Folk-Music in America
by Phillips Barry
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 22, No. 83 (Jan. - Mar., 1909), pp. 72-81
FOLK-MUSIC IN AMERICA
BY PHILLIPS BARRY
THE existence of American folk-song is no longer a matter of speculation and doubt. The great numbers of singing people, living or dead, who have made homes in our land, have brought with them to our shores the songs their fathers sang, giving the impetus at the same time to the growth of a native species of folk-song, whereby folk-poetry and folk music has come to be an American institution. And the voice of the folk-singer may yet be heard, as well in the heart of the great city as on the lonely hillside.[1]
That much of this treasure of traditional song may not pass away, some effort has already been made, - for it is, alas! too true that its days are numbered. It is to be hoped that this effort may lead to the founding of an American Folk-Song Society. The collections made by Professor Belden and others in the West, as well as the results of my own researches in the North Atlantic States, testify eloquently to the wealth of material nigh at hand. If for no other reason, the great mass of American folk-song is worthy of preservation, as a means of making a record of a phase of American home-life which constitutes an unwritten and neglected chapter in the history of the manners and customs of our people.
Yet there is another reason. The melodies to which folk-songs are sung in America are of infinite variety, and in many instances rarely beautiful. To this source the composer of the future, who shall found a school of American music, will turn for his inspiration. In the present article, which will serve as an introduction to a more detailed treatment of the subject, to be made by me in the near future, I shall discuss briefly the forms and species of melody, - modes, structure, etc., - and make some mention of the persistence of certain definite national types.
I. THE MODES
Folk-music has a wider range in modal structure than the composer of to-day, self-restricted, avails himself of The greater number of airs, it is true, are cast in the familiar "major scale," - the Ionian mode of the mediheval writers, called also by them "tonus lascivus," in recognition of the fact that already at that time it was the usual mode of secular melodies, in contradistinction to certain other modes regarded as more fitting for sacred music. In my collection, more than seventy-five per cent are in this mode, an indication of a fact, which, on examination, will be found to hold true of other large collections of folk-melodies. Many traditional tunes, however, being those especially which are said to sound uncouth to unaccustomed ears, are cast in the so-called ecclesiastical modes, the characteristic feature of which is the minor seventh. Four such modes [2] are still in use: to wit, -
1. Mode of A, or iEolian.
-4-
2. Mode of D, or Dorian. -r
3. Mode of E, or Phrygian. _
4. Mode of G, or Mixolydian.-der
Specimen melodies, chosen from among those in my collection, will serve to illustrate the peculiar features of these four modes. I have but one tune in the Phrygian. The rarity of this mode in British folk-music, and consequently in American, is a fact often mentioned by those who have written upon the subject.[3]
1. Eolian Mode
KING JOHN AND THE BISHOP OF CANTERBURY [4]
NANCYM YL OVER [5]
COME ALL Y OU RUDE YOUNG MEN [6]
2. Dorian Mode
BARBARA ALLAN [7]
WILLIAM TAYLOR [8]
THERE WAS A FROG. [9]
Folk-Music in America 75
3. Phrygian Mode
TERENCE, MY SON [10]
4. MixolydianM ode
PRETTY POLLY. [11]
MARY NEILL [12]
GIVE ME A KISS OF THE PRETTY BRIDE [13]
Some so-called modal airs lack the distinguishing features of one or another of the modes described above. Such an air is the following, - it might be regarded as Dorian, since it has the minor seventh and the major sixth, - though the prominence given to the seventh is good reason for treating it as Mixolydian, in spite of the absence of the distinguishing major third.
GREEN GROWS THE LAUREL [14]
Change of mode occurs very rarely. What is understood by modulation, that is, change of key only; also the introduction of the major seventh into a minor melody, are special developments of artistic music. The accompanying melody illustrates change of mode.
THE KING'S DAUGHTER [15]
In this instance the change is a violent o ne, from AEolian (or Dorian) to Ionian in the second part of the melody.
II. STRUCTURE
Under this head I shall refer briefly to some of the structural peculiarities of folk-music in America, which will serve to point out a difference between a traditional tune, the product of individual invention plus communal re-creation, and a "composed" tune. The difference is in many ways analogous to the difference, as regards diction, literary style, etc., between, say, "'Sir Patrick Spens " and "The Wreck of the Hesperus," or any of the stirring but unconvincing imitations of the ancient ballad by Sir Walter Scott. Music, as well as words, emphasizes as a fact the inimitability of folk-song.
