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Title: English Folk-Song and Dance
Author: Frank Kidson
Mary Neal
Release date: February 12, 2021 [eBook #64536]
Language: English
Credits: Ruth Conway, Paul Marshall and the entire DP
proofreading team.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH FOLK-
SONG AND DANCE ***
27. ENGLISH FOLK-SONG
AND DANCE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100 PRINCES STREET
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
Toronto: J. M. DENT & SONS, Ltd.
Tokyo: THE MARUZEN KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
All rights reserved
ENGLISH FOLK-SONG
AND DANCE
BY
FRANK KIDSON
29. CONTENTS
ENGLISH FOLK-SONG
PAGE
Introduction 3
i. Definition 9
ii. The Origin of Folk-Song 11
iii. The Cante-Fable 15
iv. The Construction of Folk-Music 19
v. Changes that occur in Folk-Music 25
vi. The Quality of Folk-Song, and its Diffusion 36
vii. The Movement for collecting English Folk-Song 40
viii. The Noting of Folk-Music 47
ix. The Different Classes of Folk-Song 52
x. The Narrative Ballad 53
xi. Love Songs and Mystic Songs 57
xii. The Pastoral 60
xiii. Drinking Songs and Humorous Songs 62
xiv. Highwayman and Poacher Songs 64
xv. Soldier Songs 66
xvi. Sea Songs 67
xvii. Pressgang Songs 69
xviii. Hunting and Sporting Songs 70
xix. Songs of Labour 71
xx. Traditional Carols 74
xxi. Children’s Singing-Games 77
xxii. The Ballad Sheet and Song Garland 78
Bibliography 86
ENGLISH FOLK-DANCE
30. Introduction 97
i. The Morris Dance To-day 125
ii. Tunes 130
iii. Musical Instruments 132
iv. The Dress 136
v. Extra Characters 141
vi. The Sword Dance 145
vii. The Furry Dance 150
viii. The Country Dance 152
ix. The Present-Day Revival of the Folk-Dance 158
x. Conclusions 167
Bibliography 173
31. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Morris Dancers at Bampton-in-the-Bush, Oxon. 97
(By kind permission of The Daily Chronicle)
Abingdon Dances, whose tradition goes back to 1700 104
(From The Espérance Morris Book, Vol. I.,
by kind permission of Messrs J. Curwen & Son)
Morris Dancers in the time of James I. 120
Morris Dance and Music 125
(From the Orchesographie of Thoinot-Arbeau, British
Museum)
Whit-Monday at Bampton-in-the-Bush, Oxon. 145
(By kind permission of The Daily Chronicle)
The Lock; Characteristic of Sword Dances 148
(From The Espérance Morris Book, Vol. II.,
by kind permission of Messrs J. Curwen & Son)
32. ENGLISH FOLK-SONG
BY FRANK KIDSON
NOTE
I am indebted to Miss Lucy E. Broadwood
for permission to use a folk-tune of her
collecting, and for many helpful suggestions.
F. K.
INTRODUCTION
Writing two centuries ago, Joseph Addison tells us in the character of Mr
Spectator:—
“When I travelled I took a particular delight in hearing the songs and fables
that are come down from father to son, and are most in vogue among the
common people of the countries through which I passed; for it is impossible that
anything should be universally tasted and approved of by a multitude, though they
are only the rabble of the nation, which hath not in it some peculiar aptness to
please and gratify the mind of man” (Spectator, No. 70). He further says:—
“An ordinary song or ballad, that is the delight of the common people, cannot
fail to please all such readers as are not unqualified for the entertainment by their
affectation or ignorance.”
It was not only the cultured Mr Addison who recognised the claims of the
people’s songs as expressive of sentiments that were worthy the consideration of
the more learned, for quotation upon quotation could be given of examples where
the refined and learned have found in the primitive song that which appealed in
the highest degree.
The moderns need no excuse for the study of folk-song, and few will regard
the consideration of people’s-lore as an idle amusement.
