Music was not a thing of learning as it is today, it was merely a way of talking, of enjoying life, and of passing on to others deeds and doings of the time. Early people said in poetry and song what was in their hearts. They knew nothing of musical rules and regulations and passed their songs along from father to son through the long years when the world was young, and their best songs have in them the seed of musical art! A modern Greek folk singer said: “As I don’t know how to read, I have made this story into a song, so as not to forget it.”
This music of the people, by the people and for the people is Folk Music and we shall see how these simple, tuneful bits have influenced the world of music because, as H. E. Krehbiel said, “they are the heartbeats of the ... folk and in them are preserved feelings, beliefs and habits of vast antiquity.” Don’t you believe that studying history through folk tunes would be fascinating? People today have found out much about the different races and tribal events through them.
It is impossible to find out who wrote the five thousand folk songs of England and the more than five thousand of Russia and of Ireland and all the others, for it was not until the 19th century that folk songs and dances became a serious study. The fact is, that a true folk song doesn’t want to find its composer for it loses its rank as a folk song if its maker should turn up! Isn’t that curious? But it is not quite fair, for surely we should accept as folk songs those which have sprung up among them, or have become a part of their lives through expressing their thoughts and feelings, even though the composer’s name has not been lost. We divide folk songs into two classes,—Class A, the composerless songs, and Class B, those tagged with a name.
Isn’t it exciting to think that folk songs and dances of the ancient Greeks, the Aztecs of Peru, the Chinese, the Irish and Russian peasants and our American negroes have things in common? It seems as if they might have had a world congress in primitive times and agreed on certain kinds of songs, for every nation has
1. Songs of childhood, games, and cradle songs. 2. Songs for religious ceremonies, festivals, holidays, and Christmas Carols. 3. Love songs and songs for marriage fêtes, and weddings. 4. War songs, patriotic songs and army songs. 5. Songs of work and labor and trades. 6. Drinking songs, comical, political and satirical. 7. Songs for dancing, rounds, etc. 8. Funeral songs and songs for mourning. 9. Narratives, ballads and legends.
So it comes to pass, that many a time when nations, due to wars and wanderings and vast passings of time, have forgotten their origins, the singing of a song will bring back the fact of some far distant relationship.
One day a party of Bretons, in 1758 (long after the Welsh and Bretons had forgotten they were of the same race), were marching to give battle to some Welsh troops that had descended upon the French coast. As the Welsh soldiers marched forward, the Bretons were amazed to hear their enemies singing one of their own national songs! They were so surprised and so overcome with sympathy that the Bretons joined in and sang with the Welsh. Both commanders, speaking the same language, gave the order “Fire!” But neither side would or could fire. Instead, the soldiers dropped their weapons, broke ranks and in wild enthusiasm greeted each other as long lost friends. The song they sang is probably seven hundred years old or older.
(1) Songs of Childhood, Games and Cradle Songs
From the day of the obelisk to the day of the radio, every baby that has ever been born has been put to sleep to the soothing sound of the mother’s song. The Greek mother sang to her baby,
Come, Sleep! come, Sleep! Take him away.