88-658: Shrewsbury Folk Festival is an annual festival of folk and world music and traditional dance held in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire , England . It takes place over four days on and around the UK Late Summer bank holiday weekend (usually the last weekend in August). The first Shrewsbury festival was held in 2006, but it was a direct successor to the Bridgnorth Folk Festival, which
176-569: A Scottish folk band, founded in 1984 by Donald Shaw and led by Karen Matheson , and which performs traditional Gaelic and contemporary songs in English. The group adapts traditional Gaelic music and traditional lyrics with modern production techniques and instruments such as electric guitar and bass guitar, though rarely synthesizers or drum machines. Capercaillie demonstrate "astonishing musical dexterity" and feature "the peerless voice of co-founder Karen Matheson. Universally recognised as one of
264-482: A chuigushou . Ensembles consisting of mouth organs ( sheng ), shawms ( suona ), flutes ( dizi ) and percussion instruments (especially yunluo gongs ) are popular in northern villages; their music is descended from the imperial temple music of Beijing, Xi'an , Wutai shan and Tianjin . Xi'an drum music, consisting of wind and percussive instruments, is popular around Xi'an, and has received some commercial popularity outside of China. Another important instrument
352-430: A melody , often with repeating sections , and usually played a number of times. A collection of tunes with structural similarities is known as a tune-family . America's Musical Landscape says "the most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary form ." In some traditions, tunes may be strung together in medleys or " sets ." Throughout most of human history, listening to recorded music
440-619: A pipa , as well as other traditional instruments. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with love-stricken people. Further south, in Shantou , Hakka and Chaozhou , zheng ensembles are popular. Sizhu ensembles use flutes and bowed or plucked string instruments to make harmonious and melodious music that has become popular in the West among some listeners. These are popular in Nanjing and Hangzhou , as well as elsewhere along
528-512: A "Traditional music" category that subsequently evolved into others. The term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover singer-songwriters, such as Donovan from Scotland and American Bob Dylan , who emerged in the 1960s and much more. This completed a process to where "folk music" no longer meant only traditional folk music. Traditional folk music often includes sung words , although folk instrumental music occurs commonly in dance music traditions. Narrative verse looms large in
616-401: A class dynamic to popular understandings of American folk music. This was the final element of the foundation upon which the early folk music revivalists constructed their own view of Americanism. Sandburg's working-class Americans joined with the ethnically , racially , and regionally diverse citizens that other scholars, public intellectuals, and folklorists celebrated their own definitions of
704-419: A cultural dichotomy , the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'". One widely used definition is simply "Folk music is what the people sing." For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók , there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of
792-587: A great body of English rural traditional song, music and dance, under the aegis of what became and remains the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Sharp campaigned with some success to have English traditional songs (in his own heavily edited and expurgated versions) to be taught to school children in hopes of reviving and prolonging the popularity of those songs. Throughout the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, American scholar Bertrand Harris Bronson published an exhaustive four-volume collection of
880-399: A lower class" in culturally and socially stratified societies. In these terms, folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'." Music in this genre is also often called traditional music. Although the term is usually only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre. For example,
968-440: A more traditional arrangement. However beginning with later albums such as Sidewaulk , and the soundtrack of The Blood Is Strong , Capercaillie began to experiment with adding funk bass-lines into certain tracks, as well as synthesisers and electric guitar. This fusion style gained Capercaillie chart success in the 1990s, on albums such as Delirium and Secret People (see Chart Success , below) and reached its peak in
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#17327840113811056-976: A native Scottish bird. Their first album, Cascade , was recorded in 1984. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band gave their last performance on 17 August 2019 at the Festival des Filets Bleus in Concarneau , Brittany , France . They performed live for the first time in two years on 6 August 2021 at the Wickham Festival in Hampshire . After a further nine months off the road the band resumed touring, and between April and August 2022 performed in France, including Paris , Condette , Pas-de-Calais , Hauts-de-France , Lorient in Brittany , and on
