He collected fiddle and fife tunes in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia from 1928 to 1963.
He introduced the concept of "melodic families", which are groups of tunes that appears to be structurally related.
[1] He traced the origins of many traditional American fiddle tunes back to the British Isles.
In addition to his work on fiddle tunes, he was the expert on the use of the fife in traditional American music.
An award in his name has been established at Penn State for graduate students in comparative literature.