Folk music - Regional variation

Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared by the entire community (and its performance not strictly limited to a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth. During the 20th and 21st century, the term folk music took on a second meaning: it describes a particular kind of popular music which is culturally desc ...

Including:

• Folk music - Defining folk song
• Folk music - Subjects of folk music
• Folk music - Variation in folk music
• Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies
• Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence
• Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music
• Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community
• Folk music - Regional variation
• Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music
• Folk music - Folk revivals
• Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists
• Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres
• Folk music - Pastiche and parody
• Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia - Folk music

During the twentieth century, a crucial change in the history of folk music began. Folk material came to be adopted by talented performers, performed by them in concerts, and disseminated by recordings and broadcasting. In other words, a new genre of popular music had arisen. This genre was linked by nostalgia and imitation to the original traditions of folk music as it was sung by ordinary people. However, as a popular gen ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists

During the twentieth century, a crucial change in the history of folk music began. Folk material came to be adopted by talented performers, performed by them in concerts, and disseminated by recordings and broadcasting. In other words, a new genre of popular music had arisen. This genre was linked by nostalgia and imitation to the original traditions of folk music as it was sung by ordinary people. However, as a popular gen ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists

Folk music seems to reflect a universal impulse of humanity. No fieldwork expedition by cultural anthropologists has yet discovered a preindustrial people that did not have its own folk music. It seems safe to infer that folk music was a property of all people starting from the dawn of the species. However, the development of modern society--first literacy, then the conversion of culture into a salable commodity--created a new form of transmission of music that first influenced, then in some societies essentially eliminated the original folk tradit ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies

Music transmitted by word of mouth though a community will, in time, develop many variants, because this kind of transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. Indeed, many traditional folk singers are quite creative and deliberately modify the material they learn. Because variants proliferate naturally, it is naïve to believe that there is such a thing as the single "authentic" version of a ballad such as "Barbara Allen." Field researchers in folk song (see below) have encountered countless versions of this ba ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Variation in folk music

Apart from instrumental music that forms a part of folk music, especially dance music traditions, much folk music is vocal music, since the instrument that makes such music is usually handy. As such, most folk music has lyrics, and is about something. Narrative verse looms large in the folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry, much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pie ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Subjects of folk music

Starting in the 19th century, interested people - academics and amateur scholars - started to take note of what was being lost, and there grew various efforts aimed at preserving the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads). Contemporaneously came the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, and later and more significantly Cecil Sharp who worked in the early 20th century to preserve a ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music

Popular culture sometimes creates pastiches of folk music for its own ends. One famous example is the pseudo-ballad sung about brave Sir Robin in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Enthusiasts for folk music might properly consider this song to be pastiche and not parody, because the tune is pleasant and far from inept, and the topic being lampooned is not balladry but the medieval heroic tradition. The arch-shaped melodic form of this song (first and last lines low in pitch, middle lines high) is characteristic of tradi ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Pastiche and parody

As folk traditions decline, there is often a conscious effort to resuscitate them. Such efforts are often exerted by bridge figures such as Jean Ritchie, described above. Folk revivals also involve collaboration between traditional folk musicians and other participants (often of urban background) who come to the tradition as adults. The folk revival of the 1950's in Britain and America had something of this character. In 1950 Alan Lomax came to Britain, where at a Working Men's Club in the remote Northumberland mining village of Tow L ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Folk revivals

"Folk song is usually 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). Unfortunately, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no unanimity on what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) 'is'" (Middleton 1990, p.127). Gene Shay, co-founder and host of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, defined folk music in an April 2003 interview by saying: "In the strictest sense, it's music that is rarely writt ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Defining folk song

Starting in the 19th century, interested people - academics and amateur scholars - started to take note of what was being lost, and there grew various efforts aimed at preserving the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads). Contemporaneously came the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, and later and more significantly Cecil Sharp who worked in the early 20th century to preserve a ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music

Folk music seems to reflect a universal impulse of humanity. No fieldwork expedition by cultural anthropologists has yet discovered a preindustrial people that did not have its own folk music. It seems safe to infer that folk music was a property of all people starting from the dawn of the species. However, the development of modern society--first literacy, then the conversion of culture into a salable commodity--created a new form of transmission of music that first influenced, then in some societies essentially eliminated the original folk tradit ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies

Music transmitted by word of mouth though a community will, in time, develop many variants, because this kind of transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. Indeed, many traditional folk singers are quite creative and deliberately modify the material they learn. Because variants proliferate naturally, it is naïve to believe that there is such a thing as the single "authentic" version of a ballad such as "Barbara Allen." Field researchers in folk song (see below) have encountered countless versions of this ba ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Variation in folk music

As folk traditions decline, there is often a conscious effort to resuscitate them. Such efforts are often exerted by bridge figures such as Jean Ritchie, described above. Folk revivals also involve collaboration between traditional folk musicians and other participants (often of urban background) who come to the tradition as adults. The folk revival of the 1950's in Britain and America had something of this character. In 1950 Alan Lomax came to Britain, where at a Working Men's Club in the remote Northumberland mining village of Tow L ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Folk revivals

Popular culture sometimes creates pastiches of folk music for its own ends. One famous example is the pseudo-ballad sung about brave Sir Robin in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Enthusiasts for folk music might properly consider this song to be pastiche and not parody, because the tune is pleasant and far from inept, and the topic being lampooned is not balladry but the medieval heroic tradition. The arch-shaped melodic form of this song (first and last lines low in pitch, middle lines high) is characteristic of tradi ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Pastiche and parody

Apart from instrumental music that forms a part of folk music, especially dance music traditions, much folk music is vocal music, since the instrument that makes such music is usually handy. As such, most folk music has lyrics, and is about something. Narrative verse looms large in the folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry, much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pie ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Subjects of folk music

"Folk song is usually 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). Unfortunately, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no unanimity on what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) 'is'" (Middleton 1990, p.127). Gene Shay, co-founder and host of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, defined folk music in an April 2003 interview by saying: "In the strictest sense, it's music that is rarely writt ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Defining folk song

Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared by the entire community (and its performance not strictly limited to a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth. During the 20th and 21st century, the term folk music took on a second meaning: it describes a particular kind of popular music which is culturally descended from or otherwise influenced by traditional folk music. Like other popular musi ...

See also:

Folk music, Folk music - Overview, Folk music - Defining folk song, Folk music - Subjects of folk music, Folk music - Variation in folk music, Folk music - The decline of folk traditions in modern societies, Folk music - Stage I: Urban influence, Folk music - Stage II: Replacement of folk music by popular music, Folk music - Stage III: Loss of musical ability in the community, Folk music - Regional variation, Folk music - Fieldwork and scholarship on folk music, Folk music - Folk revivals, Folk music - The emergence of popular folk artists, Folk music - The blending of folk and popular genres, Folk music - Pastiche and parody, Folk music - Media

Read more here: » Folk music: Encyclopedia II - Folk music - Overview