Transcript - Lawton Public Schools

Note the instruments the
group uses are the
same as early folk music
troupes.
Even today
Raggle Taggle consists
there are
of:Folk
vocals,
Alun
Musicians such
guitar, and
Griffiths
mandolin
as this group.
Raggle Taggle
Maryon
vocals and
percussion
Childs
play a range
of folk music
Clarinet,
flute,
from around
Jim Cook
whistle,
the world, including English,
saxophone
Irish, Eastern European, Klezmer
whistle,
Tim
recorder
and Cajun styles.
Woods
and viola
They play for parties, fairs,
David
dances and general
fiddle
Kirkman
entertainment, and provide foottapping music that will have you Alan Paton bodhran
John
up and dancing! http://www.raggleta
accordion
ggle.co.uk/
Pearce
Dances in the Country, c. 1850
Skinner left his own account of what the entertainments
were like in his childhood in a series of articles he wrote
for the People's Journal in 1923:
… The musicians at
the far end of the
barn extemporized a
platform out of the
fanner. The orchestra
generally consisted
of small fiddle, bass
fiddle (cello) for
vamping, and an
octavo flute. …I often
wonder how I, a boy of
eight or nine years,
survived the physical
strain and the loss of
sleep which my duties
with the band
occasioned. It was
nothing for Peter and
me to trudge eight or
ten weary miles on a slushy wet night in order to fulfil a
barn engagement. … There were times even when I
slept over the bass fiddle at the dances, and kept up
the vamp subconsciously.
The Gypsies and Their Music
The gypsies, as well as their music, have been
historically viewed as controversial subjects in the
world. Their nomadic life style, their lack of solid
religious foundation, their extreme musical expression
(deep grief vs. great passion), and their gifted music
skill, have been the theme of western literature and
music over the centuries and the gypsy people have
become the protagonists of anthropologists and
historicists research from the 17th century up to this
day. http://people.unt.edu/jw0109/misc/gypsy.htm
http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/WilliamSidneyMount.html
(Left) Francie "Markis" Jameson, an old-style "bass" player from the Northeast, c. 1890.
The painting 'The
Highland Dance' by
David Allan (1744-96)
shows open-air dancing
accompanied by one
violin and a cello; with a
bagpiper, not playing,
helping himself to
refreshments in the
background.
Country-dances, reels,
and strathspeys (type
of dance tune) were all
danced to folk music;
and as the dancingmasters—the people
largely responsible for
setting the trends—
normally accompanied
lessons with their own
fiddle-playing, it
followed that the
dance-music tradition
centered itself round
the solo fiddle. A
number of other
instrumentations were
also in common use.
Folk Music
History
Music originating among the common people of a
nation or region and spread about or passed down
orally, often with considerable variation.
A kind of music originating from the ordinary people
of a region or nation and continued by oral tradition.
The ballad is a typical form of folk music. Music is
also called “folk” when it is made by artists and
composers who are inspired by, or imitate, true folk
music.
Origins and definitions
The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance
are comparatively recent expressions. They are
extensions of the term folk lore, which was coined
in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms
to describe "the traditions, customs, and
superstitions of the uncultured classes." The term
is further derived from the German expression
Volk, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as
applied to popular and national music by Johann
Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over
half a century earlier.
http://www.karmina.cz/ensemble.php
Tambour
Fiddle
Lute
Hurdy-gurdy
Kobza
Mandoline
Large
Clapper
Renaissance bagpipes
Large
Drum
Alt
cornamusa
Bass
Recorder
Knowledge of the history and development of folk
music is largely conjectural. Musical notation of folk
songs and descriptions of folk music culture are
occasionally encountered in historical records, but
these tend to reflect primarily the literate classes'
indifference or even hostility. As Christianity
expanded in medieval Europe, attempts were made
to suppress folk music because of its association
with heathen rites and customs, and uncultivated
singing styles were denigrated. During the
Renaissance, new humanistic attitudes encouraged
acceptance of folk music as a genre of rustic antique
song, and composers made extensive use of the
music; folk tunes were often used as raw material for
motets and masses, and Protestant hymns
borrowed from folk music. In the 17th century folk
music gradually receded from the consciousness of
the literate classes, but in the late 18th century it
again became important to art music. In the 19th
century, folk songs came to be considered a
"national treasure," on a par with cultivated poetry
and song. National and regional collections were
published, and the music became a means of
promoting nationalistic ideologies. Since the 1890s,
folk music has been collected and preserved by
mechanical recordings. Publications and recordings
have promoted wide interest, making possible the
revival of folk music where traditional folk life and
folklore are moribund. After World War II, archives of
field recordings were developed throughout the
world. While research has usually dealt with
"authentic" (i.e., older) material not heavily
influenced by urban popular music and the mass
media, the influence of singer-songwriters such as
Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob
Dylan expanded the genre to include original music
that largely retains the form and simplicity of
traditional compositions.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
http://www.answers.com/topic/folk-music
The Cheshire Man
The words and melody of this tune are in Edward Jones's Popular Cheshire Melodies (1798).
Sample of Folk style Musical Instruments
A Cheshire man sail'd into Spain,
To trade for merchandise;
When he arrived from the main
A Spaniard him espies,
A Spaniard him espies.
Who said, 'You English rogue, look here!
What fruit and spices fine
Our land produces twice a year!
Thou hast not such in thine,
Thou hast not such in thine.'
The Cheshire man ran to his hoard
And fetch'd a Cheshire cheese,
And said, 'Look here, you dog! behold!
We have such fruits as these,
We have such fruits as these.'
'Your fruits are ripe but twice a year,
As you yourself do say;
But such as I present you here
Our land brings twice a day,
Our land brings twice a day.'
The Spaniard in a passion flew,
And his rapier took in hand:
The Cheshire man kick'd up his heels,
Saying, 'Thou'rt at my command,'
Saying, 'Thou'rt at my command.'
So never let the Spaniard boast
While Cheshire men a bound,
Lest they should teach him to his cost
To dance a Cheshire Round,
To dance a Cheshire Round.
Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and America.
http://www.contemplator.com/folk.html