The Dickinson press., 1917-02-24
GRADE ESSAY
WINS PRIZE IN CONTEST

h following is the prize essay
written by Jean Black, an eighth
grade student, in q recent contest on!
Folk Song essays in that grade:
f., n music of a nation is generally
based on folk-music and folk-tunes.
1t is believed that the first folk-songs
We're an outcome of the dances, for
which in the olden times there was
no music except that Of the dancers.
Perhaps at one of these parties the
people would make up a rhyme and
very soon everyone would be singing
it. This would go down from genera
ton to generation, but of course there
would sometimes be changes made in
the words.
Professor Gummere has said that
because ~folk-songs are originated
from the people they contain charac-
t~erlstic qualities of form and feeling.
They differ from art songs, in that
they are not composed by any particu-
lar person. The style Of such poems
is not only simple but free from indi-
vidual stamp; the metaphors are used
like the phrases, which occur in mar
|rative ballads and belong to tradition;
the metre is not so uniform as in
ballads. J
The tests for true folk-songs as for
true ballads r simplicity, sincerity,
chiefly oral tradition, and origin in a
community where the people have the
same ideas and think alike.
Nearly all countries have their folk
songs and tunes. Those of Iceland
are unchanged and unbalanced on ac-
count of their being cut off from
European influences. Other northern
countries that are in constant touch
with the outer world have continued
to get new ideas. Finland, Sweden
and Norway" says one writer, tchave
brought the f~olk-songs to a height
which is not very often attained ex-
cept in Slavic countries"
The true ~folk-songs are fast dying
out on account Of the great masters.
In Germany and France the pure folk
songs are, as regarded their music,
only popular melodies in imitation Of
the great masters.
When we look through song books
we find many folk songs and tunes.
For instance in the Academy Song
Book there ire Spanish, Netherland-
ish, Swiss, Neapolitan and German.
There is the "Vesper Hymn" which. is
a Russian folk-tune and "Men of
Harleck" which is Welsh.
I especially like those songs that
are in u own language, as the Eng
fish, Scotch and Irish tunes. A lot
Of the carols are old English folk
tunes. Some of them are ""The First
Novel;" "God Rest Ye Merry
Gentlemen" and "Rosin the Bow"
Robert Burns, a Scotch writer, has
written many words to. the old Scotch
tunes. He wrote "Scots VIVA Haze"
to a tune used in "Battle of Bannock-
burn" Others he has written are
"My Hearts in the Highlands" and
s"John Anderson, My Je." Another
writer is Thomas Moore, who has
written words for the Irish folk-tunes.
By doing this they have made tho old
folk-tunes live.
Chopin was a great lover of Polish
folk-songs. When on visits to that
country, he would listen very closely
to the songs of the reapers and the
tunes of the peasant fiddlers. No one
could give him any information as to
how these people learned to play and
sing. In his childhood, Chopin had
fixed these folk-songs and tunes in
his memory and in later years he in
terwove some especial favorite into
his w composition.
A writer in the 1913, January Etude
says, eff America has any real folk
songs we owe it to Stephen Foster,
the great American maker of folk
songs" His songs are limitations Of
the old negro f%olk-songs and they
have become so much a part of our
lives that we think Of them as just
having grown up and seldom think Of
the man that made them. "My Old
Cabin Home is a favorite negro
folk-song. Some Of Stephen Fosters
best known songs are ""Uncle Ned"
ooh, Susanna "Massa in de Cold,
Cold Ground" and "My Old Kentucky
Home."s
In this country the folk-songs are
not very well known, but as lately
there has been more interest taken in.
them, it is hoped that the children
will grow up to know them better.