| Folk baroque | |
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| Other names |
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| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1960s |
| Typical instruments | |
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Folk baroque orbaroque guitar is a distinctive and influential guitarfingerstyle developed in Britain in the 1960s, which combined elements of American folk,blues,jazz andragtime withBritish folk music to produce a new and elaborate form of accompaniment. It has been highly important infolk music,folk rock andBritish folk rock playing, particularly in Britain, Ireland, North America and France.
Particularly notable in the folk baroque style was the adoption ofDADGAD tuning, which gave a form of suspended-fourth D chord, usefully neither major or minor, which could be employed as the basis for modal-based folk songs.[1] It is uncertain who first developed this tuning, as bothDavy Graham andMartin Carthy attributed it to each other, but it has been speculated that Graham may have acquired it from theoud while visiting north Africa.[1] This was combined with a fingerstyle based onTravis picking and a focus on melody, that made it suitable as an accompaniment.[1]Robin Denselow, who popularized the phrase "folk baroque", singled out Graham's recording of traditional English folk song "Seven Gypsies" onFolk, Blues and Beyond (1965) as the beginning of the style.[2]
Many of the English folk musicians who emerged in the early 1960s as part of theSecond British folk revival began their careers in the short-livedskiffle craze of the later 1950s and as a result were familiar with American blues, folk and jazz styles.[3] Initially they copied these styles, occasionally using open D and G tunings, but by the early 1960s a distinctive way of playing acoustic guitar began to emerge as performers likeDavy Graham andMartin Carthy attempted to apply these styles to the playing of traditional Englishmodal music. They were soon followed by artists such asBert Jansch andJohn Renbourn, who further defined the style.[4]
A landmark in this early period was the release, byTopic, of theEP3/4 A.D byAlexis Korner and Davy Graham in April 1962.[5] This includes the instrumental "Angi" which was to become Graham's best-known composition, as well as the title track "3/4 A.D.", named after its time signature and the initials of the two performers. This instrumental piece took its inspiration from jazz sources such asMiles Davis andCharles Mingus, but was in the form of an acoustic guitar duet by Korner and Graham—one of the earliest recordings of folk baroque. The sleeve notes by Korner struggled to classify the music but twice resort to the term "baroque".[6]
While Graham mixed this with a swathe of Indian, African, American, Celtic and modern and traditional American influences, Carthy in particular used the tuning in order to replicate the drone ofuilleann pipes,hurdy-gurdy or thefiddle found in British medieval and folk music, played by the thumb on the two lowest strings. The style was further developed by Jansch, who brought a more forceful style of picking and, indirectly, influences from jazz and ragtime, leading particularly to more complex basslines. Renbourn built on all these trends and was the artist whose repertoire was most influenced by Medieval and Renaissance music.
In the early 1970s, the next generation of British artists added new tunings and techniques, reflected in the work of artists likeNick Drake,Tim Buckley and particularlyJohn Martyn, whoseSolid Air (1972) set the bar for subsequent British acoustic guitarists.[7] Perhaps the most prominent exponent of recent years has beenMartin Simpson, whose complex mix of traditional English and American material, together with innovative arrangements and techniques like the use of guitar slides, represents a deliberate attempt to create a unique and personal style.[8]
As well as being a continuing influence in Britain, which created a network of underground folk clubs across the country, mostly in urban centres, the style had an impact elsewhere. Martin Carthy passed on his guitar style to French guitaristPierre Bensusan, who made it part of his own technique for playing French and Irish music.[1] Perhaps from here it was taken up by in Scotland byDick Gaughan, but particularly by Irish musicians likePaul Brady,Dónal Lunny andMick Moloney.[9] Carthy also influencedPaul Simon, particularly evident on "Scarborough Fair", which he taught to Simon,[10] and a recording of Graham's "Anji" that appears onSounds of Silence, and as a result was copied by many subsequent folk guitarists.[1] By the 1970s, Americans such asDuck Baker andEric Schoenberg were arranging solo guitar versions of Celtic dance tunes, slow airs, bagpipe music, and harp pieces byTurlough O'Carolan and earlier harper-composers. Renbourn and Jansch's complex sounds were also highly influential onMike Oldfield's early music.[11] The style also had an impact withinBritish folk rock, where, particularlyRichard Thompson used the DADGAD tuning, but with ahybrid picking style to produce a similar, but distinctive effect.[9]
