As Clarence rode from Ontario on out through the great prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, he was able to catch broadcasts from radio stations in West Texas. He loved the West and the western swing he heard on those radio waves. One of his favorite groups was the Sons of Pioneers. While in Vancouver, Clarence took classical violin lessons from a Russian violin master who fled the Russian Revolution. This violin master taught Clarence to read music and to play classical music. Clarence’s favorite classical violin music was Fritz Kreisler and he could easily switch from playing traditional tunes to playing a Fritz Kreisler composition.

Clarence Langen married Carolyn Langen, neé Lunn in 1942, and had his first child, our father Bill Langen in 1943. Our uncle Terry was born in 1950. From 1943 to 1963 Clarence played infrequently. Clarence and family immigrated to the United States in 1952, and in 1963 they all moved to Arizona. Once in Arizona Clarence began to play again. His son Bill believes that Clarence had the soul of a westerner and being in the Southwest reminded him of those trips across Canada and the western music he so loved.

Clarence’s second act as a traveling musician of the Americas took place between 1965 until his death in 1990. The musical partnerships Clarence forged during this period connected his Canadian music to the musical traditions of Texas, Oklahoma, Scotland, Ireland, Arizona and Mexico.

By 1965 Clarence had begun to play fiddle again and entered into fiddle contests in Tucson. He came to the attention of Big Jim Griffith, a professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Arizona. Big Jim encouraged Clarence to participate in the growing scene of folks festivals and contests. A chance newspaper article led Clarence to connect to Byron Berline, a well-known fiddler from Oklahoma. Byron Berline and his father regularly traveled from Oklahoma out to Arizona to spend the weekend playing tunes with Clarence, and he loved playing with them in the traditional Oklahoma-Texas style.

In the late 1960s Clarence, Carolyn and Terry moved to Thatcher, Arizona, in the far Eastern corner of the state. Once again Clarence was blessed with good fortune - his nearest neighbors were musicians. Tom and Martha Jennings were well-known musicians in the Southwest folk music scene. Tom played mandolin and Martha was an incredibly talented guitarist in the Texas tradition. Tom and Martha formed a group with Clarence and they traveled to folk festivals and contests throughout the Southwest.

In 1976 Tom, Martha and Clarence traveled to San Diego to play at the San Diego Folk Festival. The Boys of the Lough, a group from the British Isles who played the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland and the Shetland Islands were also playing at this festival. Ali Bain reached out to Clarence and suggested that they find a place where they could play a few tunes. They found a quiet stairwell and played for 45 minutes. According to Bill Langen, who was also present, either Ali or Clarence would play the first few notes of a tune only to have the other join in, both playing virtually note for note with each other. These were tunes brought to Eastern Canada in the 1820s by immigrants from the British Isles, passed down from generation to generation with such fidelity that in 1976 these two fiddlers, having just met, could play together. Over that span of time and distance only a title or a note here and there had changed. From this moment, Clarence began an association with the growing Irish music scene, and even travelled to Scotland and Ireland.

The last act of Clarence’s life as a traveling musician came when Big Jim Griffith asked Clarence to consider filling a gap in the San Xavier Mission Yaqui church band when their regular fiddler moved to Mexico. Clarence was quite reluctant to intrude in a culture and tradition he was not a part of, but eventually agreed to audition. The San Xavier Mission Yaqui church band insisted that he join the band, and he learned to play their music as well, which had Southwest and Norteño influences. The band members embraced Clarence and invited him to participate in various events and ceremonies. They played at Clarence’s funeral.

One of Clarence’s greatest desires was that the musical tradition he inherited would be passed down and not forgotten. His grandson Tim Langen first saw a violin at the age of one and half and was totally enraptured when he saw his grandfather play. Tim began to play violin as soon as he was able, and by age seven was already learning the traditional tunes as well as studying classical violin through the Suzuki method. Clarence traveled to Minnesota summer after summer, teaching Tim his tunes. By the time Tim was a teenager, Clarence figured his grandson had learned all 350 traditional tunes in his repertoire. Clarence also taught his younger grandson Jesse Langen the traditional tunes on fiddle, although Jesse later switched to guitar.