Folk Music Folk music is the traditional music that grows out of a region, nation, or ethnic group. In the U.S., the music includes ballads, lyric songs, lullabies, work songs, country dances, spirituals, blues, and religious music.

Folk Music Folk music is also that music valued by various American ethnic groups: Ozark and Appalachian mountain music, Irish dance music, Jewish Klezmer, Tex- Mex music, American Indian music. Folk music also includes rally and protest songs for/against political causes.

Folk Music The music reflects the spirit and personality of the people who produce it. The music grows spontaneously out of the people who produce it. Conveys joys, sorrows, relationships, romances, and important events.

Origins In American mainstream society, the dominant folk music has been that which derived from the British-based white people (Anglo) of New England and the African-based black people in the rural south (Afro-Am).

Dispersion As British immigrants moved west and south, their songs mixed with the homesteaders, miners, and cowboys. Likewise, as the black slaves were “freed” and they and their descendants moved north, their songs and sounds began to influence the urban north.

Cross-Cultural Influences From the cross-cultural influences between Anglo and Afro society, new musical styles developed, combining traits from both cultures. The interweaving of European and African styles and influences may be the most important ingredient of American music.

Oral Tradition Folk music is considered informal, aesthetically and musically unsophisticated and simple. It is preserved and transmitted by means of memory instead of it being learned from printed music. Folk music comes from the oral tradition.

Types of Folk Music Narrative ballads - story songs. Songs usually have strophic music - same music for each stanza. Broadsides - composed by professional songwriters. Flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Types of Songs (con’t) Lyric Songs - Songs that are not narrative. The songs convey emotional content and mood in a more private context than in a ballad. Can be compared to lyric poetry. Work songs - provide the rhythm, pace, and the spirit needed to get hard, oppressive work completed.

Types of Songs Lullabies, camp songs, game songs. Usually short, simple, and functional. Easily remembered and often feature nonsense lyrics. Rally and protest songs: Songs encouraging social and political change.

Woody Guthrie The best known Anglo-American folk singer of the 20th century.

Woody Guthrie Born in Okemah, OK, July 14, Wrote thousands of songs, including “This Land is Your Land.” Traveled the US during the 1930s and 40s, often hitchhiking, or hopping freights, and performing his songs.

Woody Guthrie (2) Guthrie’s songs and his performances often drew attention to social injustices and wrongdoings and were sometimes a rallying cry to action. Died October 3, 1967 at the age of 55 after a 15-year bout with Huntington’s Disease.

Woody Guthrie (3) Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in First inductee into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Fiddle Tunes Dance music - fiddle songs. The fiddle was the ubiquitous instrument of the 18th and 19th century American experience. It was small, inexpensive, and easy to play a few folk songs that everyone knew, especially for dances. The beginning of “old time” music.