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 The Morris Dance

The English Morris Dance is a sort of pageant accompanied by

dancing. It may have come from the Morisco, a Moorish dance
popular in Spain and France, or perhaps from the Matassins, also
called Buffoons, who did a dance in armor, which may have come
from the Arabs. This dance of the Buffoons, popular in France during
the 16th and 17th centuries, was performed by four men with swords,
and bells attached to their costumes, used also in the Morris Dance.
It may have come into England at the end of the 14th century, but in
the 15th it was flourishing. First it was given as a part of the May
festival and the characters who took part in it were a Lady of the
May, a Fool, a Piper, and two or more dancers. The dance then
became a part of the Robin Hood pageant, and the dancers were
called after the characters of the Robin Hood ballad: Robin Hood,
Friar Tuck, Little John, and Maid Marian. Later, a hobby-horse, a
dragon, four marshals, and other characters were added. The
Puritans stopped the Morris Dance as they thought it too frivolous,
and it was never so popular again.
 The Cushion Dance

In the Story of Minstrelsy is quoted a description of the Cushion

Dance from The Dancing Master (1686):
“This dance is begun by a single person (either a man or woman),
who, taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the
end of the tune stops and sings, ‘This dance it will no further go.’ The
musician answers, ‘I pray you, good sir, why say you so?’ Man:
‘Because Joan Sanderson will not come too.’ Musician: ‘She must
come too, and she shall come too, and she must come whether she
will or no.’ Then he lays down the cushion before the woman, on
which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing, ‘Welcome, Joan
Sanderson, welcome, welcome.’ Then she rises, takes up the cushion,
and both dance, singing, ‘Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance!’” Why
not try it?
Thomas Morley (1597) wrote of a kind of dance-part-song called
vilanelle or ballete. “These and all other kinds of light musick, saving
the madrigal, are by a general name called aires. There be also
another kind of ballets commonly called Fa-la’s....”
When printing was invented these ballads (or ballets) appeared in
such quantities, that they became a nuisance. Any subject or event
was made into a ballad. They were usually printed on single sheets so
that an instrument like the viol could play the air, and were carried
around in baskets and sold for a trifle. Ballad-singing in the streets
took the place of the older minstrels, but the newer fashion never
reached the dignity of the bards. These ballads were used as dances.
Both Henry VIII and Queen Mary issued edicts forbidding the
printing of books, ballads, and rhymes, probably because many were
political ballads uncomplimentary to them. In Elizabeth’s reign the
edict was removed, and many of these dance-songs are found in the
plays of Shakespeare and are sung today in concerts as examples of
English folk music.
Many of the better ones have been preserved for us in the
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, which is often wrongly called Queen
Elizabeth’s Virginal Book, and in Playford’s English Dancing Master
in which there are ninety-five songs used for dancing; they are also to
be heard in the Beggar’s Opera which contains sixty-nine airs,
among which may be mentioned Sally in our Alley, Bonny Dundee,
Green Sleeves, Lilliburlero, Over the Hills and Far Away, etc. John
Gay gathered these folk songs and dances into The Beggar’s Opera
in 1727, and it was recently (1920) revived with great success in
London and New York.
Tiersot (an authority on French folk music) has shown that Adam
de la Hale probably wrote the play of Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion
and then strung together a number of popular tunes, many of far
older date, to suit his words. So this pastoral-comedy may be the
oldest collection of French folk tunes in existence.
In France, when a dance-air became popular, the rhymers made
up words to fit the music; this was called parodying it. Our use of the
word “parody” means to make fun of something, but at that time, the
word meant to adapt words to a melody. One of the early French
writers translated the Psalms for use in the Church, and these very
Psalms which were dedicated to François I, the King, were
“parodied,” so that the people sang them to their favorite dance
tunes,—courantes, sarabandes and bourrées. This happened at a
time when church music was being popularized, and one hears queer
tales of the use of popular songs in the masses and motets of the 14th
and 15th centuries. It sounds sacrilegious to us, doesn’t it?
In spite of all the mixing-up of tunes and words, the French folk
dances besides being very charming and winning were the parents of
a most important kind of musical composition. Just to keep you from
being too curious, the name of this important musical composition is
the Suite—but wait!
 (8) Funeral Songs and Songs for Mourning

