Music of world culture - Term Paper Example

Sheryl Harrison Music of World Culture 11-30-12 Music of world culture (folk music) Introduction From time in memorial, cultureis known to be passed to the next generation through oral music which folk music takes from. Folk music is a traditional music that was practiced and passed on to the next generation. Music has the message that each writer expresses to other people. Folk songs therefore, contained the stories of a community and the experiences of the common people. Folk song were sung within a family set up and among mothers to their daughters, fathers to their sons, husbands to their wives and wives to their husbands. Moreover, they were sung by neighbors and the communities, when there were major events (Dzuris 331). In explaining folk music, I have not found an accepted definition, but this does not mean that it does not have a definition, but it ranges with the understanding of the subject. Folk music can be described as the music for and of the people, a nation, a community, or a subculture that carries messages with specific meaning regarding the people’s life and experiences (Dunaway and Beer 7-10). Music in the Western World In reference to the North America, folk music has been there before the arrival of the immigrant from Europe and later from Africa. The European immigrant brought with them ballads and other acoustic instruments. Folk music has been practiced for centuries, was, and is still referred to as the music of the masses. In the 17th century, most of the people in Europe were peasants, and folk songs transferred stories of event through oral narration. By this time, folk music was rarely performed musically. There composition was of simple form and represented the identity of the poorer in the communities (Dunaway and Beer 7- 17). In the period when Christianity movement started in Europe, folk music was at the centre stage of the expansion of the religion. It was highly associated with heathenism due its singing styles. Thereafter, folk music became more popular in society in sensitizing the masses in the start of the romantic period. People like Haydn, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky identified themselves with folk music. During this time, there were no cities and people lived in villages and urban communities. And with these settings, folk songs were recognized as a treasure and people identified themselves with the different styles of folk music. Each political beliefs, ethnicity, race, and religion had identified itself with specific style of folk song. Therefore, folk music played an important role in passing on the culture and the history of a particular community or country from one generation another. By the end of 19th century, folk songs had become unpopular in Western Europe and later in Eastern Europe and North America, during this time only the older individuals knew and sung folk songs. Still in the century, cities were established and people were moving from the rural areas to urban cities and this resulted to diminishing of the folk traditional music. Nevertheless, urban folklorists stimulated by a person known as Thomas Percy a British, Johann Gottfried, a German and an American by the name Francis James collected and later published volumes where they emphases on the different age of the folk songs and their meaning in the society. However, there work did not save the diminishing trend of folk songs and the music had little attention by this time. In 1899, Cecil Sharp an English scholar toured various communities in Britain collecting folk songs. He later established a society to preserve the songs, dances and other traditions of communities at that time (Dunaway and Beer 17-23). In the late 19th century, the documentation of folk songs started and more of the songs were recorded on a wax cylinder, and folk songs and other traditions were consolidated and shared far and wide as opposed to being confined within the borders of a community. Later in the same period, some new tradition begun to emerge in the urban districts where the residences were occupied by the working class. These people composed songs known as ballads that focused on the current events at the time such as accidents, crime, and other trends. The songs were composed using tunesmiths and urban poets that were anonymously to the young generation. Moreover, these ballads passed into folk music due to their similarities in oral tradition. The songs were played in villages and also in urban coffeehouses and restaurants. During times of nationalism, the topical folk music would become repertories as different organizations especially the military students (e.g., Germany) and in other countries soldier find the songs most useful in their quest for power (Dunaway and Beer 19- 24). In the 20th century, the spread and popularity of folk song depended mostly on the composers of the songs. In American, Woody Guthrie steered the spread of the folk songs. Guthrie, born in Oklahoma in the early 20th century learned to play folk songs as a small boy when the immigrant workers were moving to California. His songs focused on the ‘dark times’ of the Great Depression. During this time, Guthrie began writing protest songs and mainly songs with political themes and which were aimed at inciting the masses for their freedom. The songs were written with a sense of impacting a feeling of rebellion against the authority. In this time, Woody Guthrie was considered as a leftist due to his liberal ideas; folk music was known to voice the ideas of the common people in the community (Dunaway and Beer 29-30). Another famous folk song artist is Pete Seeger who was raised in Greenwich, New York. Pete is known for environmental activism. In the 1950’s, he was writing anti-war song in opposition to the nuclear proliferation. During this time folk music aimed at speaking against injustices that people were witnessing in the world. At this time, the power of the music became well known and with less effort, it gained the support of younger generation who found folk song instilling hope and informing them to rebel against any injustices that befell them (Dunaway and Beer 29-39). In 1960’s another young musician Bob Dylan started writing the genre of Woody Guthrie. In 1962, Bob released his album ‘the Freewheeling’ and among the album, these two song became so important at the time, ‘Blowing in the wind’ and ‘the hard rain’s gonna fall’. Bob Dylan folk songs were so effective in advocating for the injustices of the black Americans. It is through his songs that he steered the 1960s protest movement. During this time, folk songs have become so popular and almost all the people identified with them. The messages that folksingers spread across, got to their audiences and were given much attention (Dunaway and Beer 29-35). In the late 60s, there was too much event that was taking place. It is during this time, that the American was involving in the Vietnam War which has a negative effect to the American economy and that all brought too much social turmoil. Folk songs during this period took centre stage in negating the many issues in the world. The youth was prompted to take action through marches, activism, and protests. It is through folk song that people helped shape