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American Folk Traditions
Folk music is the traditional music that grows out of the folk culture of a nation, region, or ethnic group. In the United States, this music includes ballads, lyric songs, lullabies, work songs, country dances, spirituals, traditional blues songs, and religious music derived from folk traditions. It also includes the folk music if different American ethnic groups: Appalachian and Ozark mountain music, Irish dance music, tejano dance music, Cajun and zydeco music, Jewish Klezmer music, and songs and dances from various nationalities all represented in the US. Folk music also includes rally and protest songs and political songs promoting ambitious candidates during elections. Country music and bluegrass grew directly out of the traditional songs and dance music of the rural South. Related to the traditional folk music is composed music that has been created in the style of folk music and has folk elements. These styles became part of commercial popular music during the folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Folk music has also been incorporated into much European and American classical music. In American society, the predominant folk music originally was the songs of Anglo-Americans—white New Englanders whose roots were in Britain. Later, it included the songs of African Americans—black people in the rural south whose roots were in Africa. The interweaving of European and African styles and influences is perhaps the single most important factor in the development of American music. Folk music is primarily a vocal genre, with melodies that are easily singable. Regular patterns, balance, repetition, and predictability are typical, as they are important aids to memory. The verse form with stanzas is most common, though there are verse-and-refrain form songs as well. A refrain, consisting of words that are repeated each time it is sung, follows every stanza. The verse carries the action forward; the refrain is often more emotional. The voice of a folk singer bears little resemblance to the voice of a formally trained singer. Folk singers tend to produce a more earthy, unsophisticated, sound, which is heavily influenced by their native speech patterns. Folk music is sometimes referred to as folk art which is distinguished from “art music,” for example the vocal works of Schubert and Wagner. Art music grows out of a cultivated tradition based largely on notated (written/printed) music. By contrast, folk music is informal, aesthetically and musically unsophisticated, and usually simple. It is preserved and handed down from generation to generation by learning the songs from memory, and each generation may introduce changes based on their life experiences. This method of transmitting works is called an oral tradition. Types of folk music: Narrative Ballads (Story Songs) Broadsides Lyric Songs -love songs, ceremonial songs, folk hymns, songs
about farming and rural life, songs about industrialization, songs about
freedom Work Songs -sea chanties, railroad songs, lumbermen’s songs Children’s Songs -lullabies, camp songs, game songs Rally and Protest Songs -songs encouraging social and political change Spirituals -Europeanized versions of religious folk songs of
southern blacks from the 19th century |