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Folk music ismusic that represents the tradition or culture of the area, place or state. It istraditional music that people learn by listening to other people playing it and then copying them. We say that the tradition is "orally transmitted" or "handed down orally", meaning that the music is not written down but taught by speaking ("oral" means "belonging to the mouth"). Every country has its own traditional music.Folk song is part of folk music. Afolksinger is a person who sings folk songs.
There are three categories of Folk Music:
Folk singing
Folk dance
Folk instruments
In the1960s a new type of music was started byBob Dylan who mixed traditional folk song withrock and roll. This music is sometimes called "folk rock".
Folk music is music for everybody to play and listen to. In this way it is different fromclassical music which is mainly developed byprofessional musicians for a smaller group of people. Folk music is part of a popularculture, although the term "popular music" or "pop music" today refers to a kind of music which people can hear throughtelevision,radio and other means of recording.
In many parts of the world nearly all music is folk music. The term "folk music" is usually used for European and American music which is part of an oral tradition. Folk music as an oral tradition, is much less important than before, in part because of newtechnology (radio, televisionetc, andrecordings of music). Folk tunes are now often written down, and they haveinfluenced other kinds of music, so that the differences between various types of music are harder to see.
A folklore group fromLithuania singing and dancing
In older times folk music was part of "communal recreation". This means that small communities such asvillages orfamilies would relax by playing and singing music together. People would often make up a new song or new piece of music, or make changes to music that they already knew. In this way music was always changing. People would get musical ideas from other groups nearby. This is why folk music from neighbouringcountries often sound similar.
Ballads were a popular kind of folk music. These were folk songs which told a story (they were "narrative"). Sometimes they had a refrain after each verse so that everybody could join in. Ballads told stories of love,myths or folklore. This is how stories were handed down from onegeneration to another.
Instrumental folk music was used fordancing. Some of the instruments may have been very simple, such as a pair of sticks,rattle or a simpledrum. Other instruments may include fiddle (the folk word for "violin"),bagpipes,harp,zither, or variouswind instruments, depending on the time of history and the country.
Some singing waspolyphonic, i.e. there were two or more parts (voices). Very often two voices would sing in parallel (going up and down together). In countries such asRussia persons sings in three or four parts, e.g. in the tradition of "podgolosnaya" ("underneath the voice"). In countries, such asBritain, this polyphonic tradition did not exist. Folk songs there were sung by one singer, unaccompanied.
Folk music used differentscales. These are calledmodes. The Ionian mode (major scale) was the most common in Western Europe. In some parts of Eastern Europe modes with severalsemitones were used, but for the most part, half steps were avoided. This results is the tunes being described as tetratonic (four notes per octave) or pentatonic (five notes per octave).
Folk music also includes simple children's songs andlullabies.
Folk music was sung by people as they worked. In the early days of European immigration inAmerica thepioneers sang as they travelled,cowboys sang as they worked,slaves sang in thecottonfields.
In the18th century folk music started to have an influence on classical music (or "art music"). People from the higher classes started to be interested in folk music because they were conscious of being part of a tradition. Composers such asMozart andSchubert wrote folk dances fororchestras or small groups of instruments.
Folk music was used by many composers in theRomantic period.Gustav Mahler used folk song in a lot of his music. In the early twentieth century some composers travelled around collecting folk music which was being played or sung by people in the country. They often used some of these ideas in their music.Bartok did this inHungary as well as inBulgaria and in theUnited States, and people such asCecil Sharp and the composerRalph Vaughan Williams collected folk music inEngland. In the United States the influence ofjazz on classical music is all part of the story of folk music.