All people from the savage state to the most civilized have had
their funeral songs and songs for mourning which have been
characteristic of the day and age to which they belonged and revealed
many tribal and racial beliefs, superstitions and customs.
 (9) Narratives, Ballads and Legends

We shall not tarry long on this subject for it has been covered in
the chapter on Troubadours and Minnesingers.
All primitive races used this means of teaching and preserving
their tribal history, legends, etc., of telling the news of the day and of
praising their over-lords. Many hundreds of volumes of ballads of all
countries are to be found and are most useful as well as entertaining
in the story of mankind.
Among the most famous narratives known to us are: the Sagas
and Eddas and Runes of the Northlands; the Kalevala of Finland;
the Percy Reliques of Britain; the Odyssey and Iliad of ancient
Greece; the Song of Roland of France, Beowulf of the Anglo-Saxons,
and others, many of which have been translated and simplified for
young readers.
 CHAPTER X
National Portraits in Folk Music

There is one particularly lovely thing about folk songs and dances
and that is the natural labels which they bear, marking them as
belonging to France, Spain, Germany, Russia and so on. As with
people, they all have similarities and yet no two are the same in looks
or in actions. It would not take you long to know whether you were
hearing a Spanish folk dance, an Irish Jig, a Russian Hopak, a
Norwegian Halling or an American Foxtrot, because each has its own
kind of rhythm and melody.
Some nations have gay, bright folk music, and others have sad,
mournful music. In northern countries where living is hard on
account of the long, dark, cold winters, and the people are forced to
spend much time indoors and away from neighbors, where money
and food are scarce, they are likely to be sad and lonely. In the
centuries gone by they made up songs that pictured their lives and
their surroundings. On the other hand, in countries where the sun
shines most of the time, where people live out of doors, are happy,
and have many friends and much fun, the music is gayer and usually
lighter. This is why the music of Finland, Sweden, Norway and
northern Russia is so much in the minor key, and seems grey, and
why the music of Italy Spain, France and other southern countries is
in the major key and seems rosier in color and happier in mood.
Other reasons, too, for sad folk music is oppression, harsh rulers and
harsh laws. So the Finns and Russians, the American negroes and the
Hebrew tribes sang sad songs.
“The Music Making
Boys,” by Frans
Hals, from the
Kassel Gallery,
Germany.

Boys with a Lute.

After a painting by Teniers, in
the gallery at Munich.