The present essay is put forth with all diffidence as a very slight dissertation
upon a complex subject, and it does not pretend to do more than enter into the
fringe of it.
33. The younger of the present generation have seen the gradual speeding up of
technique in composition and performance, but with this increased standard there
has been a tendency to let fall certain very sacred and essential things that belong
to musical art. In too many cases the composer has not quite justified the
complexity of his composition; while glorying in the skill of his craftsmanship he
has too frequently forgotten the primitive demand for art and beauty, apart from
technical elaboration.
That type of simple melody that formerly pleased what we might regard as a
less cultured age, holds no place in present-day composition or in the esteem of a
certain class.
It is probable that this melodic starvation turned so many, who had not lost the
feeling for simple tune, towards folk-music when this was dragged from obscurity
and declared by competent musical judges to be worthy of consideration. Then
people began to revel in its charm, and to feel that here was something that had
been withheld from them, but which was good for their musical souls.
A simple air of eight or sixteen bars may not appear difficult to evolve, or even
worth evolving at all, much less of record; but when the matter is further
considered, we have to acknowledge that seemingly trivial melodies have wrought
effects which have upset thrones and changed the fate of nations. Where they
have not had this great political influence their histories show that they have
rooted themselves deeply into the hearts of a people, and put into shade the finest
compositions of great musicians. An undying vitality appears to be inherent in
them, and this is shown by their general appeal throughout periods of thought and
life totally unlike. Many examples prove this, and such an air as “Greensleeves”
might be cited in this connexion.
One would suppose that nothing could be more apart in thought, action, and
habit than the gallant of Elizabeth’s reign and an English farm labourer of the
present day. And yet the tune “Greensleeves” that pleased the sixteenth century
culture is found the cherished possession of countrymen in the Midlands, who
execute a rustic dance to a traditional survival of it. Further proof that it is one of
those immortal tunes to which reference has been made is shown by the fact that
it exists in various forms, and has had all kinds of songs fitted to it from its first
recorded appearance in Shakespeare’s time (who mentions it) down to the present
day.
“Greensleeves” is probably an “art” tune and not strictly folk-music. Hence in
its passage downwards it has gradually got stripped of some of its subtilty, as it
has been chiefly passed onward by tradition. This change will be noted further on.
Other tunes that, coming from remote antiquity, still find a welcome with the
people are, “John Anderson my Jo,” and “Scots wha hae,” while “Lillibulero,” and
“Boyne Water,” though of lesser age, fall into the same category.
34. We have even taken to our hearts tunes of other nationalities, and perhaps
have more French airs among our popular music than of any other country. As
every student of national song knows, “We won’t go home till morning” is but
“Malbrook,” the favourite of Marie Antoinette, who learned it from the peasant
woman called in to nurse her first child. “Ah vous dirai je” is known as “Baa baa
black sheep” in every nursery, while “In my cottage near a wood” is a literal
translation from an old French song to its proper tune.
Such of these, or of this class, as are not folk-tunes have the same spirit, and it
is this indefinable quality that causes folk-music to be so tenacious of existence. If
it be good enough it is almost impossible for it to die and be totally forgotten. A
tune may lie dormant for half a century, but it rises again and has its period of
renewed popularity. One might name many a music-hall air, over which the people
have for a period gone half wild, that is merely a resuscitation of a tune that has
pleased a former generation. Thus such airs pass through strata of widely differing
thought and mode of life.
It is folk-music that appeals to the bed-rock temperament of the people.
Artificial music can only do so to a culture, which may change its standards with a
change of thought, and that which is the applauded of one generation becomes
the despised of a succeeding one; musical history can furnish many such
examples. These facts justify our appreciation of folk-music and elevate its study.
I. DEFINITION
The word “folk-song” is so elastic in definition that it has been freely used to
indicate types of song and melody that greatly differ from each other. The word
conveys a different signification to different people, and writers have got sadly
confused from this circumstance. Even the word “song” has not a fixed meaning,
for it can imply both a lyric with its music, and the words of the lyric only.
