Folk Songs
: MOST of us probably assume that we can place the work of art immediately, but generally speaking we are led by an informed minority whose ear or mind selects the fresh and original and discards the borrowed form. We may have liked Western songs but never have thought of them as the "folk songs of the Prairie," and Burl Ives is largely responsible for increasing our appreciation of melodies whose potential subtlety we would never have noticed, It ig partly a matter, then, of having these things brought to our attention by someone whom we respect. Most of us es doubt like the Calypsos, but the fact that the BBC has given us a session of Caribbean Folk Songs sung by Cy Grant, and broadcast over SYA, gives them a new interest, The strange but entirely modern thing about the wording of these is the conjunction of simple pidgin English with tri-syllabic words
that radio and advertising so quickly spread. Words like "rectify" and "consumption" are ingeniously joggled into place in the simple rhythms, and, because they are at once odd and yet are the direct expression of the mind of the people, they give the songs their
freshness
Westcliff
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530703.2.21.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 10
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202Folk Songs New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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