I. Circular Melodies
To a folk-singer, words and music together make the ballad he sings.[16] The one is not felt to exist without the other. An interesting survival of what is evidently a very early form of ballad-singing is the so-called circular tune, the feature of which is the absence of the tonic close, as in the accompanying example,--
RAMBLE, MY SON [17]
Individual stanzas of a ballad being felt as part of a whole, likewise the air, as sung to any single stanza, was not the melody of the ballad, but part of it. The closing note would not be final, but would have reference to the continuation of the ballad, until, when the final stanza was reached, the melody would take the form in the final cadence, that would indicate the song or ballad was finished. That these melodies have come down to us in an incomplete form is readily accountable, because of the fact that, in singing a ballad, whereas the incomplete close would occur many times, the final cadence would occur only once. The usual is more readily remembered than the unusual.[18]
2. Partial Melodies
I can but give a very brief summary of this interesting feature of folkmusic, in some of its manifestationso ne of the most striking. Partial melodies, or musical phrases, set each to a verse, or, rather, a musical sentence of a ballad, constitute the elements out of which a folk-tune is constructed. It will readily be observed by any one who listens to a folk-singer, that in many instances partial melodies, identical in form or nearly so, are repeated in different parts of the tune, according to a fixed law. The following formulas will serve to identify the more common types of melodic structure.[19]
I. Two elements, a, b
First type: a, b, a, b.
THE MERMAID [20]
Second type: a, b, 19, a.
THE IRISH GIRL [21]
Third type: a, a', a", b.
LORD BATEMAN [22]
2. Three elements, a, b, c
First type: a, a', b, c.
THE BUTCHER BOY [23]
Second type: a, b, b', c.
COME ALL YOU MAIDENS FAIR [24]
Third type: a, b, a, c.
FAIR FLORILLA [25]
3. Four or more elements, a, b, c, d, etc.
First type: a, b, c, d.
THE JOLLYB EGGAR [26]
Second type: a, b, a, c, d, e.
THE MAKING OF THE HAY [27]
Third type: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, d'.
THE GYPSY DAVY [28]
3. National Types
Folk-melodies of Irish origin exhibit one or two peculiarities o f their own that are worthy of passing notice. For example, the arrangement of partialm elodiesa ccordingt o the formulas, a , b, b', a, and a, b, b', c, is very common. Another feature, even more marked, appears in the closing cadence, - the repetition of the final note of the air. The accompanying
melody illustrates well both of these characteristics.[29]
ADIEU, MY LOVELY NANCY [30]
Another melody, showing also the structural peculiarity of the pentatonic scale, as well as the repetition of the final note, is worthy of inclusion here, by reason of its great beauty.
THE GREEN MOSSY BANKS OF THELEA [31]
Though a modal rather than a structural peculiarity of melody, it may be remarked that Irish singers have a liking for airs cast in the Mixolydian mode.
33 BALL STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
1. The Irish people in our large cities are keeping alive a great quantity of folk-song.
W. C., Boston, Mass., tells of hearing a city laborer of Irish extraction sing from B P. M.
to 5 A. M., without singing a song twice, a worthy rival to the "old singing-men" of Baring-Gould and others.
2. These modes may be represented on the piano by taking the white keys only, in the ctaves, A-A, D-D, E-E, G-G, respectively.
3. R. V. Williams (Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii, p. 111) writes, "The Phrygian mode is exceedingly rare in British folk-song."
4. King John and the Bishop, A. From M. E. E., through S. A. F., Providence, R. I.
5. From MS. of 1790.
6. From MS. of 1790.
7. Bonny Barbara Allan, E. From M. E. H., St. Mary's, Pa.
8. William Taylor, E. From O. F. A. C., Harrisburg, Pa.
9. The Frog and the Mouse, B. From S. L. G., Canton, Mass.
10. Lord Randall, J. From M. R. M., Newtonville, Mass.
11. Polly Oliver, C. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
12. Mary Neill, A. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
13. Katharine Jaffray, B. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
14. Green grows the Laurel, B. From O. F. A. C., Harrisburg, Pa.
15. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, G. From J. C., Vineland, N. J.
16. There are no recited ballads. People who do not sing seldom know folk-songs, and then only as recollections, often fragmentary, of songs they have heard sung.
17. Lord Randall, T. From O. F. A. C., Harrisburg, Pa.
18. Some circular melodies are dance-tunes, -a fact pointing to the intimate connection of ballad and dance.
19. C. J. Sharp (English Folk-Song, p. 72) treats the subject more fully from the viewpoint of British folk-music.
20. The Mermaid, A. From J. G. M., Newbury, Vt.
21. The Irish Girl, B. From MS. of 1790o.
22. Young Beichan, C. From N. A. C., Rome, Pa.
23. The Butcher Boy, A. From O. F. A. C., Harrisburg, Pa.
24. The Sprig of Thyme, B. From MS. of 1790.
25. Fair Florella, C. From A. W. L., Thornton, N. H.
26. The Jolly Beggar, A. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
27. The Making of the Hay, A. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
28. The Gypsy Laddie, P. From L. N. C., Boston, Mass.
29. Cf. also Mary Neill and Give me a Kiss of the Pretty Bride, s. v., Mixolydian mode.
30. From S. C., Boston, Mass.
31 From S. C., Boston, Mass.