Folk music

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Folk music (disambiguation). "Folk singer" and "Traditional
music" redirect here. For other uses, see Folk singer (disambiguation) and
Traditional music (disambiguation).
Folk music

Béla Bartók recording peasant singers in Zobordarázs, Kingdom of Hungary, (now

Nitra, Slovakia) 1907
Traditions List of folk music traditions
Musicians List of folk musicians
Instruments Folk instruments
Other topics
Popular musicroots revivalFilk musicFolk punk
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the
contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk
revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music
has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown
composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or
national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music
associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long
period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The
term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.

Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from
traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival
and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called
contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk
forms.[1] Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other
times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to the new music
created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres
such as folk rock, folk metal, and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre
generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same
name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music.

Traditional folk music

Traditional folk music
Stylistic origins Traditional music
Cultural origins Individual nations or regions
Derivative forms
Popular musicContemporary music
Subgenres
Contemporary folk music (Western)
Contemporary folk music (non-Western)
(complete list)
Fusion genres
Folk metalFolk rockNeofolkAnti-folkSkiffle
Other topics
Roots revivalWorld music (term)
Definition
The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent
expressions. They are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by
the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs, and
superstitions of the uncultured classes".[2] The term further derives from the
German expression volk, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to
popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over
half a century earlier.[3] Though it is understood that folk music is the music of
the people, observers find a more precise definition to be elusive.[4][5] Some do
not even agree that the term folk music should be used.[4] Folk music may tend to
have certain characteristics[2] but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely
musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known
composers,"[6] another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary
"process of oral transmission... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by
the community that give it its folk character."[7]

Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical
types...", upon "continuity and oral transmission...seen as characterizing one side
of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower
layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive'
societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'".[8] One widely used definition is
simply "Folk music is what the people sing."[9]

For Scholes,[2] as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók,[10] there was a sense
of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was
already, "...seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to
disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived),"[11] particularly
in "a community uninfluenced by art music"[7] and by commercial and printed song.
Lloyd rejected this in favor of a simple distinction of economic class[10] yet for
him, true folk music was, in Charles Seeger's words, "associated with a lower
class"[12] in culturally and socially stratified societies. In these terms, folk
music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive'
or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'."[13]

Music in this genre is also often called traditional music. Although the term is
usually only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre. For
example, the Grammy Award previously used the terms "traditional music" and
"traditional folk" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music.[14] Folk
music may include most indigenous music.[4]

Characteristics

Viljandi Folk Music Festival held annually within the castle ruins in Viljandi,
Estonia.
From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics:
[12]

It was transmitted through an oral tradition. Before the 20th century, ordinary
people were usually illiterate; they acquired songs by memorizing them. Primarily,
this was not mediated by books or recorded or transmitted media. Singers may extend
their repertoire using broadsheets or song books, but these secondary enhancements
are of the same character as the primary songs experienced in the flesh.
The music was often related to national culture. It was culturally particular; from
a particular region or culture. In the context of an immigrant group, folk music
acquires an extra dimension for social cohesion. It is particularly conspicuous in
immigrant societies, where Greek Australians, Somali Americans, Punjabi Canadians,
and others strive to emphasize their differences from the mainstream. They learn
songs and dances that originate in the countries their grandparents came from.
They commemorate historical and personal events. On certain days of the year,
including such holidays as Christmas, Easter, and May Day, particular songs
celebrate the yearly cycle. Birthdays, weddings, and funerals may also be noted
with songs, dances and special costumes. Religious festivals often have a folk
music component. Choral music at these events brings children and non-professional
singers to participate in a public arena, giving an emotional bonding that is
unrelated to the aesthetic qualities of the music.
The songs have been performed, by custom, over a long period of time, usually
several generations.
As a side-effect, the following characteristics are sometimes present:

There is no copyright on the songs. Hundreds of folk songs from the 19th century
have known authors but have continued in oral tradition to the point where they are
considered traditional for purposes of music publishing. This has become much less
frequent since the 1940s. Today, almost every folk song that is recorded is
credited with an arranger.
Fusion of cultures: Because cultures interact and change over time, traditional
songs evolving over time may incorporate and reflect influences from disparate
cultures. The relevant factors may include instrumentation, tunings, voicings,
phrasing, subject matter, and even production methods.
Tune
In folk music, a tune is a short instrumental piece, a melody, often with repeating
sections, and usually played a number of times.[15] A collection of tunes with
structural similarities is known as a tune-family. America's Musical Landscape says
"the most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary
form."[16][page needed]

In some traditions, tunes may be strung together in medleys or "sets."[17]

Origins

Indians always distinguished between classical and folk music, though in the past
even classical Indian music used to rely on the unwritten transmission of
repertoire.

