"MERRILY WE SING", FOLK MUSIC, &TC.
That is the name of the songbook lying on top of my father's piano, at his house in Milwaukee. I've seen it before, and picked it up before. But this time, at Thanksgiving, picking it up was pretty 'effin cool. Talk about a trip back in time. I thumbed through it, stopping to belt out not a few tunes to my daughter, wife, and father. Hannah and my father joined in a couple times; Twyla bopped along as ever, the little music lover.
It is songbook of around 150 songs arranged for "community singing"; i.e., with church groups, civic groups, at parties, with the family. Most people's first reaction to seeing this book might be that it is something straight out of the American 1950s; and they would be right. Of course that is meant mythologically, because actually the book was published even earlier than that, in 1936. The "50s" is that which is artfully depicted in the first Back To The Future film, when Marty time-travels back to when his father was his age, with the barbershop tune "Mr. Sandman" in the air and at every populated street corner.
Many cultural standards are printed in this book, from "The Star Spangled Banner", to "Oh My Darling, Clementine", lots of Lutheran Christmas carols such as "Silent Night", to "Jingle Bells" and many more in this vein. Plenty of songs expressed a sentiment of a people at war (as this country was, obviously, at the time). But what I love about these old songs are the not-at-all rare feelings of despair, loss, death, longing. Lyrically, these are often strange. Clementine, after all, drowns in a river.
Where I'm going is this: we need songs like these. We need such things to bind us together, as sharing a common, umbrella culture that is American. Importantly, children ought learn these songs, or such songs native to their country (if you aren't American); these are perfect for introduction of the child into American culture, and become part of their musical consciousness (Oh Susanna! don't you cry for me!). They are profoundly better, both musically and lyrically, than the perky crap peddled today as "children's music". And, at least for me, these songs strike me as very important to the art of composing. I mean, I'm studying with a composition teacher (W.A. Mathieu) who is on the true leading edge of tonal music, in both theory and practice. But the Merrily We Sing songs are as revitalizing as anything. These are fun; these are singable by anyone; these are about human things and feelings. Composers tend to forget that if their ambiguous artfulness can't connect with people, it isn't music.
A collection such as this defines what "folk music" really is. The term has been misappropriated for too long to refer to country & western, or even more broadly as anything with an acoustic guitar and vocals with lyrics about regular things, or protest-y things.
Wrong.
"Folk music" is that music which is anonymous to a culture. Sure, most of the songs in Merrily We Sing have author/composer credits. But you recognize them as if you didn't know. Rather, these are "created by America"; as in, created by the cultural values which basically belong to everyone participating in the culture. Of course, sophistication varies amidst some umbrella term this encompassing. Jazz is certainly folk music (at least, through its hard bop period). Notably, when jazz became "arty" in the late 60s, it moved away from being strictly folk.
Folk music is that music which entertains most people without objection. It is the music people respond to without having to think about it. It is the music that most penetrates what, in this case, the music of America really is. It is made up of songs that sound similiar to others, but nonetheless express a feeling in a unique way. Usually, not an abundance of technical acuity is required to perform these songs. Because folk music is music in plain language, using rhythms, melodies, and chord changes that are in common use. Folk music is what we all share, whether we want to or not.
Will a songbook such as this be updated, in a way that somehow finds songs that are common today, 2006? Maybe, but it won't be anytime very soon. Maybe in a decade. Maybe in the 2050s. I think the internet and mass-media culture will have to reach its apex, its "golden age", and then and only then, after a number of years, can a common culture expressed through folk songs return. Periods of cohesion alternate with periods of cultural dissolution. Such is the way of things.
Until then, I have Merrily We Wing as one of a small but important number of songbooks I own that bind together hearty, non-insulting, often humorous songs with me, Hannah, Twyla, and "America" before "America" became something few can solidly agree upon what it means.
4:50 PM |
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