Overview The papers and tapes of Charles Faulkner Bryan. Bryan was born on July 26, 1911, near McMinnville, Tennessee. His music education began at the age of ten when he started studying piano. In 1934 he graduated from the Nashville Conservatory School of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree. In 1935 Bryan was appointed director of the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute's Music Department in Cookeville, Tennessee. While in Cookeville, Bryan began an extensive study of folk music with his wife, Edith...