This article is about traditional and modern folk music.

For other uses, see Folk Songs

Folk music

Béla Bartók recording Slovak peasant singers in 1908

Traditions List of folk music traditions

Musicians List of folk musicians

Instruments Folk instruments

Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th
century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century but is often applied to music that is older
than that. Some types of folk music are also called world music.

Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, or as music
with unknown composers. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. One meaning
often given is that of old songs, with no known composers; another is music that has been
transmitted and evolved by a process of oral transmission or performed by custom over a long
period of time.

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, electric
folk, and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk
music, in English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as
traditional folk music. Even individual songs may be a blend of the two.

Definitions[edit]
A consistent definition of traditional folk music is elusive. 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 is further derived 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] Traditional folk
music also includes most indigenous music.

However, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still
no certain definition of what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is.[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",[5] 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."[6]

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'."[7] One widely used definition is simply
"Folk music is what the people sing".[8]

For Scholes,[2] as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók,[9] 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),"[10] particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music"[6] and by commercial
and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favour of a simple distinction of economic class[9] yet for him
true folk music was, in Charles Seeger's words, "associated with a lower class"[11] 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'."[12]

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, theGrammy
Award previously used "traditional music" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music.

Characteristics[edit]
From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics:[11]

 It was transmitted through an oral tradition. Before the 20th century, ordinary farm workers and
factory workers were usually illiterate. They acquired songs by memorizing them. Primarily, this
was not mediated by books, recorded or transmitted media. Singers may extend their repertoire
using broadsheets, song books or CDs, 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, such as Easter,
May Day and Christmas, particular songs celebrate the yearly cycle. Weddings, birthdays 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.
Terminology[edit]
Tune[edit]
In folk music, a tune is a short instrumental piece, a melody, often with repeating sections, and
usually played a number of times. A collection of tunes with structural similarities is known as a tune-
family. The most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary form.[citation needed]

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

Origins[edit]

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.

Throughout most of human prehistory and history, listening to recorded music was not possible.
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. Manual labor often
included singing by the workers, which served several practical purposes. 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.[13]

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 requireslearning by ear,
although notation has evolved in some cultures. 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 "World music" or "Roots music".

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][14] 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."[15]

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: in 1970 the term was dropped in favor of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording
(including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk
Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". 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 song-writers, such as Donovan from Scotland and American Bob Dylan, who
emerged in the 1960s and much more. This completed a process to where "folk music" no longer
meant only traditional folk music.[5]

Folk music includes both traditional musicand the genre that evolved from it during the 20th
century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century but is often applied tomusic that is
older than that. Some types offolk music are also called world music.

FOLK SONG

Folk Songs is a song cycle by the Italian composer Luciano Berio composed in 1964. It consists of
arrangements of folk music from various countries and other songs, forming "a tribute to the
extraordinary artistry" of the American singer Cathy Berberian, a specialist in Berio's music. It is
scored for voice, flute (doubling on piccolo), clarinet, harp, viola,cello, and percussion (two
players).[1] The composer arranged it for a large orchestra in 1973.[2]

Background[edit]

Two of the songs in the cycle, "La donna ideale" and "Ballo", were composed in 1947 by Berio
during his second year at the Milan Conservatory for voice and piano as part of hisTre canzoni
popolari (Three folk songs). It is often claimed that these three songs were written for Cathy
Berberian while she was studying in Italy, but this cannot be the case because she did not arrive
there until 1949.[2]

The Folk Songs cycle was commissioned by Mills College in California and first performed there by a
chamber orchestra directed by Berio in 1964 with Berberian as the soprano soloist. By the time of its
first performance, the Berberian–Berio marriage was nearing its end, but their artistic partnership
continued; they subsequently collaborated on works such as Sequenza III, Visage and Recital I (for
Cathy). Berio had an emotional attachment to folk song: he once declared that "When I work with
that music I am always caught by the thrill of discovery." Other later compositions by Berio that
incorporated folk songs were Cries of London, Coro and Voci: Folk Songs II.[2]

Songs[edit]

The first two of the Folk Songs are not actual folk songs. "Black Is the Colour (Of My True Love's
Hair)" and "I Wonder as I Wander" were both written by the Kentucky folk singer and composer John
Jacob Niles. There is a traditional tune for "Black is the Color ..." but, because his father thought it
was "downright terrible", Niles recalled, "I wrote myself a new tune, ending it in a nice modal
manner." Berio's suite opens with the viola instructed to play "like a wistful country dance fiddler",
free of bar lines and rhythmically independent of the voice.[2] "I Wonder as I Wander" was developed
by Niles out of the mere three lines he was able to extract from a revivalist preacher’s daughter, "a
tousled, unwashed blond, and very lovely".[2] Harmonics from the viola, cello and harp contribute
toward the "hurdy-gurdy sound" Berio wanted to accompany this second song. The extended bird-
song postlude for flute and clarinet in Berio’s version seems to have been suggested by the passing
reference to the "bird on the wing".[2]

Armenia, the country of Berberian's ancestors, provided the third song, "Loosin yelav", which
describes the rising of the moon. In the French song "Rossignolet du bois", accompanied only by the
clarinet at first but later by the harp and crotales,[2] a nightingale advises an inquiring lover to sing
his serenades two hours after midnight, and identifies the "apples" in his garden as the moon and
the sun. A sustained chord colored by the striking of automobile spring coils bridges this song to the
next one, the old Sicilian song "A la femminisca", sung by fishermen's wives as they wait at the
docks.

Like the first two songs, the sixth, "La Donna Ideale", and the seventh, "Ballo", come not from
anonymous folk bards but from Berio himself (see background section above). The old Genoese
dialect folk poem "The Ideal Woman" says that if you find a woman at once well-born, well-
mannered, well-formed and with a good dowry, for God's sake don't let her get away. "The Ball",
another old Italian poem, says that the wisest of men lose their heads over love, but love resists the
sun and ice and all else.

"Motettu de tristura" comes from Sardinia and apostrophizes the nightingale: "How you resemble me
as I weep for my lover... When they bury me, sing me this song."

The next two songs are also found in Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne and are in
the Occitan language. "Malurous qu'o uno fenno" poses the eternal marital paradox: he with no
spouse seeks one, and he with one wishes he had none. A cello echoing the improvisation at the
opening of the suite introduces "Lo Fïolairé", in which a girl at her spinning wheel sings of
exchanging kisses with a shepherd.
Berberian discovered the last song, known in the suite as "Azerbaijan Love Song", on a 78 RPM
record from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, sung in the Azerbaijani language except for
one verse in Russian, which a Russian-speaking friend told her compared love to a stove. Berberian
sang, purely by rote, the sounds she transcribed as best she could from that scratchy old record.
She knew not one word of Azerbaijani.