1144-404: A particular interest in folklore. Carl Sandburg often traveled the U.S. as a writer and a poet. He also collected songs in his travels and, in 1927, published them in the book The American Songbag . Rachel Donaldson, a historian who worked for Vanderbilt, later stated this about The American Songbird in her analysis of the folk music revival. "In his collections of folk songs, Sandburg added
1232-401: A people's folklore , or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles . The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached
1320-573: A performance at the Theatre Severn where the whole school community is invited to a free show with the 30 children performing on stage with the band. The 30 children and their families are then invited to the festival in August, where the show is performed on the second stage. Since 2007 the number of musicians involved in the schools' project is 422. Folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and
1408-695: A possible better system, through the lens of the Great Depression. Woody Guthrie exemplifies songwriters and artists with such an outlook. Folk music festivals proliferated during the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt was a fan of folk music, hosted folk concerts at the White House , and often patronized folk festivals. One prominent festival was Sarah Gertrude Knott 's National Folk Festival , established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934. Under
1496-621: A reference to beautiful women, while in the past they were notorious for their erotic content. The village "mountain songs" ( shan'ge ) of Jiangsu province were also well known for their amorous themes. Other regional song traditions include the "strummed lyrics" ( tanci ) of the Lower Yangtze Delta, the Cantonese Wooden Fish tradition ( muyu or muk-yu ) and the Drum Songs ( guci ) of north China. In
1584-553: A revolutionary tool to preserve vanishing musical forms. The earliest American folk music scholars were with the American Folklore Society (AFS), which emerged in the late 1800s. Their studies expanded to include Native American music , but still treated folk music as a historical item preserved in isolated societies as well. In North America, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Library of Congress worked through
1672-487: A slight fusion feel. The opening track from their 2000 album Nàdurra , "Skye Waulking Song", was used in the Edexcel Music GCSE Specification from 2009 to 2016. The song was in the world music section, and was used as a representation of traditional folk music combined with rock music . Their 1992 EP , A Prince Among Islands , was the first Scottish Gaelic -language record to have
1760-527: A special performance at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury and produced by Hanna, was released in August 2009. The Project was also featured in performance by all eight original artists at that year's Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Traditional dance is an important element of the festival and numerous Morris dance sides and other traditional dance teams perform on the Village stage, around the festival site and in
1848-722: A special performance playing Show Of Hands` Wake The Union album featuring Lenny Podolak, Matt Gordan, Rex Preston & Miranda Sykes and Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin. 2015 : The 2015 festival included Kate Rusby, Oysterband, La Bottine Souriante and Sharon Shannon among others. 2016 : The 2016 festival included Tom Robinson Band, The Levellers, Show of Hands, Raghu Dixit, Dervish and Guests among many other musicians and bands. 2017 : The festival in 2017 featured appearances from Eric Bibb, Loudon Wainwright III, Oysterband, The Unthanks, Seth Lakeman, Jon Boden, La Machine and Faith Folk and Anarchy (Martyn Joseph, Steve Knightley and Tom Robinson) amongst many more acts. 2020 : The festival
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#17327840113811936-567: A traditional song would undergo a process of improvement akin to biological natural selection : only those new variants that were the most appealing to ordinary singers would be picked up by others and transmitted onward in time. Thus, over time we would expect each traditional song to become more aesthetically appealing, due to incremental community improvement. Literary interest in the popular ballad form dates back at least to Thomas Percy and William Wordsworth . English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes,
2024-434: A tragic or regretful nature, prominently figures in many folk traditions. Nursery rhymes , children's songs and nonsense verse used to amuse or quiet children also are frequent subjects of traditional songs. Music transmitted by word of mouth through a community, in time, develops many variants, since this transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. In addition, folk singers may choose to modify
2112-464: A zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to the new music created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock , folk metal , and others. While contemporary folk music
2200-452: Is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music. The terms folk music , folk song , and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions. They are extensions of the term folklore , which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of