“Folk-song,” or “people’s song,” may be understood to imply, in its broadest
sense, as Volkslied does to the German, a song and its music which is generally
approved by the bulk of the people. Thus any current popular drawing-room song,
or the latest music-hall production, would naturally hold this meaning, though it
would not come into line with the other conceptions of folk-song, and probably not
altogether satisfy the German ideal. Then, what may fitly be called “national”
songs have a strong claim upon the word. “God save the King,” “Home sweet
Home,” “Tom Bowling,” “Heart of Oak,” and countless others that form our national
store of song and melody could under this meaning be called folk-songs, and this
might come closer to the German idea of a Volkslied.
35. The type, however, which lies nearest the definition of folk-song, as understood
by the modern expert, is a song born of the people and used by the people—
practically exclusively used by them before being noted down by collectors and
placed before a different class of singers. To pursue the subject further one might
split straws over the word “people,” but it may be generally accepted that “the
people,” in this instance, stands for a stratum of society where education of a
literary kind is, in a greater or lesser degree, absent.
This last definition of folk-song, as “song and melody born of the people and
used by the people as an expression of their emotions, and (as in the case of
historical ballads) for lyrical narrative,” is the one adopted in these pages and that
generally recognised by the chief collectors and by the Folk-Song Society. In
addition it may be mentioned that folk-song is practically almost always traditional,
so far as its melody is concerned, and, like all traditional lore, subject to corruption
and alteration. Also, that we have no definite knowledge of its original birth, and
frequently but a very vague idea as to its period.
It has been cleverly said that a proverb is the “wit of one and the wisdom of
many.” In a folk-song or folk-ballad we may accept a similar definition, to the effect
that it is in the power of one person to put into tangible form a history, a legend,
or a sentiment which is generally known to, or felt by, the community at large, but
which few are able to put into definite shape. We may suppose that such effort
from one individual may be either crude or polished; that matters little if the
sentiment is a commonly felt one, for common usage will give it some degree of
polish, or at any rate round off some of its corners.
II. THE ORIGIN OF FOLK-SONG
Every nation, both savage and civilized, has its folk-song, and this folk-song is a
reflection of the current thought of the class among which it is popular. It is
frequently a spontaneous production that invests in lyric form the commonly felt
emotion or sentiment of the moment.
This type is more observable among savage tribes than among civilized
nations. Folk-song is therefore not so permanent among the former as it is among
the latter. So far as we can gather, though it is difficult to get at the truth of this
matter, among primitive people the savage does not appear to retain his song-
traditions, but invents new lyrics as occasion calls. For example, one is continually
reading in books of travel of negroes, or natives of wild countries, chanting
extemporary songs descriptive of things which have been the happenings of the
day, and telling of the white man who has come among them, of the feast he has
provided, of the dangers they have encountered during the journey, and so forth.
36. The tunes of these songs appear to be chiefly monotonous chants, and the
accompanying music of the rudest character, produced on tom-toms, horns, reed-
flutes, or similar kinds of instruments. A very typical description of this class of
folk-song, the like of which may be found in most books of travel, occurs in Day’s
Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan. The author
says:—
“The ordinary folk-songs of the country are called “Lavanis,”
and will be familiar to every one who has heard the coolies sing
as they do their work, the women nursing their children, the
bullock-drivers and dooley-bearers, or Sepoys on the march. The
airs are usually very monotonous, the words, if not impromptu,
are a sort of history, or ballad in praise of some warrior, or ‘burra-
sahib.’ Some have a kind of chorus, each in turn singing an
improvised verse.”
This type appears to be the origin of a nation’s folk-song.
It is a sign of a country’s civilization when it begins to keep records, either by
tradition or more fixed methods, and it is a theory (which may be probably
accepted as correct) that chronicles were first chanted in ballad form and thus
more easily passed downward in remembrance. This may be accepted as the
origin of the folk-ballad. Its music has originated by the same natural instinct that
produces language.
