Folk Influences of Aaron Copland and Britten
In the more recent past, nationalism, or a pride in one's country, has been the dominating factor for much of the world's historical events. Wars have been propagandized, countries have been fundamentally built, destroyed and reinvigorated, and for better or worse, this principle influences one's beliefs today as one's knowledge of the world expands in conjunction with technology. Folk music has always been a form of national pride and has been used as an exploit for the reasons listed above; therefore composers have maintained an interest in a national sound. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, composers began to use the music of their homeland and integrate the melodies of their countries into the classical format. This allowed the composer to explore new compositional styles and achieve a sentimental connection with a broader audience. In a new musical world that defined the composer as a "starving artist," unique and enjoyable music was crucial to success. Folk music was not used as the epitome of a composer's sound, rather as a foundation for new compositional ideas. The walls of harmonic and melodic rules were disintegrating, giving the composer a greater spectrum of options as to how folk melodies could potentially be set. The eclectic settings of folk music, including the settings of Percy Grainger, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Roger Quilter, Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten, assisted in creating new national identities in the world of classical music during the twentieth century, especially in the young United States and the long-established England. This was the birth, or in the case of England, rebirth, of sounds that could be labeled as distinctly "American" or "English." It is important first to define the term folk song. Daniel Kingman defines it as an "organic whole, consisting of words, a tune and a way of singing" (Kingman 7). Each of these characteristics are equally important in recognizing a folk song as authentic. Before the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, folk song was generally shared by oral means. The consequence of the oral tradition is that as a song spreads, words are altered, omitted and added to the song to fit individual or societal desires; therefore it is impossible to know of the words heard today were actually anything like the words sung centuries ago. While words represent the muscle of a folk song, the skeletal structure belongs strictly to the melody. In the earliest versions of folk song, the melody was sung alone. However, instruments such as the dulcimer, banjo and the guitar slowly became associated with folk-song over time (Kingman 15). The distinguishing feature of the folk organism is the way of singing the song, which can differ depending on the location. Each area of a nation has a unique dialect that provides color to the folk song, thus the folk song is most authentic in a concert setting when the way of singing matches a way similar to the original. This information has been culminated by many folk song collectors around the world.
Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten, United States, Folk Music, Music, Musicology, Music Performance
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