2288-408: Is an ancient folk song from India, a country of Asia, of Meiteis of Manipur , that is an example of Asian folk music, and how they put it into its own genre. Archaeological discoveries date Chinese folk music back 7000 years; it is largely based on the pentatonic scale . Han traditional weddings and funerals usually include a form of oboe called a suona , and apercussive ensembles called
2376-530: Is generally no "authoritative" version of song. Researchers in traditional songs have encountered countless versions of the Barbara Allen ballad throughout the English-speaking world, and these versions often differ greatly from each other. The original is not known; many versions can lay an equal claim to authenticity. Influential folklorist Cecil Sharp felt that these competing variants of
2464-402: Is the sheng , a type of Chinese pipe , an ancient instrument that is ancestor of all Western free reed instruments, such as the accordion . Parades led by Western-type brass bands are common, often competing in volume with a shawm/chuigushou band. In southern Fujian and Taiwan , Nanyin or Nanguan is a genre of traditional ballads. They are sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao and
2552-672: Is the provenance of the American Folklife Center" at the library of Congress. Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from Sub-Saharan African music traditions . The music and dance forms of the African diaspora , including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca , calypso and Zouk ; and Latin American music genres like
2640-467: The Grammy Award previously used the terms "traditional music" and "traditional folk" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. Folk music may include most indigenous music . From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics: As a side-effect, the following characteristics are sometimes present: In folk music, a tune is a short instrumental piece ,
2728-474: The Great Depression . Regionalism and cultural pluralism grew as influences and themes. During this time folk music began to become enmeshed with political and social activism themes and movements. Two related developments were the U.S. Communist Party's interest in folk music as a way to reach and influence Americans, and politically active prominent folk musicians and scholars seeing communism as
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2816-752: The PRC . Folk songs have been recorded since ancient times in China. The term Yuefu was used for a broad range of songs such as ballads, laments, folk songs, love songs, and songs performed at court. China is a vast country, with a multiplicity of linguistic and geographic regions. Folk songs are categorized by geographic region, language type, ethnicity, social function (e.g. work song, ritual song, courting song) and musical type. Modern anthologies collected by Chinese folklorists distinguish between traditional songs, revolutionary songs, and newly invented songs. The songs of northwest China are known as "flower songs" ( hua'er ),
2904-693: The Tatihou islet in Normandy . They also performed concerts in Inverness and Glasgow . They performed on 26 August 2023 at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire , England . On 19 February 2024, the May release of a new album, ReLoved , was announced. The album marks the band's fortieth anniversary and is their first studio release since 2013's At
2992-481: The Traditional 18 Dances display the dancing of birds and animals. For example: Musical types include: The classical Sinhalese orchestra consists of five categories of instruments, but among the percussion instruments, the drum is essential for dance. The vibrant beat of the rhythm of the drums form the basic of the dance. The dancers' feet bounce off the floor and they leap and swirl in patterns that reflect
3080-432: The contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival . Some types of folk music may be called world music . Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with
3168-439: The samba , Cuban rumba , salsa ; and other clave (rhythm) -based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of enslaved Africans , which has in turn influenced African popular music . Many Asian civilizations distinguish between art /court/classical styles and "folk" music. For example, the late Alam Lohar is an example of a South Asian singer who was classified as a folk singer. Khunung Eshei/Khuland Eshei
3256-796: The 2008 festival were Richard Thompson , The Duhks , Bellowhead , Oysterband , Lunasa and the Demon Barber Roadshow. The 2009 festival was notable for featuring artists who contributed to the Darwin Song Project , both collectively and individually, along with headlining acts Seth Lakeman , Eric Bibb , Show of Hands (supported by the Spooky Men's Chorale ), the Dhol Foundation and The Proclaimers . 2010 saw headlining appearances by Afro Celt Sound System , Bellowhead , Billy Bragg , Adrian Edmondson and
3344-522: The 200th birthday of Charles Darwin (who was born in Shrewsbury), the festival commissioned the Darwin Song Project , a multi-artist residential project for one week, with the brief to create new works with a 'relevance and resonance' to the life and work of Darwin. The artists involved were Chris Wood , Karine Polwart , Jez Lowe , Stu Hanna , Mark Erelli , Rachael McShane , Emily Smith and Krista Detor A professional CD and DVD, recorded at
