Music and song

Song is the most natural form of music. Issuing from within the body, it is projected by means of the, most personal of instruments, the human voice. The words of the song are called lyrics. From time immemorial, singing has been the most widespread and spontaneous way of making music.

 

 

 

 

 In folk music we have a treasury of songs that reflects all phases of life- work songs, love songs, cradle songs, drinking songs, patriotic songs, dance songs, songs of mourning, marching songs, play songs and narrative songs. Some are centuries old and others of  recent vintage. A folk song originates with an individual, perhaps on the spur of the moment. It is taken up by others, a detail is changed, a stanza added, another version created and in the course of its wanderings it becomes collective expression of a group. At the same time they are rooted in speech rhythms, the soil and life of a particular place.

The same directness of expression is found on a more sophisticated level in the art song. Here the sentiment is more special and more sharply focused.