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Folk Music
Is This Folk Music?
• What do you hear? • What qualities (if any) do you hear that make you
think this is folk music? • What qualities (if any) do you hear that make you
think this is NOT folk music? • Does anyone in your group disagree? If so, what
about? • Does this matter?
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Folk Music (Part 1)
• The Folk Music Trilogy• Part 1: Prior to 1920• Part 2: 1920 to 1960• Part 3: 1960 to present
Terms To Know
• Vernacular: spoken language of the common person; distinct from formal written language• Strophic: repeated tune that is used with every
verse of a song• Ballad: a story song usually associated with oral
tradition; almost always strophic. • Broadside: a printed and published ballad;
usually not associated with oral tradition; often considered to be lower in artistic merit.
“American” Folk Music
• Imported material; establishing a national identity • Europe vs America – economic support• Europe: Church, courts/aristocracy, state• America: No national church, no courts/aristocracy,
developing political structure
• If it wasn’t in or for the church, how did Americans hear music? • Where was this music coming from?• Was there such a thing as American folk music?
Ballads in Oral Tradition
• British songs in American lives• Benjamin Franklin (London, 1765)• Peter, his brother, writes him a letter asking Benjamin to have a
London composer set some verses of text to music. • Benjamin responds: “If you had given this text to some country girl in
the heart of Massachusetts, who has never heard any other than psalm tunes or ‘Chevy Chase,’ the ‘Children in the Wood,’ the ‘Spanish Lady,’ and such old, simple ditties, but has naturally a good ear, she might more probably have made a pleasing popular tune for you than any of our masters here.”
• Names ballads (narrative, strophic); originated in Britain around or prior to 1600; still circulating in North America 165 years later!
• These ballads in the oral tradition existed outside of commercial influence.
Broadside Ballads
• By the early 1700s in America; earlier in Europe• Ballads were written, bought, and sold• Printing• No music notation• Text would be matched with a familiar tune
• Reputation of being cheap commercial goods• Rev. Cotton Mather (1713): “I am informed, that the Minds and
Manners of many People about the Countrey are much corrupted by foolish songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey.”
• Inspiration: colonial settlement, Indian wars, dissatisfaction with English rule, crime, love, and religion
• Cartoonish, exaggeration, vulgar
Francis James Child
Francis James Child
• 1825 – 1896• Harvard• Professor of Rhetoric• Shakespeare scholar• Folklorist
• Obsessed with collecting ballads • Not broadsides! • Focused on collecting from the British Isles • Stayed in MA while collecting; “armchair research”• Ballads were in written form, no tunes included
Child Ballads
• This term does not imply child-like or children• English and Scottish Ballads (1857 – 1858)• Eight Volumes
• The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898)• Ten Volumes• Note the word “The” added to the title• “It was not my wish to begin to print The English and Scottish
Ballads until this unrestricted title should be justified by my having at command every valuable copy and every known ballad.”
• 305 different titles• Prints every known variant of each title (approx. 1300 total)• Annotates history, subject matter, and “alterations they had
suffered.”
English and Scottish Popular Balladsand
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads
Appalachia
• Interest in mountain culture and folklore• Late 1800s
• Folklore societies• American Folklore Society
(1888)• NC, KY (1912); VA (1913);
WV (1915)
• The search for “old-time” British tunes• Geographic isolation
• Nationwide effort to re-popularize folk tunes
Folk Songs for Popular Use
• Josephine McGill• “Folk Songs of the Kentucky
Mountains” (1917)
• Loraine Wyman (1885–1937)
• Howard Brockway (1870 – 1951) • “Twenty Kentucky Mountain
Songs” (1920)
• Used for entertainment in the home; not “scholarly”
• Appealing to middle class women
Cecil Sharp
• (1859 – 1924)• Englishman• Started folk music revival
in England in early 20th century
• Collector of English ballads in Appalachia• Why?• Pick and choose
• Worked in the field; not an “armchair researcher”
• Cultural/Musical bias• Modern society• Disappointment
Authentic?
• Was this documentation a true reflection of music in American culture? • Is this significant? Important? Relevant? • What does this say about the general feelings of
Americans?
Listening Assignment
• Groups of 3 or 4• Compare/Contrast two recordings of Barbara
Allen• Jean Ritchie• Moses Platt
• Are these the same song?
Jean Ritchie
Moses Platt
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