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The concept of folk music, though generally
understood by most people, has no simple, widely accepted
definition. Narrowly construed, folk music is music that lives
in oral tradition and is learned "by ear," without
the use of written music, primarily in rural cultures. Because
folk music is relatively simple in a technical sense, it can
be performed by most members of society and lives in the traditions
of families and closely knit social groups. It is frequently
associated with the activities that it accompanies, such as
ritual, dance, and work. In those societies that have classical
music traditions under the patronage of elite institutions,
folk music is often thought of as the music of the lower educational
and socioeconomic strata. Although folk music is found in
all so-called high cultures, the usefulness of the concept
is most conveniently used to designate a type of MUSIC in
Western culture.
The definition given above applies well to Europe and the
Americas before about 1900, when rural populations were isolated
from cities, literacy was less widespread, and music was not
yet disseminated by radio, records, and television. Such conditions
still exist in some parts of eastern and southern Europe and
in other isolated areas. But the concept of folk music in
most of the Western world today has generally been expanded
to include other phenomena, such as, for example, songs of
rural origin performed by formally trained singers on the
concert stage, or by popular performers in the styles of "country
music" and ROCK MUSIC; the SPIRITUALS of rural churches
sung in distinctive folk styles; songs cast in the form of
folk music but composed for political and social purposes
by popular musicians such as Bob DYLAN, Woody GUTHRIE, and
Pete SEEGER and consumed through radio and records by urban
audiences; authentic folk music forgotten in the villages
but preserved by specially trained singers under government
auspices, a practice common in eastern Europe; and the establishment
of orchestras of folk instruments that perform in formal concerts.
In this article, however, the more restricted definition of
folk music is used.
The Folk Tradition
To exist for any length of time, a folk song must be accepted
by a community--nation, village, family--and must be known
to more than an elite. Another distinguishing feature of the
folk song is its tendency to change as it asses from one person
to another. Contrary to widespread earlier belief, folk songs
are often composed by individuals, but once taught to others
they are changed and often simplified. Each person who sings
the song may develop his or her own version. The well-known
BALLAD "Barbara Allen," for example, exists in a
large number of variations. In the course of this process,
called "communal re-creation," a tune may be fitted
with a completely new set of words, and eventually a text
(such as the "Barbara Allen" story) may be sung
to a group of completely different tunes. A group of related
tunes that seem to have descended from a single parent tune
are called a tune family; its original parent tune, which
may have been composed and sung centuries ago, cannot normally
be identified or reconstructed. A tune family tends to remain
within a nation or language group, such as France or the English-speaking
world.
Researchers have speculated that the vast majority of Anglo-American
folk songs belong to about 40--and most of those songs to
only 7--dominant tune families. Some tunes that seem to have
spread throughout Europe centuries ago have developed nationally
distinctive variants in many countries. Tunes sometimes cross
national boundaries, especially where there are mixed populations,
but usually the words--even in translation--do not travel
along. Text types such as ballad stories, however, are more
internationally distributed than tunes. The folk ballad "Lady
Isabel and the Elf Knight," for example, has been collected
in most European nations but is sung to tunes that are not
internationally related.
Folk songs may change slightly or radically in the process
of oral transmission. In some cases a change of a note here
and there or a change from duple to triple rhythm is all that
happens. In other cases a song with, for example, four musical
lines--perhaps with ABCD construction--may lose its first
two lines and become CDCD; later folk singers may add two
new lines, giving it the form CDEF.
These changes are part of the folk process and result from
the dependence on oral tradition. The function of a song in
society may determine how much change is tolerated. Ritual
songs are usually permitted less change than are songs sung
mainly for entertainment, such as ballads. Folk music is frequently
said to be functional because it is an integral part of other
activities. In a traditional folk society, music is essential
in rituals and festivals. The words of a folk song may serve
as chronicle or newspaper or may provide a way for young people
to learn about their culture. In modern industrial nations,
folk music is perpetuated by ethnic, occupational, and religious
minorities, promoting their self-esteem and social solidarity.
Isolated culture enclaves, such as Germans who lived in Czechoslovakia
before 1945 or Slovak-Americans who live in Cleveland, often
preserve particularly old forms of folk music.
Musical Style
Each nation or culture has a distinctive style of performing
its folk music. Some features, however, are common to all
of Western culture. For example, all Western nations have
ballads (songs that tell stories), dance songs, and work songs
dealing with labor or agriculture. The most common structure
of such songs is strophic: a tune, frequently consisting of
four separate musical lines, is repeated several times, each
time with a different stanza of the text. In contrast, much
instrumental folk music consists of a series of short lines,
each repeated once.
Polyphonic music, in which two or more tunes are sung at one
time by small groups of singers or choirs, played by instrumental
ensembles, or even played on a single instrument such as the
Balkan double flute, is most common in eastern and southern
Europe. Variations range from the accompaniment of a single
sustained tone (drone) to the very sophisticated choral songs
of Russia and isolated parts of the Balkans and Italy. Parallel
singing is another prevalent form. Parallel thirds--singing
the same tune at the interval of a third--is found in Spain,
Germany, and Italy; parallel fourths and fifths are used in
various Slavic countries.
Singing style is one of the most characteristic features of
folk music. The handling of rhythm differentiates two styles
identified by Bela BARTOK. In parlando-rubato singing, which
is probably the older style, the singer stresses the words,
embellishes tones, and departs frequently from the basic rhythmic
structure. Tempo giusto singing follows metric patterns and
maintains an even tempo. Both styles are found throughout
Europe. Alan Lomax , using different criteria, found three
main singing styles. The Eurasian, mainly in southern Europe
and parts of Great Britain and North America--areas where
solo singing is prevalent--is tense, ornamented, and rhythmically
uneven. The Old European style, found in central and eastern
Europe, where group singing is developed, is more relaxed
and is sung with full voice in even rhythm, the voices blending
well in the choruses. The modern European style, found in
more recent music in western Europe, combines elements of
the other two.
Instruments
Most folk music is sung, but much of it is also performed
on a variety of instruments. The simplest, which are shared
by many societies in the world, include rattles, bone whistles,
and long wooden trumpets such as the Swiss ALPHORN. A number
of instruments now common in the West were adapted from Asian
or African cultures; these include the BAGPIPE, the BANJO,
and the XYLOPHONE. Many instruments originated and developed
in the folk cultures in which they are used. The Dolle, a
fiddle made from a wooden shoe and common in western Germany,
is a simple example. The more sophisticated bowed LYRE, once
widespread in northern Europe, is now restricted to Finland.
A final group includes instruments taken over by folk cultures
from city, church, or court and often maintained long after
they had been discarded and replaced in their place of origin.
Examples are the HURDY-GURDY and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle,
a violin with sympathetic strings.
The Modern World
In the 20th century, especially since 1945, folk music has
declined in its rural habitat for a number of reasons, including
the spread of industrialization, the fact that villagers now
live much like city dwellers, and the ready accessibility
of all kinds of music through the mass media. Despite its
decline in rural areas, folk music has assumed new roles,
including the reinforcement of ethnic identities, the advocacy
of social change (as in the U.S. civil rights movement), and
the building of national consciousness in heterogeneous nations.
Folk music continues to be a vital force in the world's musical
life.
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