A Peasant Wedding.
 Russian Folk Music

Again you see history in the songs, particularly in the Russian folk
music, which shows us in musical portraits, the tragedy of their lives
under cruel czars and serfdom. They sang in ancient scales which
make the music all the more mournful to our ears.
The rhythms in these songs are different from those of romance
languages or those derived from Latin, for the Russians have a
language of Slavic birth. The Russians have some Oriental blood
from the Tartars who invaded Russia and who were descended from
Tartar, a Mogul or Mongol from Asia. When you hear Russian songs
that sound Oriental, you will agree with Rimsky-Korsakov, the
Russian composer, that the Russian, deep down below the skin is an
Oriental even though he has been living in Europe for many
centuries.
In Russia, from the Baltic Sea on the north to the Caucasus
Mountains on the south, from the sunny slopes of the Ural
Mountains on the west, to the bleak desert wastes of Kirghiz on the
east, these mixed races have a common tie in their love for folk story
and folk music.
Marvelous tales have been handed down by word of mouth about
the river gods and the wood-sprites, about the animals who talked
like men, and the ugly old witch, Baba-Yaga, whose name alone was
enough to quiet the naughtiest child! Through these folk tales you
can follow the Russians from the time they were primitive men and
pagans through all their battles and the invasions of barbarous
tribes, to the time when they became Christians and had to struggle
against the Tartars, the Turks and the Poles. All these happenings
were put into songs and are the epic, or tale-telling folk music of the
Russians.
But one of the most interesting things, we think, in all the growing
of music into maturity, is that Russia never had anything but folk
music until the 19th century! Music always belonged to the people,
and there were no musical scholars making it the possession of the
educated classes only.
Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russians took the folk
song from its humble surroundings and used it in their
compositions, for they realized its beauty and its richness.
The Russians have instruments brought down from very early
times, which are found today in no other country. Perhaps you may
have heard a Russian balalaika orchestra. The balalaika is a stringed
instrument, with a triangular body and long neck, having three or
sometimes four strings, which are plucked and sound something like
a guitar. It dates back to the end of the 13th century. They also have
an instrument like a mandolin, with three strings, that dates from
the 13th century also. It came from Asia at the time of the Mongolian
invasion.
Another instrument, a descendant of the Greek psalterion and
known to have been in Russia since the 9th century, is the gusslee. It
is something like a zither, and is composed of a hollow box, strung
with any number from seven to thirteen up to twenty-four strings. It
is held on the lap, and the strings are plucked with the fingers.
There is also a sort of lute or bandoura with many strings, dating
from the 16th century, played principally by the blind who belong to
groups of minstrels. There is also a wooden clarinet, on which one
scale can be played. Its special purpose was for use at funerals, and
its name, which comes from a word meaning tomb, is jaleika.
 Finnish Songs

The Finns, a northern people, although often dominated either by

Sweden or Russia, have their own songs and peculiar rhythms. The
Kalevala is their great epic poem, like the Iliad of Greece, Beowulf of
the Anglo-Saxons, and the Eddas of Iceland. From this narrative
poem or epic, have come many a folk-tune. Besides, they sing of their
beautiful country, often called the country of lakes.
The typical rhythm of Finland is the ⁵⁄₄ time which sounds most
attractive. They have the kantele, a plucked string instrument, and
they glory in their folk music which they use as an everyday joy and
do not “turn it on” only for “hey-days and holidays.”
 Poland’s Music

The Polish people have loved music as the Russians love it, and
although Poland has been reconquered, divided and redivided
among the surrounding kingdoms of Europe, it has always kept its
own music. So we have another set of Slav songs but with certain
rhythmical differences, not found in the music of other nations.
(Chapter IX.)
There is an Oriental strain in this music, too, and it must be very
ancient indeed, for Oriental tribes have not lived in this country for
ages.
In addition to an instrument like the Russian gusslee, and a violin
like the Arabian rebab, the Polish have a clarinet made of wood,
called by its old name of chalumeau, the lute, and an instrument
called the kobza, belonging to the bagpipe family. This is of great age,
but is still in use among the mountaineers of Carpathia, and is made
of goat skin with three pipe attachments. The kobza can replace an
entire orchestra!
 Gypsies

