Folk Songs — Songs of the People

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 7, 28 August 1931, Page 7

Folk Songs — Songs of the People

To Be F eatured from 4YA

PLANTATION songs will be @ feature of 4YA’s programme on Tuesday, September 1. All the great composers have gained inspiration from the music of their people, their "folk," whence this musie derives its name; from melodies created by musicians, most of them anonymous, whose names do not figure impressively in histories and dictionaries, but whose simple and beautiful songs have outlived the passing of generations, brought comfort, healed sorrow, and made for better understanding and brotherhood among men. The oldest folk-melodies are of unInown authorship. They were extemporised from a full heart, passed from mouth to mouth, and so came down through the generations. We accept these melodies in the spirit in which they are given, aS we accept the air, the sunshine, the good earth beneath us. Though we may not realise how great and beautiful they are, they become part of our lives and thoughts. It can be seen, by considering the history of a folk-song, how inevitably it became an expression of a people rather than that of an individual. The true folk-song, passing from father to son, travels far before it takes final shape. It may disappear and crop out unaccountably in some far-distant locality. Owing to the fact that it is not printed, to faulty memorising, to varying local ability of the performers, it is.subject to many alterations and to the formative influence of many minds. What is most beautiful and durable in the song, however, remains, while notes not essential to the meaning and beauty of the nielody disap-

pear. At last the song emerges from the erucible of time, a wonderful symbol of the spirit of the people rather than of the individual who gave it birth. Folk songs reflect the environment as well as the heredity of various peoples. The songs of the north are more rugged and heroic than those of the south. The songs of southern climes have a. grace and languor not associated with the north. If one were able to ascertain accurately the time and place of the appearance of a given number of folk-songs, he would have testimony, invaluable to the historian, of the wanderings and evolutions of the races that make mankind. Folk songs may be divided roughly inte two classes: the true folk-song, which is of unknown authorship, and songs of identified composers, s0 simple and true that the people have adopted them as their own. Folk songs which are wholly and inseparably a product of the life of the American nation are the supremely heautiful and pathetic melodies originated by the African slaves. These have been happily entitled by H. BE. Krebiel "Afro-American Folk-Songs." They were born of the sorrows and dreams of the black. man, whose susceptible and emotional ‘nature, coupled with the influence of the art of the whites, gave rise to a music of unique and incomparable appeal. No white American, save possibly Stephen Foster, in hiy best songs, has equalled the profound feelings and the mystical inspiration of these outpourings of a soul of a race. It was not until after the Civil War that these songs were given the attention they deserved. A small company of exceptionally gifted negro musicians was then formed, which, under the name of the "Jubilee Singers," toured America and also Europe, introducing ~ their folk-songs with sensational success wherever they appeared. J. Miller McKim, in a talk given in 1862, told of asking a negro where his brethren — got their songs. "Dey make ’em, sah." "How do they make them?

After a pause, evidently casting about for an explanation, he said, "I'll tell you. It’s dis way, My mass’x call me up and order me a short pec of corn and a hundred lash My, friends see it and is sorry for me. When dey come to the praise meetin’ dat night dey sing about it. Some’s very good singers and know how; and dey work it in-work it in, you know, till dey get it right, and dat’s de way."