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What is folk music?

Many musicologists and thinkers have defined folk music in various ways, such as

Dr. Ashok D. Ranade The music of people, by people and for people is folk music. Dr. Sarojini Babar The music of common people peasants, farmers, village occupational, folks, masses adorned with beautifully simple melodies and rhythms, interesting poetry depicting the nature and human mind. Dr. Satyendra The songs expressing the mindscape of masses are folk music. Dr. Kunjbihari Das Folk music is the music away from the classes and elite etiquettes, the songs depicting the luster of rustic beauty. Ravindranath Tagore The music created by masses in excitable way shaping the melodies in expressive language.

Main features of primitive music

In the primary phase, music was essentially diatonic or triton. Most of the primitive songs use three-four notes of female and male voice which are, in a way, consonances in first-forth or first-fifth note (Shadja-Madhyam or Shadja-Pancham Samwaad, together forming an octave later in folk music. Rhythm plays a role of abiding agent. Rhythms add the liveliness in songs and also encourage one to repeat or hum it for long time. Folk rhythms have a natural meter, e.g. Kehrawa (4 beats), Dadra (6 beats), Jalad Deepchandi/ Chachar (7 beats), etc. It involved combination of singing, dancing and playing instruments. Folk music responds to three cycles in nature cycle of life and death, cycle of day and night, cycle of seasons. It is music for everyone, everything and every occasion! General participation is encouraged to such an extent in the process of making music that there is a near absence of audience as a separate entity. Sense of touch is also important, e.g. holding of hands, foot-stamping, body-thumping involved in music making.

From primitive music as human beings experience the cultural growth, music changes its nature and it gets more codified and complex to the extent of folk music. Before television and electricity, people read books. And before books, in a world lit only by fire, human beings entertained themselves by telling stories and singing songs. It wasnt that long ago when only kings and queens were rich enough to have other people play music for them. In the old days, regular folks had to make their own music. Thats why its called folk music.

Once upon a time, singing was a part of everyday life, as much as talking, working, eating, and sleeping. Our distant ancestors - whatever language they spoke, whatever region they lived in - sang songs while pounding grain or walking long journeys, to coordinate the rhythms of their labors, and to make the task-at-hand pass more enjoyably. The functionality of folk music indicates association of human psyche to music and non-musical activities.

Folksongs are ordinary songs made up by ordinary people. Folksongs are history as seen through the eyes of ordinary people. Folksongs travel through history and history travels through folksongs. Folksongs often tell us what happened and when it happened, but more importantly, they tell us how people felt about those happenings. They can capture an event in time or space while providing an invitation to explore whatever else is going on at that same time in history. In all cultures, in all spaces, in all languages, folksongs and folktales are oral history, passed on from one person's mouth to another person's ear, in what is called the Oral Tradition. Verbal tradition - Folk music has an unbroken tradition of centuries. Carrying the tradition forward by oral tradition, not in a documented or codified form is the important aspect of folk music. Documentation of literature of folk songs, music notation and audio documentation is a recent phenomenon. It is carried forward from generation to generation in simple ways of imitation of previous generation not with a formal education method but by the traditional method of oral or practical education. The creators of folk music poets, composers and performers remain anonymous as it is basically a social group activity in which community is important than individual. In due course of presentation of the folk music, the performers change the original tunes, poetry according to their wish or necessity. So, one can find many versions of the same song present in the same area or time. Popular and contemporary songs become folksongs when they are passed on from one generation to the next, in the Oral Tradition. A folksong has a life of its own - independent of any commercial medium - even if the song isnt recorded, or played on radio or television. In the creation of a folksong, the roles of composer, performer, and audience are not rigidly separated. The original composition of a song may be in the mind of a single person. But if the song becomes a folksong, all of the people who sing it freely amend it

