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Definition: folk music from Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory: An Illustrated Dictionary

songs that derive from regions or nations, and have traits unique to the character of the people, often of a nationalistic tone. Folk music is usually based on legends and folk lore of the country. See also ballad; nationalism.

folk music

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Traditional music, especially from rural areas, which is passed on by listening and repeating, and is usually performed by amateurs. The term is used to distinguish it from the classical music of a country, and from urban popular or commercial music. Most folk music exists in the form of songs, or instrumental music to accompany folk dancing , and is usually melodic and rhythmic rather than harmonic in style. Each country has its own styles of folk music, based on distinctive scales and modes , and often played on instruments associated with that culture alone, such as the Scottish bagpipes , the Russian balalaika , or the Australian didjeridu . A number of composers of classical music have used folk music in their own pieces to give them a particular national character, and in the late 19th century the use of folk tunes was a prominent feature of nationalism in music. In the 20th century a number of people, such as the composers Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók (who recorded over 1,000…
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Full text Article folk music

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Four songs (text only) printed on the reverse of...
Music held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. Musical notation of folk songs and descriptions of folk music culture are occasionally…
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Full text Article folk music

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Traditional music, especially from rural areas, which is passed on by listening and repeating, and is usually performed by amateurs. The term is used to distinguish it from the classical music of a country, and from urban popular or commercial music. Most folk music exists in the form of songs, or…
| 1,383 words
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Full text Article folk music

From The New Penguin Dictionary of Music
19th-century term loaded with 19th-century values. Folk music is defined with reference to Western culture, as the alternative to classical music, as the province of untrained musicians and as an essentially national phenomenon. Though thus given inferior standing, folk music was always allowed a…
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Full text Article Folk music

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
A term denoting a number of different kinds of music, with significant differences in connotation in different parts of the world, in different social classes, and at different points in history. Most typically the term refers to music in the oral tradition, often in a relatively simple style, …
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Full text Article What is folk music?

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Background Each culture in the world has developed its own style of music, passed on from generation to generation. Folk music is a traditional form of music, often influenced by stories and fables, and is usually performed by amateurs. Full answer History and purpose There are literally hundreds of…
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Full text Article FOLK MUSIC AND SONG

From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
Torah binder depicting musicians. Germany, 1866....
There are two meanings of the concept “Jewish folk music” (throughout this entry “music” includes vocal and instrumental genres unless otherwise specified). One applies to the sphere of music-making in Jewish communities that was defined as “folk” by Western scholarship after the second half of the…
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Full text Article AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC (WOMEN IN)

From The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World
As in other genres of music, women have been active in folk music as performers and composers throughout history, although until the 20th century they got little credit for their efforts. This lack of credit has much to do with the ways that folk music is created and performed as well as the…
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Full text Article Kaustinen Folk Music Festival

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
Scandinavia's largest international festival of folk music and dance, Finland's Kaustinen Folk Music Festival was founded in 1968 to preserve Finnish folk music, dance, and art. Only Finnish amateur groups participated in the beginning, but in recent years the festival has included performances by…
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Moses Asch originally co-founded Folkways Records in 1948 in an ambitious attempt to record and document “the entire world of sound.” At the time, this meant everything from music of all sorts to poetry and historical recordings. His tiny staff recorded over 2,000 albums in 38 years, capturing some…
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Full text Article folk music

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
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