REVIVAL,OF FOLK SONG

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 182, 28 April 1919, Page 8

REVIVAL,OF FOLK SONG

SUGGESTION TO FOUND A UNIVERSITY CHAIR \

NEGLECTED TREASURES

One of the special preoccupations of musicians and serious music lovers _ in these days of reconstruction is the "revival of folk son;? (says a London "Daily News" contributor). A few weeks ago we had the foundation of a new league which /|!ms .it making the people sing its own songs nt tlie many great, celebrations to which wo all look forward. Now we hear of a coming great extension of activity on .the part ol tho Folk Bong and Folk Dance Society in the samo direction. Tlio seed eown by the old Folk Song Society twenty years or moro ego has fallen on fruitful soil.

The movement !ia.s two sides. It is at once democratic in I hut it may be made a powerful instrument for spreading happiness among the people. To make the masses return to the good old tunes and tlio good old dances, racy of the soil, instead of spoiling their tasto by sloppy shop ballafls or the i-ntics of degenerate negroid races is a great, work. The experience of the war has ehown that the masses can lie weaned from tho love of the inferior rubbish which tho big towns provide so plentifully. The better lnusicmnst bo Inrought to thorn 'when tho men cpmo homo to the workshop and the farm.. The British peoples have treasures of folk song inferior to none and superior to most. old English, -"Scottish, nnd Irish dances rfe inst as picturesque, jttst as good an expresston of national character as those of any. nation in Europe.

170 nation has as fine an instinct for part-singing as the people of Wales. But we aro ashamed to confess that wo have any artistic gifts—we liave a keener sense of'singing In tune than aiiy other people and just as Strong a ctfise of rhythm. To preserve and develop".- these tastes is a task worthy of the best that loth musicians and social reformers can givo; Tbe Scholastic side. ' There is another ride to it—the scholastic. One of the reasons why the efforts of the folk-song enthusiasts' sometimes fail is flat they have not always kept the two apart and have frightened by displays of irrelevant erudition—as, for instance, by asking a Warwickshire shepherd whether he knew that version of « "Peaco Egging Song" differs from the Suffolk version by haying a flattened hading .note, in a different place and not being quite so pentatonic in feeling. The result is that the shepherd- thinks his song is dangerously foreign'and will refuse to ring it any more. Such things have been known to happen. This branch of the subject is, however, a fascinating subject., of study for tie musician, and the idea of the Folk Song Society ■ that tho study of folk eong should receive its ultimato > canonisation by the foundation of a university chair is excellent.. It has been put hito practice with fine results in other countries. The professor coiild arbitrate with fuse impartiality between the Irishman who claims "The Girl I Left Behind Me," the Scot who says it comes from Lanarkshire, and the Englishman who sweara it is County Bucks. Other things, too, tho professor could investigate with much advantage.. Ho could decide whether the Norman Conquest left, its innrk on English song; whether Spanish elements crept in in Tudor times; what is the precise relationship between tho ' Breton folk song and the Covpnach, aud whether North Britain has the monopoly of the Scottish songs.

, A National School, But tho scholars must not confuse Ihe sound doctrine with the practical business of making folk song and dances once, again a democratic reality, as they were 300 years ago. \ "* Prom the point of view of the development,of a national'sohool of music of tie highest kind such labours siro invaluable. The belief is gaining ground more and more that no national music can have a healthy life that has not its roots deep down in the 6ongs of the people. Much has been done by our younger composers, but it is not enough to tafte a folk tune and turn it with self-conscious artifice into ultra-modern rhapsodies. The two elements must be combined as by spontaneous impulse into an indissoluble whole. A study of the great masterpieces from this point of view teaches us many things. Folk-song elements ■ are found where they are least expected, and ■ they aro always , a source of strength and vitality. Another caution to tlie zealots. They grow too apt to think that the original folk 6ong sung by an untaught peasant or seaman is necessarily a finer thing than the music a Beethoven or a-Bach has created from it. When they talk like that they cease to bo musicians, and become mere enemies of true musical progress. ,