Much has been said of the communal origin of folk-song and folk-music, but it
is somewhat difficult fully to realise what is meant by such a term in relation to
these matters.
Those who hold this theory appear to assert that a folk-song with its music has
had a primal formation at some early and indefinite time, and that this germ,
thrown upon the world, has been fashioned and changed by numberless brains
according to the popular demand, and has only met with general acceptance when
it has fulfilled the requirements that the populace have demanded. This change is
called its “evolution,” and it is sometimes claimed that this evolution still goes on
where folk-songs are yet sung; this means that the folk-song is virtually in a state
of fluidity.
Such, briefly, appears to be the idea of those who hold the evolutionary, or
communal, theory of folk-song origin. It cannot be denied that there is an obvious
truth in such a contention, but before it can be generally accepted surely there
must be much modification. It cannot be altogether decided that the original germ
is absolutely different from the folk-song as found existing to-day, but that both
folk-song and folk-music are subject to change also cannot be disputed. The
parlour game “Gossip,” in which A whispers a short narrative to B, who in turn
whispers it to C, the narrative passing finally to Z, has been used as an illustration
37. of the variations that folk-song undergoes. In the game, the tale originally put
forth by A is generally found to be much unlike that received by Z. Folk-song in
some degree suffers such change by conscious or unconscious alteration.
Unconscious alteration we can easily understand; that is merely the result of
imperfect remembrance. Conscious alteration may be the effect, in vocal
rendering, of a difficulty in individual singers of attaining certain intervals, or from
choice. Alteration in instrumental rendering of folk-music is chiefly due to lack of
skill in the performer on a particular instrument. Thus, what may be difficult to
render on a flute may be easy on a fiddle; hence we can conceive an alteration
may be purposely made for facility of performance. This is decidedly not evolution,
nor communal origin.
III. THE CANTE-FABLE
The existence of the “Cante-fable” has furnished another theory of folk-song
origin. The Cante-fable is a traditional prose narrative having rhymed passages
incorporated with the tale. These rhymes are generally short verses, or couplets,
which recur at dramatic points of the story. They were probably sung to tunes, but
present-day remembrance has failed to preserve more than a few specimens, and
the verse, or couplet, is now generally recited.
It has been asserted that the Cante-fable is a sort of germ from which both
ballad and prose narrative have evolved. Mr Jacobs, in English Fairy Tales, says
—“The Cante-fable is probably the protoplasm out of which both ballad and folk-
tale have been differentiated; the ballad by omitting the narrative prose, and the
folk-tale by expanding it.”
Mr Cecil J. Sharp, in English Folk-song: Some Conclusions, p. 6, tells of having
noted a version of the ballad “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor”—“in which the whole
of the story was sung, with the exception of three lines, which the singer assured
me should be spoken. This was clearly a case of a Cante-fable that had very
nearly, but not quite, passed into the form of a ballad, thus corroborating Mr
Jacobs’ theory.”
The present writer is sorry to differ from Mr Jacobs as well as from Mr Sharp in
this matter, but he does not think that facts quite justify the conclusion. He can
but look upon the speaking of the three lines of the “Fair Eleanor” ballad, instead
of singing them, as merely an individual eccentricity that has no value as pointing
to a nearly completed evolution. Their theory indicates, to put it crudely, that the
Cante-fable is in the condition of a tadpole which by and by will have its fins and
tail turned into legs, will forsake its original element, and hop about a meadow,
instead of being entirely confined to pond water.
38. An examination of existing Cante-fables will certainly reveal the fact that the
fragments of verse are used either as a literary ornament, or to force some
particular dramatic situation home to the hearer. Also, it must be noticed that the
rhyme passages are not merely fragmentary parts of a prose narrative which is
gradually turning wholly into rhyme, but most frequently consist of a repeated
verse, or couplet, that occurs at parts of the story, which could not be so
effectively told in prose.
The commonly known story of “Orange,” versions of which, all having the same
rhyme passages, are to be found in English, German, and other folk-tales is a good
example. With little variation the story tells of a stepmother who kills her
husband’s child, makes the body into a pie, to be eaten by the father, and buries
the bones in the cellar. First one member of the family goes into this place and
hears the voice of the murdered child sing,—
“My mother did kill me and put me in pies,
My father did eat me and say I was nice;
My two little sisters came picking my bones,
And buried me under cold marble stones.”
Then other members of the family go to the cellar and in turn hear the same voice
repeating the rhyme (see Folk-Song Journal, vol. ii., p. 295, for a version of the
tale and a tune sung to the above words learned from Liverpool children).
Another Cante-fable, surely a genuine one, is given by Charles Dickens in
“Nurses’ Stories” in The Uncommercial Traveller.
In this case the rhyme—
“A lemon has pips,
A yard has ships,
And I’ll have Chips!”
is brought out with vivid effect by the narrator at intervals and with terror-striking
force due to its expected recurrence, just as in the case of the story of “Orange.”
As Dickens puts it—“I don’t know why, but the fact of the Devil expressing himself
in rhyme was peculiarly trying to me.” And again—“For this refrain I had waited
since its last appearance with inexpressible horror, which now culminated.” And
—“The invariable effect of this alarming tautology on the part of the Evil Spirit was
to deprive me of my senses.”
There can be but little doubt that this Cante-fable is a real nurse’s story,
remembered by the great author from his childhood, and Dickens so well describes
the feeling of terror that the rhyme inspires in the childish listener, that we cannot
39. but grant that the original makers of Cante-fable were quite alive to the dramatic
force such recurring rhymes possess.
Other examples of the Cante-fable are to be found in Chambers’ Popular
Rhymes of Scotland and elsewhere. All, however, point to the verse being used as
an ornamental and dramatic addition to the story, and certainly not as indicating a
transitionary stage between a rhyming and a prose narrative.
The question of a Cante-fable origin of the folk-ballad is here somewhat fully
dealt with, as it is a sufficiently romantic theory to lead people, who have not fully
considered all the points involved, to accept it on trust.
IV. THE CONSTRUCTION OF
FOLK-MUSIC
It will be quite evident to the average hearer that much folk-music is built upon
scales different from those that form the foundation of the ordinary modern tune.
This fact is accounted for by the circumstance that a large percentage of folk-
melodies are “modal”; i.e. constructed upon the so-called “ecclesiastical modes”
which, whether adopted from the Greek musical system or not, had Greek
nomenclature, and were employed in the early church services.
The ecclesiastical scales may be realised by playing an octave scale on the
white keys of the piano only. Thus—C to C is Ionian, D to D Dorian, E to E
Phrygian, F to F Lydian (rarely used), G to G Mixolydian, A to A Æolian, and B to B
Locrian (practically unused).
Progress in harmony and polyphony gradually revealed the cramping effect of
many modal intervals, and already by the beginning of the seventeenth century
our modern major and minor scales (the first, however, corresponding to the
Ionian mode in structure) had supplanted the rest, so far as trained musicians
were concerned. Not so with the folk-tune maker; he was conservative enough to
preserve that which had become obsolete elsewhere. We find a large proportion of
folk-airs are in the Dorian, Mixolydian, and Æolian modes, with much fewer in the
Phrygian.
When folk-music began to be first studied scientifically a theory was held that
because of its modal character it was necessarily a reflex of ecclesiastical music,
and that secular melodies were either church chants set to songs, or in some other
way derived from them. It is known that many of the early clerics established
schools for the teaching of music, with intent to enrich the services. But while this
theory is temptingly plausible, yet it is incapable of proof, and a reverse one might,
40. with equal reason, be held to maintain that the church took its music directly from
the people, or at any rate adapted its form from that mostly popular.
It has also been asserted that the modal character of folk-music is a clear proof
of great age. It is certainly more than likely that most of the modal tunes that are
found are of considerable antiquity, but it is scarcely safe to conclude that all are
so. How old any particular folk-tune may be is a problem incapable of solution, and
all attempts to fix its age and period can be but, at best, mere guesswork.
We may grant that folk-music has been handed down traditionally by many
generations of singers, but if it has pleased these different generations we must
also admit that any new composition of folk-music, to please the people, must
conform to their common demand.
Folk-music seems to have held its own traditional ideals longer and more
closely than music composed for that class which has so persistently ignored it.
The cultured musician is always, consciously or unconsciously, influenced by the
music of his day, and as a consequence adheres to its idioms, or is genius enough
to found a school of his own. His music too is far more elaborate than that
produced by the rustic, or untaught musician. It has harmony, and many more
points of evidence that enable us definitely to fix its period of composition.
The composer of folk-music may be compared, in a sense, to the Indian, or
Chinese art-worker who repeats the class of patterns that has come down to him
from time immemorial. When European influence was brought to bear on his work
his patterns became debased, lost their original beauty, and gained nothing from
the new source of inspiration.
There is no space in this small manual to enter into a disquisition on the
Modes. The reader is referred to such a work as the new edition of Grove’s
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (vol. iii., p. 222), to Carl Engel’s Study of
National Music, and to a most valuable contribution to the subject by Miss A. G.
Gilchrist, “Note on the Modal System of Gaelic Tunes,” in the Journal of the Folk-
Song Society, vol. iv., No. 16.
The following are given as examples of modal folk-tunes, in the modes most
frequently found:—
ONE MOONLIGHT NIGHT
Dorian Sung in a “Cante-Fable”
41. One moonlight night, as I sat high, I looked for one, but two came by; The
boughs did bend, the leaves did shake, To see the hole the fox did make.
[Listen]
THE BONNY LABOURING BOY
Noted by Miss L. E. Broadwood Sung by Mr Lough, Surrey
Mixolydian
As I roved out one eve - ning, being in the blooming spring,
I heard a love-ly dam-sel fair most grie-vously did sing, Say-ing
“Cru-el were my pa - rents that did me so an - noy. They
did not let me mar-ry with my bon-ny la-b’ring boy.”
[Listen]
42. CHRISTMAS CAROL AS SUNG IN
NORTH YORKSHIRE
Æolian Mode
God rest you merry, merry gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Re-
member Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas day, To
save our souls from Satan’s pow’r that long had gone astray, Oh,
tidings of comfort and joy, and joy, and
joy, Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, and joy.
[Listen]
In addition to modal tunes we have a certain number of folk-airs built upon a
“gapped,” or limited, scale of five notes instead of the usual seven. This
“pentatonic” scale, which appears to be very characteristic of the primitive music
of all nations, was formerly held as an infallible sign of a Scottish origin, and the
old recipe to produce a Scottish air was—“stick to the black keys of the piano.” It is
quite true that a large number of Scottish melodies have the characteristics of the
pentatonic scale, but so also have the Irish tunes, and there are a lesser number
that may claim to be English.
43. Much nonsense has been written to account for the existence of the pentatonic
scale, the general conclusion arrived at being that it arose from the use of an
imperfect instrument that could only produce five tones. Whatever the instrument
so limited may have been, it was neither the primitive flute (like the tin whistle) of
six vents, which is sufficient to produce well over an octave, nor was it the human
voice. The universal use of the five note scale among many nations wide apart has
never been satisfactorily explained. The following is an Irish pentatonic traditional
air.
THE SHAMROCK SHORE
Pentatonic
[Listen]
V. CHANGES THAT OCCUR IN
FOLK-MUSIC
That all traditional lore is subject to change is of course a well-recognised fact,
and this change is so uncertain in its effects, and so erratic in its selection that no
law appears to govern it. In ballads or prose narratives that exist only by verbal
transmission we may expect the dropping of obsolete words and phrases, and this
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