Folk Music: Definitions and Background

University of Windsor
[email protected]
Annabelle Brault is a second year music therapy student at the University of Windsor.
Born and raised in Quebec, she attended high school and Cégep in French educational
institutions where multicultural and community involvement were predominant.
Accordingly, she participated in a cultural immersion program in West Africa for a three
month period, which was part of the social sciences program of the Cégep Marie-
Victorin. At the completion of her DEC, Annabelle returned to West Africa and
conducted her own humanitarian project in a center for disabled children. Her work as a
French monitor and promotion agent of bilingual Canadian culture in a small community
in the Canadian Northwest Territories motivated her to begin training in music therapy.
Definition and Categorization of Folk Music
In his work A folk song history of America, Forcucci (1984) describes folk songs
as “the songs of the people” (p.16). Those songs are creations of one or more individuals,
and the creative process can be collective, individual, or a mixture of both. It is the use
of human expression in order to describe one’s way of life (Forcucci, 1984). Because the
purpose of folk song is to describe human experiences, it is not surprising that a variety
of folk songs exist. Perhaps there is no consensus on how folk songs should be
categorized among cultures, but below are some examples of different types of folk songs
including: work songs, love songs, drinking songs, cradle songs, play songs, and songs of
mourning, etcetera. Respectively, Poston and Arma (1972) in The Faber book of French
folk songs organized the folk repertoire according to the categories shown in the
following table:
Songs of Marriage
Children’s song
Action songs (such as Nous n’irons plus au bois)
Work songs
Sailors songs
Christmas songs
Drinking songs
Funny songs.
The way folksongs are created or categorized varies, but the way they are
transmitted is almost always the same: it is “passed on from person to person, group to
group, generation to generation” (Forcucci, 1984, p.16). How folksongs are transmitted
directly impacts the songs themselves: Because folk songs are orally transmitted, they are
easy to modify and to adapt to one’s personal taste and/or to a particular situation.
Moreover, when the songs are sung, some words or part of the tune can be misheard or
forgotten. Therefore, folksongs are not fixed in time; they evolve and change through the
transmission. In the same way, folksongs “are ordinarily the product of an unknown
person or group of persons” (Forcucci, 1984, p.18). Together, folksongs are a way in
which people recount their everyday experiences and worries through their most intimate
instrument; their own voice.
Folk Music vs. Modern Music
Above was a short simple definition of what folksongs are, but defining folk
music is more complex than that. In fact, people still use music as a way to express
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themselves so why is their music not considered folk music? In order to understand this
the section below will explore the differences between modern music and folk music.
Purpose of the Compositions
Folksongs are very personal and are particular to a region or to a people. In fact,
folksongs might include specific speech patterns or expressions that are specific to a
language or even a dialect; for example, the Jouale in Quebec or the Chiac in New
Brunswick are dialect proper to those geographical ensembles (Forcucci, 1984).
Moreover, the lyrics of a song might recount a historical event, or a distinct way of life
(Forcucci, 1984). For instance, there is a whole part of the Canadian folk music repertoire
about the coureur des bois (fur traders). This is a very important part of Canadian history
that a person from another part of the world might not be aware of. Consequently, it is
sometimes difficult to a foreign person to relate to the folk music of another country or
nation: as he/she might not have the emotional attachment or the historical knowledge
that is carried in the lyrics of the song. Therefore, folk songs are intimately related to the
place where they were composed, which differs significantly to modern music which a
larger majority of persons can relate.
