Folk Music

1
Folk Music

• Folk music is the traditional music that grows
  out of a region, nation, or ethnic group.
• In the U.S., the music includes ballads, lyric
  songs, lullabies, work songs, country dances,
  spirituals, blues, and religious music.

2
Folk Music

• Folk music is also that music valued by various
  American ethnic groups Ozark and Appalachian
  mountain music, Irish dance music, Jewish
  Klezmer, Tex-Mex music, American Indian music.
• Folk music also includes rally and protest songs
  for/against political causes.

3
Folk Music

• The music reflects the spirit and personality of
  the people who produce it.
• The music grows spontaneously out of the people
  who produce it.
• Conveys joys, sorrows, relationships, romances,
  and important events.

4
Origins

• In American mainstream society, the dominant folk
  music has been that which derived from the
  British-based white people (Anglo) of New England
  and the African-based black people in the rural
  south (Afro-Am).

5
Dispersion

• As British immigrants moved west and south, their
  songs mixed with the homesteaders, miners, and
  cowboys.
• Likewise, as the black slaves were freed and
  they and their descendants moved north, their
  songs and sounds began to influence the urban
  north.

6
Cross-Cultural Influences

• From the cross-cultural influences between Anglo
  and Afro society, new musical styles developed,
  combining traits from both cultures. The
  interweaving of European and African styles and
  influences may be the most important ingredient
  of American music.

7
Oral Tradition

• Folk music is considered informal, aesthetically
  and musically unsophisticated and simple.
• It is preserved and transmitted by means of
  memory instead of it being learned from printed
  music.
• Folk music comes from the oral tradition.

8
Types of Folk Music

• Narrative ballads - story songs. Songs usually
  have strophic music - same music for each
  stanza.
• Broadsides - composed by professional
  songwriters. Flourished in the 18th and 19th
  centuries.

9
Types of Songs (cont)

• Lyric Songs - Songs that are not narrative. The
  songs convey emotional content and mood in a more
  private context than in a ballad. Can be
  compared to lyric poetry.
• Work songs - provide the rhythm, pace, and the
  spirit needed to get hard, oppressive work
  completed.

10
Types of Songs

• Lullabies, camp songs, game songs. Usually
  short, simple, and functional. Easily remembered
  and often feature nonsense lyrics.
• Rally and protest songs Songs encouraging
  social and political change.

11
Woody Guthrie

• The best known Anglo-American folk singer of the
  20th century.

12
Woody Guthrie

• Born in Okemah, OK, July 14, 1912.
• Wrote thousands of songs, including This Land is
  Your Land.
• Traveled the US during the 1930s and 40s, often
  hitchhiking, or hopping freights, and performing
  his songs.

13
Woody Guthrie (2)

• Guthries songs and his performances often drew
  attention to social injustices and wrongdoings
  and were sometimes a rallying cry to action.
• Died October 3, 1967 at the age of 55 after a
  15-year bout with Huntingtons Disease.

14
Woody Guthrie (3)

• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
  1988.
• First inductee into the Oklahoma Music Hall of
  Fame.
• 2000 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

15
Fiddle Tunes

• Dance music - fiddle songs. The fiddle was the
  ubiquitous instrument of the 18th and 19th
  century American experience. It was small,
  inexpensive, and easy to play a few folk songs
  that everyone knew, especially for dances. The
  beginning of old time music.