3432-432: The American folk, definitions that the folk revivalists used in constructing their own understanding of American folk music, and an overarching American identity". Prior to the 1930s, the study of folk music was primarily the province of scholars and collectors. The 1930s saw the beginnings of larger scale themes, commonalities, and linkages in folk music developing in the populace and practitioners as well, often related to
3520-575: The Association for Cultural Equity, is "distinct from the thousands of earlier recordings on acetate and aluminum discs he made from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress. This earlier collection—which includes the famous Jelly Roll Morton, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Muddy Waters sessions, as well as Lomax's prodigious collections made in Haiti and Eastern Kentucky (1937) —
3608-759: The Bad Shepherds , Dervish , and the Michael McGoldrick Big Band. ( Cara Dillon , although booked to play at the 2010 festival and featured in festival publicity, was unable to appear.) Headlining acts at the festivals since 2010 have been: 2011 : The Imagined Village , Oysterband and special guests, Bellowhead , Show of Hands , Cara Dillon , 17 Hippies , Kepa Junkera Band and the Cecil Sharp Project . 2012 : Richard Thompson , Kate Rusby , Show of Hands , Dervish and Blowzabella . KT Tunstall , although booked,
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3696-649: The Dance Tent, where audience participation is encouraged and accompaniment of traditional dance tunes is provided by artists such as the Oyster Ceilidh Band (an acoustic version of Oysterband ). Traditional dance is also taken into the town centre during the festival weekend, with sides performing in the square in front of the Old Market Hall and the Castle grounds, with a procession through
3784-545: The Heart of It All . It contains new arrangements of some of the band's work recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra . On the same day, the album's first single, "Tobar Mhoire", was released online. Capercaillie's repertoire includes both traditional Gaelic songs and tunes, as well as modern English-language songs and tunes, composed by other folk writers and musicians, or by members of
3872-576: The Remnant Kings, Nic Jones and Martyn Joseph . Legendary singer Judy Collins appeared at the Festival in 2022. The Launchpad showcases up and coming talent on the Village Stage. It is an opportunity for bands, duos or singer songwriters to pitch for one of the three places available each year. Previous winners include: 2023 : Alex Lord, The Ashen Keys and Suzy Wall 2022 : Caleb Richards, Good Habits and Trefusis In March 2011,
3960-466: The albums To the Moon and Beautiful Wasteland , with the remix albums Get Out and Capercaillie being released during this period. Capercaillie have drawn back slightly from the heavy fusion style featured on their albums the 1990s, and their more recent albums from Nàdurra (2003) up to At the Heart of It All (2013) feature more traditional arrangements and instruments, while still retaining
4048-408: The band. The group often adapt traditional Gaelic songs and music using modern production techniques, and often mix musical forms, combining traditional lyrics and tunes with modern techniques and instruments such as synthesisers, drum machines, electric guitar and bass. Capercaillie's first two albums, Cascade and Crosswinds featured few modern instruments and the tunes and songs were played in
4136-465: The classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances, and Joseph Haydn 's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Central Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain:
4224-412: The complex rhythms of the drum beat. This drum beat may seem simple on the first hearing but it takes a long time to master the intricate rhythms and variations, which the drummer sometimes can bring to a crescendo of intensity. There are six common types of drums falling within 3 styles (one-faced, two-faced, and flat-faced): Other instruments include: Capercaillie (band) Capercaillie are
4312-546: The elements of nature, and have been enjoyed and developed in the Buddhist environment. The music is of several types and uses only a few types of instruments. The folk songs and poems were used in social gatherings to work together. The Indian influenced classical music has grown to be unique. The traditional drama, music and songs of Sinhala Light Music are typically Sri Lankan. The temple paintings and carvings feature birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers, and trees, and
4400-481: The end of the 1930s these and others had turned American folk music into a social movement. Sometimes folk musicians became scholars and advocates themselves. For example, Jean Ritchie (1922–2015) was the youngest child of a large family from Viper, Kentucky that had preserved many of the old Appalachian traditional songs. Ritchie, living in a time when the Appalachians had opened up to outside influence,
4488-521: The event. 2013 : Afro Celt Sound System , Carolina Chocolate Drops , The Be Good Tanyas , Oysterband , Eddi Reader , Capercaillie , Nidi d'Arac, Heidi Talbot and special guests, and the Tim O'Brien Band. The festival was concluded by a special "Patrons' Set" featuring John Jones and Steve Knightley with special guests. 2014 : Seth Lakeman, Dhol Foundation, Bellowhead, The Full English, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and Steve Knightley`s Wake The Union,