the way issues were supposed to be and also put the young generation in position to voice their opinion in governance. The followers of folk songs followed a subculture where their physical appearance displayed an image of an educated urban folk. In this period, folk has become a culture, a way of life to majority in America (Dunaway and Beer 137-150). Folk songs became accepted to part of the society and in order to market it to other parts in the country it was transformed to a hybrid of different genre’s so as to make it wide spread and attract a large audience. Among the genre that originated from folk music are rap music and bluegrass an amalgamation of jazz, blues, and American old music. Among the known genre of music, folk music stands as one of the resilient genre. It has helped in passing on information from one generation to another, it has spread out and is among the best selling music in the world. In recent history several genres of music has perished, as they do not evolve with times. But folk music has evolved and every person indentifies with a specific heritage. Folk music thus reminds people of their past and generation that have gone before us. In folk music people feelings are relayed and this help in shaping and influencing the feelings of the people in a country. African-American history In Africa-American story, we learn much of their history, the struggle, human rights, empowerment, and perseverance through folk music. The most famous song of perseverance came from the slave fields by the African-American slave. The song used to signor calls and complains they whispered to each other in the slave fields. The calls of the slave would later be translated into criers and later into music. At this time of slave labor, folk songs came not only from the oppressed but also from religion and religious ceremonies. Religious folk music addressed the plight of the people in the community. Hence, it is worth to note that folk music helped advocate the challenges of the immigrant in America by voicing their concerns, and by encouraging each other to persevere for better days to come (Roy 33). After the civil war and with the declaration of Emancipation Proclamation, slaves were freed from the North, some left while others remained in the Northern cities of Detroit and Chicago. It is those that were left that carried on the spirit of folk music, of endurance, overcoming, and hope of a better America where everybody would be treated equally (Roy 101). The folk music also tells of the plight of workers in the late 1800s, with the emergence of a hybrid of Blues music. It is through the Blues that they communicated of their life working along the railroad, in the kitchens, and in the wares inside the cities. This time they were singing about the freedom from slavery and the attachment to the work. Folk music has been accepted as a rich source of history. Historian has accepted the genre as a legitimate source which has been ignored in the academic sector. In folk music, historian and other scholars has interest studying the “folk culture” as a sub-culture in a community where a group of people associate with a specific way of life. In her study of blues in the African American, Marybeth, recognizes folk music and blues as a folk culture that articulate the voices of the people (Hamilton 18). According to Maxeiner, folk music is a useful tool in teaching history. He says that it makes history more accessible and as he says, in order to capture the mood of the time he uses folk songs to illustrate the aspects of historical events. Moreover, folk music is a good motivator that teachers use to illustrate the aspects of historical event and to trace the sub culture and other popular culture. Therefore, using folk music is important because it is a primary source (1). In the middle of 20th century, folk music was an integral part of the labor movement. People at this time in Northern America were against child labor and long working hours. The infamous labor movement, as was referred at the time composed songs together with folk song writers like Joe Hill to advance on their activism. The labor union which also was literally referred as the ‘singing union’ enabled for the enactment of the child labor law and a working hours law of eight hours in a day. During this time, workers, folksingers, and folk writers assembled in union’s hall, churches and in living rooms to learn songs that give them hope out of their tough working environment (Roy 235). According to Roy, music and more so the folk music is celebrated as catalysts of social movement that has elevated the people’s conditions by uplifting their spirits and despising subordination. One of the issues that helped escalate discrimination and subordination is the race issue. It has been one of the pervasive forms of social strata and domination in the modern America. Folk music and social movement played a big role in addressing the issues and bringing it into the forefront of the people, the evil of discrimination. In this way music and social movement improves the way of life people live in (1). Folk music is also known to bridge the racial barrier as both the white and the black American associated themselves with the subculture of folk music. Roy says that both the civil right movement and the communist movement used folk music to break the racial boundary. However, folk music played little effect in the communist movement but people attached too much to the meaning of folk songs than the relationship which embedded the folk culture. Therefore, folk music is social and helps people interact with the environment that they live in (2). One of the notable important that folk music has played in the twentieth century is in culture and politics. While in Europe folk music is characterized by nationalist views and sentiment, North American folk songs are characterized by leftist ideas that carry messages of liberation, freedom, and praise of their way of life. Folk music, according to Roy reflects the democratic and egalitarian beliefs and a people culture that is free from domination (Roy 3). Conclusion Folk music has established a niche in the world as the music of the people. It defines the identity of the people and defines their destiny and aspiration. Folk music has been there since the middle age era to the twentieth century and has a rich history of the folk subculture. However, folk music had triumphs and challenges in its growth. During the middle age, renaissance, and baroque age, it was confined in the village but it gained popularity later in the classical and romantic era. References Dunaway David and Beer Molly. “Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk music Revival.”New York. Oxford University. (2010) 1-189. Print Dzuris, Linda. “Using Folk Songs and Ballads in an Interdisciplinary Approach to American History”, History Teacher 36(3) 2003. Hamilton, Marybeth. “The Blues, the Folk, and African American History”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 11, 2001. Maxeiner, Andrea. “Sing America. Using folk songs to teach American History”, Common Place 5(4) 2004. Roy G. William. “Reds, White, Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States.” New Jersey. Princeton University Press. (2010) 1-79. Print Read More