Folk song (British)

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Caroline Jackson-Houlston (Oxford Brookes University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Domains

Folk Music

Dates

Date of occurrence 1750

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Genres and Modes

Folk Literature

Resources

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“Folk song” is an oral art that challenges the expectations of “literature”, which implies something written down. Musical performance is essential to its full effect. Like other forms more widely accepted as literary, such as drama, folk song is thus aesthetically amphibious.

The term itself is comparatively recent; Cecil Sharp thought of it as replacing alternatives such as “national song” in the 1880s. In 1954 the International Folk Music Council defined folk song as “the product of a musical tradition … evolved through the process of oral transmission” and “selection by the community”, whether it originated in “a community uninfluenced by popular and art music” or came from outside and was subsequently refashioned as part of “unwritten living tradition”.

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2768 words

Citation: Jackson-Houlston, Caroline. "Folk song (British)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=425, accessed 24 November 2024.]