and change it (consciously or unconsciously) and so, they become its co-authors and editors. Eventually the song becomes the creation of many different people from many different generations. One of the strongest forces in folksongs is the recycling of old melodies. Lots of folksongs were (and are) created by applying new lyrics to well known tunes. Every region on earth has its own folksongs and folklore. All ethnic groups that make up our Indian population have their own special folksongs. Folksongs are an important part of our Indian heritage, culture, and tradition. Folksongs are something we sing together. In many other forms of music the audience simply sits and listens, but with a folksong, we usually sing along. Folk music comes with clearly formatted melodic songs. The melodic structures in folk music form a prototype of Art Music such as Raag Sangeet in India. Many of the Raags are traced to be originated from folk tunes. Folk music has multiple impulses for creation of the music it might be personal or social urge as well as artistic urge. Folk music emerges and circulates and lives as expression of culture specific to a community, geographical locality, and social convention. Rather than being a personal expression as in primitive music; it is a social or collective expression even though sung by a person in solo state. Folk music allocates meaningful roles to language and literature by bringing song and story together. The song cycles have a great importance in the corpus of folk music. In folk music, instruments are pressed into service mostly to accompany singers/dancers. Even in solo playing, instruments in folk music try to emulate music designed for voices. Many times folk tunes have no definite beginning or end they can continue for hours, because even though the tune remains the same, the song text continues telling a different story. This element of continuity suggests the eternal value of music and the society. Folk music changes constantly according the change in society, living culture and new trends. The older songs are replaced by new ones quickly according to the change in life style. Newer references are involved in the song text very easily. Rhythms changes less than melodies. Fluidity is major feature of folk music.

It basically portrays the life of common people through music with subtle and bold shades and colors. It covers a wide range of subjects such as personal feelings, rituals, nature and its nuances, etc.

The folk melodies wander through many geographical locations by imitation. If one community has a particular melody and it has access to some other kind of music, it easily imbibes or assimilates the newly known melody in its original corpus. So, in this way folk melodies travel to many communities crossing the geographical boundaries.

Origin and history of folk music


The origin of music in the primary state of man was a natural process. Human beings found the sound from nature. Listening to these natural sounds, he tried to replicate and use them for his own self-expression. Man tried to create sound from his vocal chords and other available things such as wood, stone, bones of animals, etc. After a gradual process of developing these sounds, rudimentary instruments were created. Using own vocal chords, human beings produced basic vowels and consonances, this in further several thousand years, developed as language and then man started expressing communicating with language. Music and language are the two sides of the same coin in development of human culture. But it is sure that human beings experienced music before language as he used natural sounds and his own vocal chords much before the origin of language. Here we are going to have a brief survey of music as in folk form, which played a multiple role it symbolized the human society and culture as it was the simple way of entertainment and celebration; and also was a medium of expression to communicate his feelings and thoughts. The folksongs expressed the primal emotions of human beings with simple words and simple tunes. As the culture grew up with complicated patterns of living style, the folk music also became complicated or became formulized and codified. India a subcontinent full of socio-cultural diversity and naturally there is coexistence of many music cultures along with many languages. So, Indian folk music as a whole reflects the rich cultural diversity. We can find the evidences of the folk music from Vedic period from the references of ritual songs during fire sacrifices, birth-marriage-death rituals, thread ceremony, etc. These songs were called as gatha which means a song. These were sung as folk tunes unlike the Vedic chants (Richa/ Chhand Mantra). According to Winternitz (a German scholar on Vedic literature), these Gathas and SamvaadSukta-s (Conversational hymns) in Vedas were prototypes of later folk songs, ballads and was the root of further development of drama. In the due course of time, one finds that folk music developed in many ways from simple melodies to complex structures emerging Raags, simple meters to complex Taals. In the modern period, ethnomusicologists have studied and documented more than hundred folk music cultures in India from Gadhval, Rajasthan, Gujrath, Maharashtra, Southern India, Bengal and North eastern states, in various tribes and communities such as Gond, Naga, Warli, Koli, etc.

Folk instruments
Even though instruments in folk music are much in number, they play a significant role. Most of the string and wind instruments in folk music have a rustic or raw tonal texture. Comparing to instruments used in Art music, the folk instruments are mainly simple in make and need least maintenance. They are mostly manufactured with the raw material found in the specific geography. The percussion instruments have a sharp tone. Folk music involves use of many atonal or cymbal instruments such a Taal, Ghungru, Chipli, Kartaal, Khulkhula, etc. Most of the folk instruments are used to create a backdrop of rhythmic pattern than giving support of base note, unlike the Art music. Most of the times, there is no solo performance of instruments, but whenever it is, instruments reproduce the song on instrument rather than playing tunes specially crafted for instruments. The various types of folk musical instruments played in India, may be divided into four groups. They are string instruments, wind or blowing instruments, percussion instruments and cymbal instruments.

String instruments - Ektari, Tamburi, Tutune, Chondke Wind instruments - Basari, Pawa, Pawari, Alguj, Shankh, Shing, Tutari Percussion instruments - Dholki, Dhokal, Damadi, Duff, Sambal, Halagi Cymbals - Taal, Manjira, Chipli, Ghungru, Ghanta.

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