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Annabelle Brault
Music Therapy Students, University of Windsor
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.
Contact: braulta@uwindsor.ca
Download: Article (pdf)
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.
The way folk songs 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 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 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 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 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).
References
Folk Music. (n.d.). The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 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.
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