1. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
America’s Musical Landscape th edition
PowerPoint by Myra Lewinter Malamut
Georgian Court University
Part 1:
Music in Early North America
Chapter 2: Folk Music
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

2. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Folk Music = Simple songs and instrumental pieces whose origin has been lost or forgotten
Or music composed in an informal style traditional in certain cultures
Unpretentious, easy to remember and to perform, folk music appeals to inexperienced listeners and sophisticated musicians alike
Folk music of the United States springs from many ethnic and cultural sources
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, other European influences, Africa—especially West Africa
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

3. Folk Music: Spanish Traditions
Spanish traditions date from 1565, when the Spanish founded St. Augustine, Florida--The oldest European settlement in the United States
Today in the Southwest, Spanish folk songs and dances, and hymns (religious songs) are heard
reflecting origins in seventeenth-century Spain or more recent Mexico
Alabado = A Spanish hymn
A religious song of praise
Part of a thriving Spanish and Mexican folk tradition that survives in the American Southwest
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

4. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 4
Unlike the stately cotillion,
performed by formally dressed
dancers in elegant settings,
the lively cutilio is the last of a
set of square dances popularly
danced in New Mexico through
the nineteenth century. The
dance posed a challenge to
dancers to keep up with its
fast tempo and complex steps.
El Cutilio
Anonymous
Listening guide page 35
Instrument: Fiddle
Melody:
Meter: Duple
Section A begins with an upward leap and continues with a rising inflection, then is repeated
Section B begins with a downward inflection, then is repeated
A A B B A A B B
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

5. Folk Music: British Traditions
Early English settlers in the New World brought few musical instruments with them
Violins and other stringed instruments became available; people played British fiddle tunes and dances from their childhood
Many traditional songs acquired new words and altered melodies reflecting American dialects, New World experience
These folk music traditions survive today in rural and mountain areas, where the style of singing and playing instruments is close to that of seventeenth-century Britain
Lullabies, nonsense songs, work songs, singing games
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

6. British Traditions: Folk Ballads
Most common of all folk songs are ballads
Ballad = A story told in song
Sung from memory by solo voice, with or without accompaniment
Strophic in form, often with many stanzas
Ballad song texts evolved over long time periods
Singers often add, alter, or delete stanzas, lending a song local or timely relevance, expressing creativity
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

7. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 5
A favorite of George Washington,
this example of a ballad is
sometimes called “Barbry Ellen”
or another similar name, and
probably originated in Scotland
The story is of the young “Sweet
William,” who is dying for love of
“hard-hearted Barbara Allen,”
who of course loves him and is
remorseful for having repelled
his advances
Barbara Allen
Anonymous
Listening guide page 38
Form: Strophic, with several four-line stanzas
Melody: Based upon a pentatonic scale, which is a five-note scale within the range of an octave—Barbara Allen uses only the tones of the five black notes of a keyboard
Rhythm: Irregular, but a steady underlying pulse with a general sense of triple meter
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

8. Early American Folk Music
Early emigrants reflected the influence of the British broadside…
A topical ballad, printed on a big sheet or sets of sheets called songsters
From the seventeenth century, Americans altered traditional ballads to fit their new experiences
Setting original words to old tunes
Broadsides included historical or topical events, moral instruction, political commentary, sometimes satire
John Dickinson’s “Liberty Song”
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

9. Early American Folk Music
Songs and instrumental music:
Frontier people sang about freedom, equality, danger, beauty of nature
Ballads about the Erie Canal (1825), the California gold rush (1849), more
Slaves had their own music
Miners, farmers, railroad workers even outlaws had folk music
Lullabies, play party songs
Chanteys were sailors’ work songs; popular in New England
The Pemigewasset Coach
Painted by
Enoch W. Perry, Jr. ( )
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

10. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 6
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter.
Wa-ay, you rollin’ river.
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,
Away, we’re bound away
‘Cross the wide Missoura.
Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you.
Oh, Shenandoah, I’ll not deceive you.
For seven years I’ve been a rover.
Shenandoah
Anonymous
Performed by Pete Seeger
Listening guide page 41
Form: Strophic, with refrain at end of each verse
Meter: Quadruple
Tempo: Slow
Accompaniment: Sparse strumming by guitar
This song originated in the areas of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, traveling down to the ocean, where sailors adopted its rolling melody; Shenandoah was an Indian chief living on the Missouri River
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

11. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
African Traditions
Early seventeenth century
The first Africans were forcibly brought to America in European slave ships
Many slaveholders harshly discouraged references to African gods and religions in any traditional song or dance
Slaves in New England, treated with more leniency than southern slaves, would entertain themselves and their masters
Singing, dancing, playing musical instruments
The first generation of slaves born in America began to develop their own music, American music rooted in African customs and sounds
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

12. African Traditions: Field Hollers
Slaves working on plantations poured all the anguish of their new, tragic experience into field hollers, which were…
Loud, rhythmically flexible, emotionally expressive chants or cries sung by a solitary voice
Some had words but most used neutral syllables, enabling contact with fellow workers over distances
Slaves working in a field
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

13. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 7
The field holler enabled the
slaves to establish
wordless but heartwarming
contact with fellow workers
who, hearing the poignant
cries, could respond with
expressive hollers of their
own.
Field Holler
Listening guide page 43
Timbre: Solo male voice
Rhythm: Free, flexible
Melody: Simple, narrow, mournful phrase on three tones, repeated
Text: Neutral syllables, easy to sing and to hear over distances
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

14. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 8
Notice the sound of the high
falsetto range, lying above
the normal, full, chest voice
Falsetto enhanced the
ability to call over long
distances
Father’s Field Call
Listening guide page 43
Timbre: Solo male voice in falsetto range
Rhythm: Free, flexible
Melody: Begins with upward leap, succeeded by a naturally falling inflection, reminiscent of the familiar “Yoo-hoo”
Text: Wordless
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

15. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 9
Oh, da time don’t get no better here
I’m goin’ down the road
I’m goin’ away to leave ya
If the time don’t get no better here
Down the road I’m goin’.
If the time don’t get no better
Complaint Call
Listening guide page 44
Timbre: Solo male voice
Rhythm: Free, flexible, accommodating the text
Melody: Based on a five-note, pentatonic scale, the melody begins high, then falls to lower pitches
Notice the “bent,” or slurred melodically ambiguous blue notes that touch and linger slightly below the normal tones of the western scale, which later applied to jazz music
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

16. African Traditions: Ring Shouts
Another African tradition translated to an African American experience was the religious shout or ring shout
Performed at religious services or camp meetings
The “shouters” formed a ring and shuffled energetically to the singing of the spiritual, gradually quickening their pace, barely lifting their feet, falling from exhaustion
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

17. African Traditions: Work Songs
Work Songs accompanied tasks such as rowing, hoeing, chopping trees
Slaves made up, or improvised work songs
Work songs often set the pace and synchronized movements of forced laborers
Strophic in form
Call-and-response = Leading lines of each verse were sung by a single voice, alternating with a repeated phrase or refrain sung by the group
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

18. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Listening Example 10
Chorus
Won’t you ring, old hammer?
Hammer, ring!
Hammer, Ring
Performed by Jesse Bradley and
group at State Penitentiary,
Huntsville, Texas, 1934
Listening guide page 45
Form: Strophic, call-and-response
Meter: Duple
Hammer songs accompanied men driving the spikes fastening long steel rails to wooden railroad ties; relentless rhythm, driving energy reinforce and support the regular rhythm of the hammering men
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

19. African Traditions: Musical Instruments
In Africa, drums accompanied work songs, providing two or three underlying complex rhythmic patterns
Many slaves brought small drums and simple string instruments to America
Slaveholders banned the use of African drums, fearing drums would incite revolt
Slaves made percussive instruments from empty oil drums, metal washbasins, more
Slaves clapped, body-slapped, stamped rhythms
Rattles or bits of shell or bone enhanced rhythms
Banjos were created by using a hollowed-out gourd or calabash
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

20. What of African Music Survives Today?
Today’s African American musics are deeply rooted in African traditions that arrived in the New World with the first slaves
Call-and-response became a basic characteristic of African American vocal and instrumental music
Improvisation is basic within jazz, and colors much other music
Much African American music is still based on the “bent” or flexible tones of the blues scale, unheard in this country until the first West Africans arrived
The emphasis in African American music on rhythm over melody, and the complexity of African rhythms compared with those of Western (European) music is apparent
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music

21. Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music
Image Credits
Slide 8: John Dickinson’s Liberty Song Public domain
Slide 9: “The Pemigewasset Coach,” painted by Enoch W. Perry Jr., Photograph © Corel
Slide 12: Slaves working in a field, Library of Congress (LC-USZ )
Part 1: Music in Early North America Chapter 2: Folk Music