|
|
| INTRODUCTION |
 |
 Folk culture is without a doubt one of the best ways to reflect upon the differences between groups of people, and music is certainly one of the most significant elements within a folk culture.
What exactly is this cultural legacy so closely tied in with the common folk, and how was it created? Many people think of folk music as inflexible with time, fossilized, a type of music not open to new forms and ideas; they see folk music as being played and sung, but not created.
Part of this camp includes folklorists who simply interpret music, championing the authenticity and purity of what they consider the "true version".
However, there are many more folklorists who believe that traditional or folk culture-and for our purposes we'll focus here on folk music-is created piecework (tune-by-tune) at a specific time in history, and is indeed altered over time.
This culture is directly transmitted from generation to generation by way of a specific group or even passed down through the family. Each generation, to a greater or lesser degree, contributes to its makeup, and each individual uses it as he or she sees fit.
People who have compiled or are still compiling folk tunes and songs can attest to these changes; The same melody or song changes depending on where it is found, or on whether it has been collected from an older or younger person even in the same town. Similarly, a piece may experience significant change if it goes from being sung to being played on an instrument, or if it changes from one instrument to another. Musicologists also find that when they go back to the same town some time later tunes or songs have undergone changes, often times introduced on the spot by the same musician.
As a result, in songbooks it is not uncommon to find a number of variations on the same tune, all of which have a common origin.
Romanian musicologist C. Brailoiu has this to say on the subject:
"A folk tune...only exists when it is sung or played, and it only comes alive by the will of the interpreter, who performs it just as he wants it to be. Creation and interpretation intertwine in a way that does not occur in written music." (Bartók, 1979. p. 43)
Folksongs are the result of years and years of individual and group effort, each one with its own special aesthetics and uniqueness.
We mustn't forget that throughout history folk culture has been an open-ended phenomenon, with frequent interchange between different folk cultures.
| FOLK INSTRUMENTS |
 |
There are a number of components in the creation of music, the most common being melody, rhythm, harmony and timbre.
An in-depth study would be needed to determine exactly what factors have played the most influential role in determining the different folk cultures across the globe. However, it goes without saying that the aesthetics of native music have been limited and determined by home-grown musical instruments.
But which instruments are truly "native" and which ones are "universal"? Just like any other idea or point of discussion, nothing is either black or white. And in the case of traditional music, the dividing line between "native" and "universal", in most cases, is blurred. Therefore here it should be understood that when we speak of Basque musical instruments, none are actually 100% native nor 100% universal. In virtually every example we can find, to a greater or lesser degree, elements that fit into both categories.
So criteria can we use for classifying instruments in one of the two categories? The answer lies in what the musical instrument looks like (construction and materials); how it is played; the sound it makes; the type of music or the actual function of the instrument traditionally used by a group of people; the tone and particular scales of the musical instrument; the way in which the sound is emitted; tessitura, propagation and so forth. All of these factors endow the different types of indigenous music with their unique colour and sound. Orchestral arrangements and polyphonic instruments also play an important part in harmonic arrangements.
|