The Folk Singer: The Spontaneous Creator vs. the Skilled Composer
One of the most important differences between modern music and folk music is
how the songs are composed. Folksongs are the product of the everyday person: any
creative person could have been the creator of the folk songs we still sing today. The
greatest quality of folk composers is their ability to capture an anecdote and match it with
a simple melody that can be sung by everyone (Forcucci, 1984). Similarly, folksongs are
simple in structure and meaning; they touch subjects that are closely related to everyday
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life. In contrast, modern composers are often very skilled musicians; this elite group of
people masters the complex language of music and its technologies, and they can share
universal and abstract ideas through their music (Forcucci, 1984). Moreover, albums are
the result of thousands of hours of work. Another difference lies in the performance of
the two types of music (Forcucci, 1984). Folksongs are mostly improvised or modified
while performing, while modern music is generally rehearsed before being performed in
public. Perhaps we can think of jazz music in which improvisation is common; again, the
musicians alone or together rehearse the improvisations prior to performance, even
though the improvisation is different every time performed. Put differently, folk music is
a realistic recounting of everyday live experience with the use of simple melodies, as
modern music can express ideas through planned musical arrangements. Folk music is
spontaneous, and not musically notated beforehand, in opposition to modern music that is
usually notated before being performed.
Choice of Accompaniment
Another major difference between modern music and folk music is the kind of
accompaniment used. As mentioned earlier, folksongs are simple in their structure and
matter (Forcucci, 1984). Therefore, it is not surprising that they are also simple in their
choice of accompanying instruments. For instance, folk singers generally accompany
themselves with less formal instruments, such as the guitar, the banjo, the accordion, the
piano, or the violin and further, most folksongs were accompanied by very few or no
instruments (“Folk Music”, 2012). This differs substantially from modern music in which
the use of larger musical ensembles is extremely common. Larger ensembles enable a
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composer to create more complex harmonies, and it also gives the composer the
possibility to create more elaborate textures.
Technology and its Influence on Transmission
How music is transmitted has undergone a major change in the past decade; in
fact, the development of online services transformed forever the musical industry. Online
music download organisations, such as ITunes, are now a crucial part of the music selling
market. This is at the complete opposite of the way folk songs used to be transmitted.
Indeed, folksongs were transmitted my human contact, and more often during communal
gatherings (Forcucci, 1984, p.16). It is interesting how the transmission of music
depended for the longest time on social interactions, and how now, even the simplest
social interaction such as going to the music store is no longer necessary. And yet, music
from all around the world has never been so accessible.
Performance Settings and Interpretation
Lastly, the interpretation and similarly the performance settings of folk music
contrast with those of modern music. The proximity in which folksongs were shared with
the audience differs from the mega stadiums in which the most famous modern musicians
perform. Even though more intimate settings still exist today, such as “open mic nights”
or fire camp singing, the performing scene is more organized, and that implies a greater
distance between the listener and the artist. This has an impact on the singer’s
interpretation: it is easier to express sadness to a person sitting next to you, than to the
person sitting in the very last row on a 50 000 people stadium. Therefore, the intimate
performance setting of folksongs differentiate them from modern music, because it
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impacts the interpretation of the performer, and enhance the intimacy between the listener
and the artist. Below is a table containing the main generalizations about folk songs
established by Mr. Forcucci (1984) in his book A folk song history of America (p.18).
What are folk songs: Generalizations
1. Folk songs represent the musical expressions of the common people
2. These songs are not composed in that they are not the works of skilled, tutored
musicians. It is more accurate to say that they have been created rather than composed.
3. There songs are ordinarily the product of an unknown person or group of persons.
4. The words or lyrics of folk songs are usually colloquial in nature to reflect the speech
pattern and expressions of a particular people or region.
5. These songs are highly “singable”, primarily because they were first presented with the
singing voice rather than having been written down in musical notation beforehand.
6. Folk songs are simply structured, both musically and verbally. It is their naiveté that
gives them their charm.
7. These songs can be effectively performed without instrumental accompaniment. When
they are accompanied, a less formal instrument (such as the guitar, banjo, accordion,
dulcimer, or Autoharp) is considered appropriate.
8. Folk songs are indigenous to a particular region or people because they reflect the
musical/verbal preferences of that people in their materials.
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References
Folk Music. (n.d.). The Canadian Encyclopedia, Retrieved February 19, 2012, from
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/folk-music
Forcucci, S. L. (1984). A folk song history of America: America through its songs.
Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Poston, E. & Arma, P. (1972). The Faber book of French folk songs. London, UK: Faber
and Faber limited.