english folk 2013
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Folk Music
Traditional English Music in the 20th century - revivals
Suggested Readings ! Broughton S, Ellington, M and Trillo, R (eds.),
World Music, The Rough Guide, vol 1, Africa, Europe and the Middle East (London,1999)
! Cohen, Ronald, Folk Music, the Basics (London, 2006)
! Lifton, Sarah, The Listeners Guide to Folk Music (New York, 1983)
! Lomax, Alan, Folk Song Style and Culture (New Brunswick, 1994)
! Rob Young, Electric Eden, (2010) ! Garland Series on particular area
Questions
! What is it that constitutes folk music? ! Are there basic similarities across the
geographical areas? ! How and why is it performed? ! How are traditions changing? ! What is the future? ! Connections with popular music and art
music.
Folk?
! By and for the people - Fortune my Foe Vernacular traditions
! Not composed but organically generated through usage and changing over time
! Sense of place, identity and cultural belonging – national traditions
! Functional concerns – dancing, ballads, lullabies, etc - - Playford’s Dances
Ravenscroft and Playford 1652
Big Area of Study ! One of the main branches of ethnomusicology ! Of great interest in early part of 20th century – for
composers of art music – Bartok, Kodaly, Grainger, Grieg etc all collectors of folk music
! In Britain – part played by Cecil Sharp and the English folk song and dance society
! Influence of art music composers Vaughan Williams, Holst, Grainger, Butterworth, Moeran, etc - Berio - Black Black Black
And Now
! Seen by many as old fashioned, boring, stayed – its role increasingly subsumed by pop music and pop culture – kids know pop songs and no folk songs
! In period before and after war there was considerable emphasis on promoting folk song and dance in schools – radio programmes, recorders, singing together – largely gone
! Folk clubs and revival in 1950s and 60s Folk and Skiffle folks greatest moment.
Revivals ! There are many influences on ‘folk’ music
and there have been several ‘revivals’ ! 1. Big one in the 1900-30s based on
dance and song collecting. Strong connections with art music – work of Grainger, Holst, Butterworth, Peter Warlock and Vaughan Williams.
! 2. Period after the war of source singers and purists.
! 3. From 60s new generations with new approaches, new songs and connections with pop.
19th Century
! Folk music collectors – especially in Scotland and Ireland – Robert Burns, Johnson, William Stenhouse, John Glen.
! William Chappell’s ‘English Music of Olden Times.
! Expansion of industrial working class – largely ignored.
! Brass Bands and singing clubs
Copper family
Cecil Sharpe ! In 1899 Cecil Sharp by chance saw the
Headington Morris Men outside the Mason’s Arms in Headington Oxford.
! Started his interest in Folk Dance and then song.
! 1900-1930 age of folk collectors – Sharp, Carpales, Grainger, Kennedy.
! English Folk Song and Dance Society. ! Folk Dance into schools. Problems after
Sharp’s death. 1930s.
Headington Morris Today
English Folk and Folk Clubs
! Generation of 50s A. L. Lloyd, Ewan McColl, Peegy Seeger, etc
! Source Singers, Harry Cox, Copper family,
! Revival singers – Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, June Tabor - How Pleasant and Delightful - Ian Giles
A. L. Lloyd – All for me grog 1961
Instruments
! Violin ! Concertina ! Accordion ! Pipe and Tabor ! Piano ! (not the guitar – which was rare before the
mid 1950s and came from American)
1950s
! Influence of Alan Lomax, Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl. Work of Duncan and Peter Kennedy.
! Gritty industrial folk music. ! Only allowing performers to play music at
folk clubs which was ‘native ‘ to them. ! Political and engaged. ! Lead by McColl ! Folk Clubs throughout Engand.
Ewan McColl
Early Sixties
! New Younger Generation of folk artists from America.
! Often with radical political views and new songs
! Festivals in America had become quite big and it was more professionalised.
! Some on the edge of commercialism ! E.g. Peter Paul and Mary ! Case of Bob Dylan
Instrumentalists
! Instrumentalists of 60s and 70s– Jansch, Swarbrick, Renbourn, John Martyn (play excerpt)
! Electric Bands – Steeleye Span, Watersons, Albion Band, Fairport Convention etc.
! Explosion of interests in folk that was fused with early music, electric rock, even Jazz and African music.
Steeleye Span 1976
Where are they now
! Essentially they are still around and still record and perform – but as a minority genre within a much bigger pool.
! Many groups have become electrified ! Others have fused with musicians of other
traditions – some stayed ultra regionalist ! Folk Clubs still exist – but again have had
to make room for all sorts of other music clubs (rave, garage, blues. Etc)
! Many big festivals – like pop festivals – e.g. Glastonbury
New Generation
! In the last few years a new generation of artists have begun to create a new fusion of traditional music and newly composed music in a folk idiom.
! E.g. Catherine Tickell, ! Using amplified acoustic instruments they
address and attract a young audience. ! Often a younger generation of the Fairport
convention/Steelye Span groups.
Kathryn Tickell
Celtic Traditions ! British Isles – Scotland (Tweedside), Ireland and
Wales – all have their own regional traditions as do the English regions.
! Continent – French folk traditions based on concept of regionalism
! Britanny especially – but also south and massive central – importance of specific instruments, regional dialects and dance forms
! Irish - modelled on The Chieftains - Folk Road
Elsewhere
! Tenors of Sardinia, Lanedas of Sicily ! Difference between Northern and
Southern Europe ! However big pan European similarities in
dance forms, ballad styles, modal tunes and instrument types.