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The Influence of Folk-Song Upon Classical Music |
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By LOUIS C. ELSON |
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R
OBERT FRANZ, one of the greatest song composers of modern times, once wrote to the author of this essay, '' I believe that our Art began with the Lyric forms, and that it will end with them." In these days, when some of the musical composers are wandering far from all set forms, it is of especial interest to trace historically the truth of the first part of the above sentence, and to wonder whether the latter part will also come true. In exam�ining the music of the past, we shall find the folk-song exerting an enormous influence in almost every epoch and in almost every direction.
The folk-song is the wild briar-rose of music; springing up by the wayside of art, it comes into being without any care being lav�ished upon it, without the artificial aids of the science of music; it represents the natural side of an art that has gradually become scientific. The ploughman at his labor, the soldier on his march, may have been moved to express some topic that was close to the hearts of himself and his companions in poetry and song; the favorite theme speeds from mouth to mouth, perhaps somewhat amorphous at first, but gradually reaching its most fitting shape by a process of evolution; sometimes even assuming more than one shape, as for example, the Russian song, "Troika," which is sung dhferently in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, although there is quite enough of resemblance between the two versions to prove a single parentage.
With a popular origin, such as is indicated above, it is but natu�ral to find history and folk-lore intertwining in this school of com�position, or rather improvisation. The early ballads of England
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