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#17327840113814576-595: The festival and events that come under the 'Shrewsbury Folk Festival' banner. The festival's patrons are John Jones of Oysterband and Steve Knightley of Show of Hands (since 2011). Both Oysterband and Show of Hands have performed at the festival on more than one occasion. Artists booked for the first Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2006 included Seth Lakeman and the Doonan Family Band. The 2007 festival featured Paul Brady , Bellowhead , Show of Hands , Kate Rusby , Kerfuffle and 4Square. Headline acts at
4664-678: The festival since 2006 (some more than once) include: Crooked Still , Loudon Wainwright III , The Wailin' Jennys , Patrick Street , Kathryn Tickell Band , Rory McLeod , Steve Tilston , Richard Shindell , Lucy Kaplansky , Breabach , Genticorum , Jim Moray , Pete Morton , Karine Polwart , Megson , Mark Erelli , Caroline Herring , Jackie Oates , Lau , Chris Wood , Andy Cutting , John McCusker , Kris Drever , Nancy Kerr and James Fagan , Boo Hewerdine , Calan , Sarah Jarosz , John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett , Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain , Bella Hardy , Salsa Celtica , Peatbog Faeries , Les Barker , Sam Carter , Jon Boden and
4752-629: The festival, in conjunction with the English Folk Dance & Song Society ( EFDSS ) teamed up to organise the Cecil Sharp Project , a multi-artist commission to create new material based on the life and collections of the founding father of the English Folk Revival Cecil Sharp . On 18 March 2011 eight artists gathered together in Acton Scott , Shropshire, to write and rehearse the material. The new work
4840-455: The finest Gaelic singers alive today". They have sold over a million albums world-wide, including "three silver and one gold album in the UK". The BBC notes that the band has "achieved enormous global success both as a group and as individual musicians." Originating from Argyll , a region of western Scotland , the band is named after the western capercaillie , sometimes called a wood grouse,
4928-399: The laborers who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with the rhythms of the songs. They are frequently, but not invariably, composed. In the American armed forces , a lively oral tradition preserves jody calls ("Duckworth chants") which are sung while soldiers are on the march. Professional sailors made similar use of a large body of sea shanties . Love poetry , often of
5016-563: The last 20 years of his life working on an Interactive Multimedia educational computer project he called the Global Jukebox , which included 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes , and 5,000 photographs. As of March 2012, this has been accomplished. Approximately 17,400 of Lomax's recordings from 1946 and later have been made available free online. This material from Alan Lomax's independent archive, begun in 1946, which has been digitized and offered by
5104-408: The loss of traditional music is slowed in nations or regions where traditional folk music is a badge of cultural or national identity. Much of what is known about folk music prior to the development of audio recording technology in the 19th century comes from fieldwork and writings of scholars, collectors and proponents. Starting in the 19th century, academics and amateur scholars, taking note of
5192-457: The modern movie Songcatcher . One strong theme amongst folk scholars in the early decades of the 20th century was regionalism , the analysis of the diversity of folk music (and related cultures) based on regions of the US rather than based on a given song's historical roots. Later, a dynamic of class and circumstances was added to this. The most prominent regionalists were literary figures with
5280-567: The music of Dvořák , Smetana , Grieg , Rimsky-Korsakov , Brahms , Liszt , de Falla , Wagner , Sibelius , Vaughan Williams , Bartók , and many others drew upon folk melodies. While the loss of traditional folk music in the face of the rise of popular music is a worldwide phenomenon, it is not one occurring at a uniform rate throughout the world. The process is most advanced "where industrialization and commercialisation of culture are most advanced" but also occurs more gradually even in settings of lower technological advancement. However,
5368-591: The musical traditions being lost, initiated various efforts to preserve the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads ), some of which predated the 16th century. Contemporaneously with Child, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould and later Cecil Sharp worked to preserve
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#17327840113815456-408: The offices of traditional music collectors Robert Winslow Gordon , Alan Lomax and others to capture as much North American field material as possible. John Lomax (the father of Alan Lomax) was the first prominent scholar to study distinctly American folk music such as that of cowboys and southern blacks. His first major published work was in 1911, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads . and
5544-705: The other. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some traditional folk music became also referred to as " World music " or "Roots music". The English term " folklore ", to describe traditional folk music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists. The distinction between "authentic" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany – for example, popular songwriters such as Stephen Foster could be termed "folk" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that
