AN APPRAISAL OF FOLK MUSIC

By  Mel Davison

We will here look at the origins of ‘folk music’, its development and appreciation over the years, and examine the concept of ‘folk music’ as it is today.

The epithet “Try anything once except folk dancing and incest” has been variously attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Arnold Bax, George S. Kaufman, Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Doctor Samuel Johnson and Bernard Shaw. Even ‘page three girl’ Linzi Drew cites such sentiments in her biography Incest and Morris Dancing. 

It doesn’t really matter who said it (or even if anyone really said it) as it is the implied message (that all things ‘folk’ are in some way inferior) which typifies the nature of those luminaries to whom it is attributed. The time worn argument between ‘Folk Music’ and ‘Art Music’ still continues today. 

These two categories are often mentioned in such a way as to imply that the one is low’ and the other is ‘high’. Such judgementsare a fiction, created by a sniffy bourgeoisie who demeaningly regard ‘folk music’ as a creation of ‘the people’. These attitudes are engendered by coteries who masquerade as pundits or arbiters of taste, cultivating a specious viewpoint which is misleading.

The idea that ‘high' and ‘low’ have existed for centuries is also spurious, and can more realistically be traced back to the eighteenth century through the rise of the so‑called Middle Class and the emergence of copyright laws, at which point ‘Folk music’ and ‘Art music’ became more delineated. 

There is a tendency for people who discuss the relative values of ‘Art Music’ and ‘Folk Music’ to assume that the former is essentially superior to the latter, and to attach an aura of respectability to it by loosely referring to it as ‘Classical Music’. This is a misnomer. 

What they fail to realise is that cultivated musicians, from Hildegard (1098 - 1179) to Peter Maxwell-Davies (1934 - 2016), have always mined their ethnic roots and their oral traditions as a stimulus to aid their own creative processes. Indeed, in mediaeval music it is often difficult to decide whether the melodies have sacred origins or secular origins, such is the similarity of their form and structure. 

Just a casual review of the history of music (and in particular Western Music) reveals how musicians have incorporated material from a wide range of folk idioms. Henry Purcell used domestic (and sometimes bawdy) songs, and accompanied the vocal lines with lower class Flageolets, Rebecs, Gemshorns and Hautboys. Johann Sebastian Bach incorporated German religious folk songs and military march tunes into his Chorales, and French dance idioms into his instrumental and orchestral suites. Joseph Haydn and Beethoven made arrangements of Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk songs. 

Nineteenth century Nationalism was a reaction against the dominance of the mainstream classical tradition. Composers began placing a greater emphasis on the use of folk songs, folk dances and rhythms, as well as the use of nationalistic myths, legends, epics and fables ... such as Weber’s Der Freischütz, and in particular, Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen - which was entirely dependent on the Norse Sagas as its inspiration. 

Frédéric Chopin used Polish folk rhythms in his mazurkas and polonaises, while Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák frequently employed folk elements from their native Moravia and Bohemia. Interestingly, their later compatriot, Bohuslav Martinů, extensively used nursery rhymes, reminding us that these are an important (though sadly neglected) part of our oral history. 

At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century the perception of Folk Music underwent a reappraisal in an attempt to establish its fons et origo [source and origin]. Definitions were promulgated, fueled by nationalistic tendencies and a need for a pastoral romanticism, in an effort to create a common understanding. “Old songs with no known composers”; “music as a part of an oral evolution”; “music of the country as distinct from the town” were some of the classifications drawn up by the intellectual elite and an antiquarian movement called the ‘The First Folk Song Revival’. 

Moreover, this awakening was not unique to Britain as it was manifesting itself widely, particularly in Europe and the New World. Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams notated and recorded hundreds of English songs, while in Scotland James Scott Skinner created the Harp and Claymore Collection, and Allan MacDonald collected Gaelic versions of Pre-Reformation hymns. 

Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály cast their Ethno-musicological net extensively, archiving material from Austria, Moravia, Romania, and Slovakia, highlighting the idiomatic distinctiveness of these regions through their use of isometric structures and Tempo guisto [strict time]. Musicologists attempted to make connections between European Folk Music (‘Traditional Music’) and American Folk Music (‘Roots Music’) even though there were remnants of British Songs emerging in the latter from its early days. 

Aaron Copland, Amy Beach, Charles Ives and George Gershwin incorporated a variety of styles into their compositions, drawing on Bluegrass, Gospel, Cajun and Blues idioms, many having a profound universal influence. Indeed, during the past one hundred years, Folk Music has provided boundless nourishment to composers of all persuasions by providing the essence and inspiration of the creative process. 

It is arguable that, during the course of the 20th and 21st Centuries (because of improved global communication and greater commercialisation) Folk Music has drifted away from its distinctive ethnic origins to become a distilled and rather hybrid form. In addition there could be a prospect of Folk Music being perceived as only ‘vocal’, rather than cherishing holistically the traditional earthy, quotidian [daily occurring], urban, rural, instrumental, and terpsichorean constituents.

Perhaps John Clare (1793 - 1864), who knew more than most about the value of the folk tradition, should have the last word: “The ballad in the ploughman’s pocket wears a greater fame than poets ever knew” [sic] (‘thus was it written’).

MEL DAVISON - local lad (a brief summary)

1940 Born Consett, County Durham, but feeling more a native of Ebchester

1956 Student apprentice Electrical Engineer at Consett Iron Company

1961 Control Engineer in a local power station

1965 Newcastle University (Music in Education)

1968 Head of Music in a variety of schools in Gateshead

1971 Director of Music at the Jersey College for Girls

1978 Music Adviser to the States of Jersey Education Committee

1990 Adviser for Creative and Expressive Arts to the Jersey Education Committee

1990 Also involved in the development of the Channel Islands School Inspection System (called Validated School Self Evaluation - slightly different to Ofsted format)

1998-2008 Consultant and Inspector to the Jersey Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture

Now retired - still living in Jersey, but with a strong continuing interest in his native North East and its music