Indian Nepali folk musician Navneet Aditya Waiba

Throughout most of human prehistory and history, listening to recorded music was
not possible.[18][19] Music was made by common people during both their work and
leisure, as well as during religious activities. The work of economic production
was often manual and communal.[20] Manual labor often included singing by the
workers, which served several practical purposes.[21] It reduced the boredom of
repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it
set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing,
weaving, and milling. In leisure time, singing and playing musical instruments were
common forms of entertainment and history-telling—even more common than today when
electrically enabled technologies and widespread literacy make other forms of
entertainment and information-sharing competitive.[22]

Some believe that folk music originated as art music that was changed and probably
debased by oral transmission while reflecting the character of the society that
produced it.[2] In many societies, especially preliterate ones, the cultural
transmission of folk music requires learning by ear, although notation has evolved
in some cultures.[23] Different cultures may have different notions concerning a
division between "folk" music on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on the
other. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some traditional folk music
became also referred to as "World music" or "Roots music".[24]

The English term "folklore", to describe traditional folk music and dance, entered
the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-
song collectors and revivalists.[2] The distinction between "authentic" folk and
national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America
and Germany[2] – for example, popular songwriters such as Stephen Foster could be
termed "folk" in America.[2][25] The International Folk Music Council definition
allows that the term can also apply to music that, "...has originated with an
individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living
tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that
has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged."[26]

The post–World War II folk revival in America and in Britain started a new genre,
Contemporary Folk Music, and brought an additional meaning to the term "folk
music": newly composed songs, fixed in form and by known authors, which imitated
some form of traditional music. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings
caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the Grammy Awards of 1959;[27] in
1970 the term was dropped in favor of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording
(including Traditional Blues)",[28] while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best
Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording".[29] After that,
they had a "Traditional music" category that subsequently evolved into others. The
term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover singer-songwriters, such
as Donovan[30] from Scotland and American Bob Dylan,[31] who emerged in the 1960s
and much more. This completed a process to where "folk music" no longer meant only
traditional folk music.[6]

Subject matter

Armenian traditional musicians

Assyrian folk music
Assyrians playing a zurna and a davul, instruments typically used for Assyrian folk
music and dance.
Traditional folk music often includes sung words, although folk instrumental music
occurs commonly in dance music traditions. Narrative verse looms large in the
traditional folk music of many cultures.[32][33] This encompasses such forms as
traditional epic poetry, much of which was meant originally for oral performance,
sometimes accompanied by instruments.[34][35] Many epic poems of various cultures
were pieced together from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse, which
explains their episodic structure, repetitive elements, and their frequent in
medias res plot developments. Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate the
outcomes of battles or lament tragedies or natural disasters.[36]

Sometimes, as in the triumphant Song of Deborah[37] found in the Biblical Book of

Judges, these songs celebrate victory. Laments for lost battles and wars, and the
lives lost in them, are equally prominent in many traditions; these laments keep
alive the cause for which the battle was fought.[38][39] The narratives of
traditional songs often also remember folk heroes such as John Henry[40][41] or
Robin Hood.[42] Some traditional song narratives recall supernatural events or
mysterious deaths.[43]

Hymns and other forms of religious music are often of traditional and unknown
origin.[44] Western musical notation was originally created to preserve the lines
of Gregorian chant, which before its invention was taught as an oral tradition in
monastic communities.[45][46] Traditional songs such as Green grow the rushes, O
present religious lore in a mnemonic form, as do Western Christmas carols and
similar traditional songs.[47]

Work songs frequently feature call and response structures and are designed to
enable the laborers who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with
the rhythms of the songs.[48] They are frequently, but not invariably, composed. In
the American armed forces, a lively oral tradition preserves jody calls ("Duckworth
chants") which are sung while soldiers are on the march.[49] Professional sailors
made similar use of a large body of sea shanties.[50][51] Love poetry, often of a
tragic or regretful nature, prominently figures in many folk traditions.[52]
Nursery rhymes, children’s songs and nonsense verse used to amuse or quiet children
also are frequent subjects of traditional songs.[53]

Folk song transformations and variations

See also: List of folk music traditions

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Korean traditional musicians

Music transmitted by word of mouth through a community, in time, develops many
variants, since this transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note
accuracy. In addition, folk singers may choose to modify the songs they hear.

For example, the words of "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (Roud 975) were
written down in a broadside in the 18th century, and seem to have an Irish origin.
[54] In 1958 the song was recorded in Canada (My Name is Pat and I'm Proud of
That). Scottish traveler Jeannie Robertson from Aberdeen, made the next recorded
version in 1961. She has changed it to make reference to "Jock Stewart", one of her
relatives, and there are no Irish references. In 1976 Scottish artist Archie Fisher
deliberately altered the song to remove the reference to a dog being shot. In 1985
The Pogues took it full circle by restoring the Irish references.[original
research?]

Because variants proliferate naturally, there is generally no "authoritative"

version of song. Researchers in traditional songs have encountered countless
versions of the Barbara Allen ballad throughout the English-speaking world, and
these versions often differ greatly from each other. The original is not known;
many versions can lay an equal claim to authenticity.

Influential folklorist Cecil Sharp felt that these competing variants of a

traditional song would undergo a process of improvement akin to biological natural
selection: only those new variants that were the most appealing to ordinary singers
would be picked up by others and transmitted onward in time. Thus, over time we
would expect each traditional song to become more aesthetically appealing, due to
incremental community improvement.

Literary interest in the popular ballad form dates back at least to Thomas Percy
and William Wordsworth. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved
their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-
dances, and Joseph Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the
term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that
was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most
asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Central Europe, Russia, Scandinavia,
Spain and Britain: the music of Dvořák, Smetana, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms,
Liszt, de Falla, Wagner, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Bartók, and many others drew
upon folk melodies.[citation needed]

Regional forms