5632-805: The outcomes of battles or lament tragedies or natural disasters . Sometimes, as in the triumphant Song of Deborah found in the Biblical Book of Judges , these songs celebrate victory. Laments for lost battles and wars, and the lives lost in them, are equally prominent in many traditions; these laments keep alive the cause for which the battle was fought. The narratives of traditional songs often also remember folk heroes such as John Henry or Robin Hood . Some traditional song narratives recall supernatural events or mysterious deaths. Hymns and other forms of religious music are often of traditional and unknown origin. Western musical notation
5720-449: The pace of many activities such as planting , weeding , reaping , threshing , weaving , and milling . In leisure time , singing and playing musical instruments were common forms of entertainment and history-telling—even more common than today when electrically enabled technologies and widespread literacy make other forms of entertainment and information-sharing competitive. Some believe that folk music originated as art music that
5808-400: The preservation of songs as artifacts of deceased cultures. "Functional" folklorists (e.g. Botkin and Alan Lomax) maintained that songs only retain relevance when used by those cultures which retain the traditions which birthed those songs. "Left-wing" folk revivalists (e.g. Charles Seeger and Lawrence Gellert) emphasized music's role "in 'people's' struggles for social and political rights". By
5896-471: The songs they hear. For example, around 1970 the song Mullā Mohammed Jān spread from Herat to the rest of Afghanistan , and Iran where it was recorded. Due to its repetitive refrain and the predictability of the second half of each verse, it allowed for both its popularization, and for each singer to create their own version of the song without being overly-concerned for a melody or restrictive poetic rhythm. Because variants proliferate naturally, there
5984-497: The southern Yangtze area. Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music from Jiangnan ) is a style of instrumental music, often played by amateur musicians in tea houses in Shanghai. Guangdong Music or Cantonese Music is instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas. The music from this region influenced Yueju (Cantonese Opera) music, which would later grow popular during the self-described "Golden Age" of China under
6072-643: The sponsorship of the Washington Post , the festival was held in Washington, DC at Constitution Hall from 1937 to 1942. The folk music movement, festivals, and the wartime effort were seen as forces for social goods such as democracy, cultural pluralism, and the removal of culture and race-based barriers. The American folk music revivalists of the 1930s approached folk music in different ways. Three primary schools of thought emerged: "Traditionalists" (e.g. Sarah Gertrude Knott and John Lomax ) emphasized
6160-583: The streets between the two on the Saturday afternoon. The Festival also runs a regular schools project, which usually takes place in June each year, that sees established traditional folk groups working in Shropshire primary schools for a week. In the last few years this project has seen the musicians working with all year groups in the schools, but also working intensively with 30 children that culminates in
6248-565: The term "folk music": newly composed songs, fixed in form and by known authors, which imitated some form of traditional music. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the Grammy Awards of 1959; in 1970 the term was dropped in favor of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". After that, they had
6336-490: The term can also apply to music that, "...has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged." The post– World War II folk revival in America and in Britain started a new genre, Contemporary Folk Music , and brought an additional meaning to
6424-602: The term folk music should be used. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers," another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission ... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character." Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...", upon " continuity and oral transmission ...seen as characterizing one side of
6512-947: The texts of 217,996 Latvian folk songs, the Latvju dainas . In Norway the work of collectors such as Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was extensively used by Edvard Grieg in his Lyric Pieces for piano and in other works, which became immensely popular. Around this time, composers of classical music developed a strong interest in collecting traditional songs, and a number of composers carried out their own field work on traditional music. These included Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams in England and Béla Bartók in Hungary. These composers, like many of their predecessors, both made arrangements of folk songs and incorporated traditional material into original classical compositions. The advent of audio recording technology provided folklorists with
6600-530: The then-known variations of both the texts and tunes associated with what came to be known as the Child Canon. He also advanced some significant theories concerning the workings of oral-aural tradition. Similar activity was also under way in other countries. One of the most extensive was perhaps the work done in Riga by Krisjanis Barons , who between the years 1894 and 1915 published six volumes that included