Gypsies! The name fires our imagination and brings up pictures of

dark-skinned, black-eyed people with glossy black hair, dressed in
gay colored shawls, with bright kerchiefs wound around their heads.
We think of them as being on “one grand picnic,” living out of doors,
cooking their meals over bonfires in the open, sleeping in their
covered wagons or tents, or under the stars, always gay, care-free and
dirty! Then, think of the Gypsy music,—the dances, the songs, and
the wonderful violin playing! So wild, so weird, so out-of-doors is it,
that we are thrilled by the very thought of it.
Where did these folk come from? Who are they? What are they?
They have spread over most of Europe, and are found in Hungary,
Bohemia, Roumania, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, England,
Turkey, and even America. They are a race and they have a language
of their own. Theirs is a mixture of the ancient Prakrit or Indian,
with the different languages with which they have come in contact in
the course of many centuries. Men who make a study of the history of
languages say, that in their idioms, they show traces of roving for
many centuries in Asiatic countries, before reaching Europe in or
before the 15th century. They are often called “Bohemians” because
Bohemia (Czecho-Slovakia) seems to have been their main European
camping-ground. It is generally agreed that they came from India
and that they are Asiatic, but they got their name Gypsy, a
contraction of the word Egyptian, because people at first thought
that they came from Egypt.
The Gypsies have an extraordinary gift for music. They do not
study it as an art, as we do, and cannot even read musical notes, but
they imitate and memorize, and reach a high degree of skill in
playing, particularly the violin. They have such great power of
imitation, that they rapidly learn to play the instruments, and
accustom themselves to the folk music they find wherever they
wander. However, they always keep something of their own sadness
and wildness. In Spain, they accompany themselves on the guitar,
and mark the rhythm with castanets, as do the Spaniards themselves,
borrowing the Spanish folk songs which they sing in their own way.
In Russia, England, Turkey and everywhere they do the same with
the folk music of those countries.
 The special traits, then, of the music of the Gypsies, are found
rather in the way they play, interpret and express the music of
others, than as composers of their own music. Yet they use strongly
marked rhythms, florid ornamentation, and scales that are Oriental,
which show us from where they came. Here is one of their most used
scales:

There are many kinds of scales among the Gypsies,—a mixture of

the Oriental scale with the pentatonic, and with the European major
and minor.
The Hungarian Gypsy has made more music than any other
branch of the Gypsy people. In fact, when we hear music that makes
us exclaim, “Oh, that is real Gypsy music!” it is almost always
Hungarian. At least one quarter of the inhabitants of Hungary, a
name which comes from the barbarian tribe of Huns, are Magyars,
descendants of Tartars and Mongolians of Asia, who settled in the
land of the Huns in the 9th century. In the national music of
Hungary, we find it hard to tell just what is Magyar, and what is
Gypsy, because the two have intermingled for so long.
The important thing is that this Magyar-Gypsy folk music has been
the inspiration of hundreds of trained composers, like Haydn (see
the Gypsy Rondo from his piano trio, also arranged for piano alone),
Franz Liszt who wrote many famous Hungarian Rhapsodies, Hector
Berlioz who made the Hungarian Rakoczy March famous, Johannes
Brahms who used many folk songs in his compositions and wrote a
set of Hungarian Dances. Even Bach, perhaps the greatest of all
composers, seems to have been influenced by the Gypsy music as
played on the Hungarian cembalo.
No Hungarian Gypsy orchestra is complete without a cembalo,
which looks something like an old-fashioned square piano with the
top off. This is strung with metal strings covering a range of four
octaves, and is played with two small limber hammers. The cembalo
players perform with great rapidity and agility; they are able to play
scales, arpeggios, trills, and the tricks of Gypsy music with great skill
and ease. It is not known just when this instrument came into use,
but it is a descendant of the dulcimer and psaltery, instruments we
hear of in the Bible, and in Arabia and Persia, probably brought into
Europe during the Crusades.
The czardas (pronounced chardas) is an old Hungarian dance in
which are all the national characteristics of this folk music, well
marked in syncopated rhythms (rhythms out of focus, page 144,
Chapter X), strong accents, many ornaments. The Gypsies dance the
czardas every time they get a chance, for they love it. It has two
contrasting parts, one is called lassan which is very slow and sad,
and the other called friska which is very fast and fiery.
Panna Czinka, a Gypsy Queen, who lived in the 18th century was
the daughter of the chief of a band of Gypsies and she inherited his
title when she was very young. She married a ’cellist of her tribe and
went all through Hungary, Poland and Roumania playing on a
wonderful Amati violin, in a very wonderful way. She brought the
Rakoczy March to the people, although it is not known whether or
not she composed it. She always wore men’s clothes of most
picturesque type and when she died she requested to have her
beloved violin buried with her! Long after her death she was still an
inspiration to young Gypsy fiddlers, who all longed to play as
beautifully as Panna Czinka.
 Bohemian Folk Song

