Skip to main content Skip to Search Box

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…
3,383 results

Full text Article folk-song.

From The Oxford Companion to British History
The distinction between folk-song and ‘art music’ is a controversial one, but many writers agree with the main features identified by the international Folk Music Council in 1955: folk-song has evolved through the process of oral transmission, being shaped by ( a ) continuity which links the present…
| 648 words

Full text Article folk song

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk melody is produced by an individual and altered in transmission into a group-fashioned expression. National and…
| 457 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Miramichi Folk Song Festival

From Cultural Studies: Holidays Around the World
Miramichi, a timber port along the St. Lawrence River in Canada, also refers to a type of ballad or narrative song associated with Canadian lumber camps. Miramichi became the newest city in the province of New Brunswick when in 1995 the towns of Newcastle and Chatham, as well as several area…
| 181 words
Key concepts:

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…
| 5,565 words , 2 images
Key concepts:

Full text Article The Birth of the Folk-Song

From Bridgeman Images: The Bridgeman Art Library
The Birth of the Folk-Song
| 48 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article The Folk Song (oil on canvas)

From Bridgeman Images: The Bridgeman Art Library
The Folk Song (oil on canvas)
| 71 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article folk song

From The Macquarie Dictionary
| 38 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article folk song

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
| 42 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article folk song

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
| 19 words
Key concepts:
Lubok, folk song book illustration, Russia 19th century
| 43 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources