Introduction

This is the third of five seminars which discuss the sources available to the historian of folklore. In this seminar we look at music, songs, and dance.

Seminar Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of music, song, and dance as sources for the historian of folklore in Europe?

Required Reading

• You should each read both of these items:

Karoblis, Gediminas, 'Dance, Love, and National Awakening in Late Nineteenth-Century LithuaniaLink opens in a new window', Journal of Baltic Studies 44/3 (2013), 395–406.

Roud, Steve, Folk Song in England (London, 2017), Chapter 1 'Is There Such a Thing as Folk Song, Anyway?'Link opens in a new window

This chapter is also available hereLink opens in a new window.

• You should each choose and analyse one song from these collections:

EITHER

Reeder, Roberta, ed., Down Along the Mother Volga: An Anthology of Russian Folk LyricsLink opens in a new window (Philadelphia, 1975)

OR

Roud, Steve, and Julia Bishop, eds, The New Penguin Book of English Folk SongsLink opens in a new window (Harmondsworth, 2014)

• Finally, I would like each of you to watch the short trailer of this film The Singing RevolutionLink opens in a new window.Link opens in a new window

Roud, Steve, and Julia Bishop, eds, The New Penguin Book of English Folk SongsLink opens in a new window (Harmondsworth, 2014)Link opens in a new windoLink opens in a new wind

Further Reading

Boyes, Georgina, The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology and the English Folk Revival (Leeds, 2010)

Buchanan, Donna A.. ed., Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse (Lanhan, MD, 2007)

Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1900), Vol. 1Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and Vol. 2Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Cooley, Timothy J., Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians (Bloomington, IN, 2005)

Emmerson, George S., and Ken Cuthbertson, A Social History of Scottish DanceLink opens in a new window (Montreal, 1972)

Gammon, Vic, 'Song, Sex, and Society in England, 1600-1850', Folk Music Journal 4: 3 (1982), 208-245

Kinney, Phyllis, Welsh Traditional Music (Cardiff, 2011)

Mason, Laura, Singing the French Revolution: Popular Culture and Politics 1787-1799Link opens in a new window (Ithaca, NY, 1996)

Matyka, Henryk, The Folk Dance and Costume Atlas of Poland: History, Heography, Music, Weddings, Dances, Songs, Costumes, with illustrations by Mark Attrill (n.s., UK, 1991)

Nemes, Robert, 'The Politics of the Dance Floor: Culture and Civil Society in Nineteenth-Century HungaryLink opens in a new window', Slavic Review 60/4 (2001), 802–823

Nunley, Charles, 'Sounding the Limits of Resistance Memory: Robert Desnos, Comics, and Nursery RhymesLink opens in a new window', The French Review 84/2 (2010), 284–298.

Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid, A Short History of Irish Traditional Music (Dublin, 2017)

Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, eds, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, 2^nd ed (Oxford, 1997)

Riley, Matthew, and Anthony D. Smith, Nation and Classical Music : From Handel to CoplandLink opens in a new window (Woodbridge, 2016), Chapter Two 'Folk Music into Art Music'.

Schofield, Derek, 'Visions of English Identity: The Country Dance and Shakespeare-Land', in Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland, ed. Matthew Cheeseman and Carina Hart (London, 2022), 114-131

Simons, Matt, 'Embodied Englishness in the Inter-War Morris Revival', in Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland, ed. Matthew Cheeseman and Carina Hart (London, 2022), 132-145

Thompson, E. P., 'Rough Music ReconsideredLink opens in a new window', Folklore 103, no. 1 (1992): 3–26.

Vallely, Fintan, ed., The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, 2nd. ed., (Cork, 2011)

Wood, Peter, 'John Barleycorn: The Evolution of a Folk-Song FamilyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window', Folk Music Journal 8: 4 (2004), 438-455

Young, Rob, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (London, 2011)

Electronic Resources

100 BalladsLink opens in a new window

A Folk Song A DayLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Broadside Ballads OnlineLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

ComhaltasLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Dawnsio/Welsh Folk Dance SocietyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

English Broadside Ballad ArchiveLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

English Folk Dance and Song SocietyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Gale Primary SourcesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

The Royal Scottish Country Dance SocietyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Scots Song ResourcesLink opens in a new window

The Singing RevolutionLink opens in a new window
Link opens in a new window

Link opens in a new windoLink opens in a new windowThe Singing RevolutionLink opens in a new window

The Vaughan Williams Memorial LibraryLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Welsh Ballads OnlineLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window