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The Question of Definition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

R. P. Elbourne
R. P. Elbourne*
Affiliation:
Brunel University, Uxbridge, England
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Extract

The conspicuous failure of folklife studies to progress far beyond the collection and classification of materials has been accompanied by a pervasive vagueness in terminology. A. L. Lloyd decries the imprecision of “folk” — “a gawky term suggesting English condescension or German soulfulness” — and Wiora suggests abandoning “ambiguous terms such as ‘folk’ and ‘folk song’ “ altogether. Maud Karpeles - a veteran of many terminological debates — concludes gloomily that “it is in the nature of the subject that we cannot draw up a precise scientific definition of folk song which will serve to differentiate it entirely from all other forms of music.” Scientific or not, this paper seeks to explore existing definitions and suggest alternatives.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 7 , 1975 , pp. 9 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 By the International Folk Music Council 

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References

Notes

1. Lloyd, A. L., Folk Song in England (London, 1969), p. 13.Google Scholar

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65. Reported in Lloyd, Folk Song, p. 14. It is also attributed to a number of others.Google Scholar

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72. Sharp, English Folk-Song, p. 5.Google Scholar

73. Herzog, “Song,” p. 1033.Google Scholar

74. Williams, English Folk-Song, p. 1.Google Scholar

75. Malraux, A., “Art, Popular Art, and the Illusion of the Folk,” Partisan Review, 18 (1951), 487.Google Scholar

76. “General Report,” p. 9.Google Scholar

77. Sharp, English Folk-Song, p. 138.Google Scholar

78. Abrahams, “Personal Power,” pp. 20–25.Google Scholar

79. Introduction by B. Jackson, ed., Folklore and Society (Hatboro, Pa., 1966), p. x.Google Scholar

80. Botkin, B. A., “The Folkness of the Folk,” in H. P. Beck, ed., Folklore in Action (Philadelphia, 1962), p. 49.Google Scholar

81. Shils, E., “Tradition,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 13 (1971), 124.Google Scholar

82. Ibid., p. 123.Google Scholar

83. Ibid., pp. 122–23.Google Scholar

84. Abrahams, “Personal Power,” p. 21.Google Scholar

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88. Shils, “Tradition,” p. 137.Google Scholar