Introduction

Biography

Annabel was the daugh­ter of Will­iam Ca­ru­thers Mor­ris and An­na Vir­gin­ia Fos­ter, and wife of John Pres­ton Bu­chan­an, and wife of John Bu­chan­an, a law­yer, writ­er, and sen­at­or from Ma­ri­on, Vir­gin­ia (mar­ried 1912).

She re­ceived her mu­sic­al train­ing at the Lan­don Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic, Dal­las, Tex­as (where she re­ceived a schol­ar­ship at age 15); the Guil­mant Or­gan School, New York; and stu­dy­ing with Emil Lieb­ling, Will­iam Carl, and Cor­ne­li­us Ryb­ner, among oth­ers.

She taught mu­sic in Tex­as; at Hal­sell Col­lege, Ok­la­ho­ma (1907–08); and at Stone­wall Jack­son Col­lege, Ab­ing­don, Vir­gin­ia (1909–12).

In 1912, she and her hus­band moved to their home, Rose­acre, in Ma­ri­on, Vir­gin­ia.

Buchanan served as pre­si­dent of the Vir­gin­ia Fe­de­ra­tion of Mu­sic Clubs in 1927, and helped or­gan­ize the first Vir­gin­ia State Cho­ral Fes­ti­val in 1928, and White Top Folk Fes­tiv­als (1931–41).

After her hus­band’s death in 1937, she sold Rose­acre and moved to Rich­mond, Vir­gin­ia, with her two young­est child­ren.

She taught mu­sic the­ory and com­po­si­tion and folk mu­sic at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Rich­mond (1939–40); dur­ing the sum­mers, at the New Eng­land Mu­sic Camp, Lake Mes­sa­lon­skee, Oak­land, Maine (1938–40); and at the Huc­kle­ber­ry Moun­tain Ar­tists Co­lo­ny near Hen­der­son­ville, North Ca­ro­li­na, in 1941.

She lat­er moved to Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia, and taught at Ma­di­son Col­lege (1944–48).

In 1951, she moved to Pa­du­cah, Ken­tuc­ky. She lat­er be­came the ar­chiv­ist of the folk mu­sic col­lect­ing pro­ject of the Na­tion­al Fe­de­ra­tion of Mu­sic Clubs, serv­ing un­til 1963.

Works

• Folk-Hymns of Am­er­ica (New York: J. Fisch­er, 1938)
• American Folk Mu­sic, 1939