folk singer definition of folk singer in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk melody is produced by an individual and altered in transmission into a group-fashioned expression. National and ethnic individuality can be seen in folk music, even in the case of songs transplanted from one country to another. There is scarcely any people whose folk song is wholly indigenous, and among notable cases of transplanting is the English ballad found in various parts of the United States. Many of these were collected in the late 19th cent. by Francis Child Child, Francis James, 1825–96, American scholar, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1846. At Harvard he was professor of rhetoric (1851–76) and English literature (1876–96). He greatly influenced modern methods of Chaucer study.
..... Click the link for more information. and in the early 20th cent. by Cecil Sharp Sharp, Cecil James, 1859–1924, English musician, best known for his researches in English folk music. In 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society. In the United States he collected (1914–18) folk songs in the Appalachian Mts.
..... Click the link for more information. . In addition, many American folk songs are of other European or African origin. Americans occasionally consider as folk songs certain songs of traceable authorship, e.g., "Dixie."

Interest in folk music grew during the 19th cent., although there were earlier scholars in the field, such as Thomas Percy whose Reliques, a collection of English ballad texts, appeared in 1765. Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (3 vol., 1803) is a major source on Scottish ballads. Béla Bartók did outstanding work in notating the folk music of central Europe early in the 20th cent., and before him the Russian nationalist composers made use of their country's folk music. Conversely, folk song often shows the influence of formally composed music; this is particularly true of 17th- and 18th-century European folk song.

The collection and transcription of folk music was greatly facilitated by the invention of the phonograph and tape recorder. Using this equipment, John and Alan Lomax Lomax, John Avery , 1867–1948, American folklorist, b. Goodman, Miss. Lomax's first book, Cowboy Songs (1910), contained for the first time in print such songs as "The Old Chisholm Trail," "Git Along Home Little Dogies," and "Home on the Range.
..... Click the link for more information. gathered many varieties of American folk songs from various cultural traditions throughout much of the 20th cent. Since the early 1950s folk music has become an especially significant influence and source for much popular vocal and instrumental music. Folksingers such as Woody Guthrie Guthrie, Woody (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie), 1912–67, American folk singer, guitarist, and composer, b. Okemah, Okla. Having learned harmonica as a boy and guitar as an adolescent, Guthrie was an itinerant musician and laborer from the age of 13.
..... Click the link for more information. and Pete Seeger Seeger, Pete, 1919–, American folksinger and composer, b. New York City. Seeger, the son of a musicologist and a musician, left Harvard in 1938 and made a journey through the United States, collecting songs and meeting Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly.
..... Click the link for more information. performed traditional songs and wrote their own songs in the folk idiom, an approach that was later used and modified by Bob Dylan Dylan, Bob , 1941–, American singer and composer, b. Duluth, Minn., as Robert Zimmerman. Dylan learned guitar at the age of 10 and autoharp and harmonica at 15.
..... Click the link for more information. , Joan Baez Baez, Joan , 1941–, American folk singer and political activist, b. New York City. Baez began singing traditional folk ballads, blues, and spirituals in Cambridge, Mass., coffeehouses in a clear soprano voice with a three-octave range.
..... Click the link for more information. , and others.

See also ballad ballad, in literature, short, narrative poem usually relating a single, dramatic event. Two forms of the ballad are often distinguished—the folk ballad, dating from about the 12th cent., and the literary ballad, dating from the late 18th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; chantey chantey or shanty , work song with marked rhythm, particularly one sung by a group of sailors while hoisting sail or anchor or pushing the capstan.
..... Click the link for more information. ; spiritual spiritual, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythmic structure, and the pentatonic scale of five whole
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See J. A. Lomax and A. Lomax, Folk Songs, U.S.A. (1948); C. Haywood, ed., Folk Songs of the World (1966); W. R. Trask, ed., The Unwritten Song (1966); E. Martinengo-Cesaresco, Essays in the Study of Folksongs (1976); S. L. Forucci, A Folk Song History of America (1984); P. V. Bohlman, The Study of Folk Music in the Modern World (1988); B. Filene, Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music (2000).

folk song

1. a song of which the music and text have been handed down by oral tradition among the common people

2. a modern song which employs or reflects the folk idiom

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No references found			Collins first became popular as a folk singer in the 1960s, and she's continued performing as both a folk singer and a singer of art songs. PERFORMANCE NOTES by The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) In line with its objectives, Lok Virsa is taking all necessary measures for promotion and projection of master artisans, craftspeople, dying traditional crafts as well as folk singers and musicians of Pakistan, Khalid Javaid told. Lok Virsa compiles National Directory of Craftspeople, Musicians by Balochistan Times (Baluchistan Province, Pakistan) In addition to the title song as sung originally by Peter, Paul, and Mary in the 60's, the accompanying CD includes the songs "I know Where I'm Going" and "Dona Dona Dona" recorded by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary, folk singers trio of 60's and more recent fame) and his daughter, Bethany Yarrow, a combination American/African/Caribbean style folk singer who performs with Rufus Cappadocia as Bethany and Rufus. Day is Done by Children's Bookwatch			foliicolous folimat Folin solution Folin, Otto folio foliobranchiate foliolate Folist folium folium of Descartes Folk architecture folk art Folk Arts folk dance Folk Dance Ensemble of the USSR Folk Dance, Russian folk drama Folk Etymology Folk Handicrafts folk high school Folk Legend Folk Medicine folk music Folk Narrator folk psychology folk singer folk song Folk Versification, Russian Folk Victorian architecture Folk-Art Museum Folk-Instrument Orchestra Folkestone Folketing folklore Folklore Studies Folkmoot folksonomy Folktale folkways Follett, Mary Parker Follicle follicle cell Follicle Mite Follicle-Stimulating Hormone follicular lymphoma folliculate Folliculitis folliculitis keloidalis Folline, Miriam follow follow current			Folk lore Folk lore Folk lore folk magic folk Mass folk medicine folk medicine folk medicine folk medicine folk memories Folk memory folk music folk music Folk Music Journal Folk Music Society of Midland Folk musician Folk musician Folk myth Folk myth Folk myth Folk Narrator Folk On The Moor Folk play folk poet Folk psychology Folk religion folk rock Folk saying Folk saying Folk school folk singer folk singers folk singers folk singing folk song folk song Folk Song Society of Greater Boston Folk songs Folk songs Folk speech Folk speech Folk story Folk story Folk story folk tale folk tale folk tale Folk tales Folk tales Folk tales Folk truism Folk truism Folk Versification, Russian Folk Victorian architecture folk weave folk writer folk-art folk-art Folk-Art Museum Folk-blues folk-dance

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