6688-484: The town. Folk music was already, "...seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favor of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him, true folk music was, in Charles Seeger 's words, "associated with
6776-478: The traditional folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry , much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse, which explains their episodic structure, repetitive elements, and their frequent in medias res plot developments. Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate
6864-658: The twenty-first century many cherished Chinese folk songs have been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity . In the process, songs once seen as vulgar are now being reconstructed as romantic courtship songs. Regional song competitions, popular in many communities, have promoted professional folk singing as a career, with some individual folk singers having gained national prominence. The art, music and dance of Sri Lanka derive from
6952-526: The uncultured classes". The term further derives from the German expression Volk , in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over half a century earlier. Though it is understood that folk music is the music of the people, observers find a more precise definition to be elusive. Some do not even agree that
7040-538: Was arguably the most prominent US folk music scholar of his time, notably during the beginnings of the folk music revival in the 1930s and early 1940s. Cecil Sharp also worked in America, recording the traditional songs of the Appalachian Mountains in 1916–1918 in collaboration with Maud Karpeles and Olive Dame Campbell and is considered the first major scholar covering American folk music. Campbell and Sharp are represented under other names by actors in
7128-424: Was changed and probably debased by oral transmission while reflecting the character of the society that produced it. In many societies, especially preliterate ones, the cultural transmission of folk music requires learning by ear , although notation has evolved in some cultures. Different cultures may have different notions concerning a division between "folk" music on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on
7216-492: Was first held in 1997. The 2006 Shrewsbury event was staged at The Quarry , but in 2007 a move was made to the larger West Midlands Showground, where all subsequent festivals have been held. The festival was headed by festival directors Alan Surtees and Sandra Surtees who both started the Bridgnorth Folk Festival in 1997 up until Alan's untimely death in 2017, since then Sandra has continued to organise both
7304-405: Was not possible. Music was made by common people during both their work and leisure, as well as during religious activities. The work of economic production was often manual and communal. Manual labor often included singing by the workers, which served several practical purposes. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set
7392-411: Was originally created to preserve the lines of Gregorian chant , which before its invention was taught as an oral tradition in monastic communities. Traditional songs such as Green grow the rushes, O present religious lore in a mnemonic form, as do Western Christmas carols and similar traditional songs. Work songs frequently feature call and response structures and are designed to enable
7480-739: Was postponed until 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and the effect of flooding from the river Severn on the festival's site in February of that year. 2021 : Kate Rusby , Oysterband , Show of hands , The Christians , Afro Celt Sound System . 2022 : Judy Collins , Show of Hands , Skerryvore , Carlos Nunez , Blackie and the Rodeo Kings , Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain . 2023 : Billy Bragg , Oysterband , Joachim Cooder , Capercaillie , Moya Brennan , Breabach , Eddi Reader , and Red Hot Chili Pipers . Other artists to have appeared at
7568-525: Was premiered at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, on 24 March 2011, after which the artists went to London for two further concerts at Cecil Sharp House on 26 and 27 March 2011. The concerts were professionally recorded and mixed for CD release in September 2011. The artists involved in the project were Steve Knightley , Andy Cutting , Leonard Podolak , Jim Moray , Jackie Oates , Caroline Herring , Kathryn Roberts and Patsy Reid. In March 2009, to celebrate
7656-417: Was unable to appear. Instead Stage 2 headliners The Treacherous Orchestra were promoted to headline the main stage on the final day and the festival was concluded by a "Folk Slam" organised at short notice by Jim Moray and featuring various artists and surprise guests, including Maddy Prior . The experiment was repeated at the 2013 festival and featured reprise performances by artists who had already played at
7744-499: Was university educated and ultimately moved to New York City, where she made a number of classic recordings of the family repertoire and published an important compilation of these songs. In January 2012, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress , with the Association for Cultural Equity, announced that they would release Lomax's vast archive of 1946 and later recording in digital form. Lomax spent
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