An ethnomusicologist-composer friend of mine in Ukraine (seen with a
cornetto in the video here http://torban.org/pisni/ghomin.html) recently
wrote an article in which he argued that virtually all folk music is
aristocratic in origin, leaked into lower stratum of society and digested
and transformed by it, usually for the better (and not only poetically). In
particular he traced Polish Renaissance courtly poetry and the way in which
it was adapted by the common folk in Ukraine. Unfortunately he didn't white
his article in English....
RT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad McEwen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Cittern NET" <cittern@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 8:20 PM
Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Traditional British (plucked) instruments
Frank:
An icon of the traditional English folk music scene, Rod Stradling,
recently told me about a place in Italy that had recently redicsovered its
own unique traditional music and dances. They were said to be paticular
to that reginalone. A small group of dedicted people wen tin search of the
old players and dancer to preserve and revive their own distinct
heriatage.
Rod said that they proudly played a tune learned form one such old
fiddler; a tune none of them had ever heard before. they were certain
that it was one of those distint tunes unique to theri area.
Rod had the unfortunate task of informing them that the tune was Redwing!
I don't think that they were too happy about it.
Brad
Frank Nordberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (although not in this order):
.
But as Hitler got power, he used the music to fit his scheme of
"Hitlerjugend", adapted the camps, the songs, nature games, everything
to serve his purposes.
Yes, it's a sad fact that the symbols of various population groups
sometimes have been abused that way.
There actually is a relationship between the average folk singing
citizen of (insert-any-nation-here) and the full fledged fascist but
it's the came kind of relationship as between the guy who drives his car
carefully to work every day and the bloke who gets roaring drunk and
speeds past the local childcare center at full throtle.
But until now the musical link between generations by knowing the old
songs
is non-existent.
I don't really agree with you there Martina. Yes, the direct, obvious
link to the songs sung by previous generations may be broken but a tune
is just a tune and the essence - or soul if you like - of a country's
music is much deeper than that.
There is no noticeable connection between German traditional music and
Kraftwerk. But even so, that band is so unmistakably German it couldn't
possibly have come from anywhere else in the world.
The following young generation did not want to learn any "old songs",
sick
of everything smelling like "German".
Slight digression: This isn't just a post war phenomena. Jazz was very
popular in urban Germany long before the average American had heard of it.
And "Rock 'n Roll" WAS cool, for sure.
And if it wasn't for the thriving rock'n roll scene in early 60s
Hamburg, Beatles wouldn't have happened the way they did.
If it wasn't for Kraftwerk, we wouldn't have had rap. (Some may argue
the world would have been a little bit better that way but that's beside
the point.)
The thing is, a nation - or any other cultural group - doesn't build
it's music from scratch. It takes some old bits - childhood memories
burned into people's mind - some new bits (but not *that* much of it)
and lots of "exotic" elements from far-off lands. Something old,
something new, something borrowed - oh and something blue as well since
sentimentality always sells. ;-)
The mixture is unique to each and every culture and sub-culture but the
elements it's made from aren't.
Take a really close look at the mix that made up rock'n roll in the
first place and try to see how many German bits there are in it. You'll
be surprised.
Cross cultural influences run in all directions, even the most
unexpected ones.
At the end of the 19th century a German traveller in Japan fell in love
with a stunningly beautiful piece of traditional Japanese poetry. He
translated it into German and published it back home where it became an
instant hit. It took quite a while before somebody realised that what he
had found was actually a Japanese translation of one of Goethe's most
famous poems.
A much more modern example is the U.S. anthropologists studying an
isolated tribe in the deepest heart of Africa. They recorded a
traditional tribal song.
Oh, the music was actally genuine and unique and all that (at least
as far as we know) but the lyrics turned out to be about some gentleman
named James Dean...
I could go on and on with such examples but I've already posted one mega
size rant in this thread and althoguh I don't it's off topic to the list
it's certainly close to the borders.
So I'll just finish it off with a quote from Niels-Henning Ørsted
Pedersen. When asked what idn of music he and is band was playing, he
replied:
"What we play is what we play - when we play it."
Frank Nordberg
http://www.musicaviva.com
http://stores.ebay.com/Nordbergs-Music-Store?refid=store
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