Bohemia is rich in folk dances, most of which are named for places
where they originated or the occasions for which they were used, or
from songs by which they are accompanied.
The Bohemians have a bagpipe called the Dudelsack and the
player is called a Dudelsackpfeiffer!
 Spanish and Portuguese Folk Music

To the outsider, there is a national color, rhythm, and charm in

Spanish music that is unmistakable. We recognize it immediately as
Spanish, but the Spaniard will be able to tell you the province from
which it came, for there is as much difference between a Castilian
song and a Basque, as we find between the speech of a Virginian and
a Vermontian! (Chapter IX.)
Portugal, although Spain’s next door neighbor, has quite a
different music; it is peaceful, tranquil and thoughtful, but doesn’t
thrill you as does the Spanish music. The Portuguese are calmer and
less excitable than the Spaniards, so here again you see the character
and qualities of people coming out in the music or what we like to
call the musical portrait of a nation. There are no exaggerated
rhythms but instead a steady melancholy flow of melody.
 French Folk Music

The portrait of France that we get from her folk music is much like
the one we find in songs of her troubadours and trouvères. In
southern France, the folk songs are gay and filled with poetic
sentiment and religious feeling; from Burgundy come some of her
loveliest Noëls (Christmas songs) and also the drinking songs. From
Normandy, come songs of ordinary everyday doings; their mill
songs, when sung out in the open on a summer night by the peasants
are very beautiful and often show strong religious feeling. Brittany
whose inhabitants were originally Celts have a music not unlike the
Welsh, Scotch and Irish. Long ago, the famous French writer and
musician of the 18th century, Jean Jacques Rousseau, said of it, “The
airs are not snappy, they have, I know not what of an antique and
sweet mood which touches the heart. They are simple, naïve and
often sad—at any rate they are pleasing.”
 German Folk Music

The Volkslieder or folk songs of the Germans are the backbone of

the great classical and romantic periods of the 18th and 19th
centuries which made Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann,
Wagner and Brahms the music masters of the world.
As early as the 14th century collections of these songs had been
made, the subjects of which were mostly historical. By the 16th
century music had grown so much that every sentiment of the
human heart and every occupation of life had its own song: students,
soldiers, pedlars, apprentices all had their songs. These are folk
songs of Class A, because their composers forgot to leave their names
and no musical archæologist has been able to dig them up. (Page
108. Chapter IX.)
These songs became melodies independent of the accompaniment.
They also put the major scale on a firm basis which took the place of
the church modes. Their spirit and power were felt in every branch of
music, and they supplied melodies for the chorales or hymns, for the
lute players and organists in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
Every town had its own band called the Stadt Pfeifferei (town
pipers). The peasant boys played the fiddle, and the shepherds the
schalmey, (a kind of oboe). Every festivity was accompanied by song
and dance.
 Irish Folk Songs

No people in the world have more fancy and imagination, a keener

sense of humor, are more fun-loving and more superstitious than the
Irish. All these qualities come out in their vast treasure of folk music,
which is considered the most beautiful and the most varied of all the
music that has come from peasant folk. The subjects cover practically
every phase of life from the castle to the cot, and songs of every
heading we have included in the last chapter. There are reels, jigs,
marches, spinning-tunes, nurse-tunes, planxties (Irish or Welsh
melodies for the harp in the nature of a lament), plough-songs and
whistles. The Irish folk songs are rich historically as well as beautiful
musically.
The form of the Irish folk music is perfect, and is a model of what
simple song form has been for several centuries. In fact, all large
forms have been built on just such principles of balance and contrast
as are found in an Irish folk song called The Flight of the Earls.