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Folk
Music: First Contact
Contributor:
Mike de Sousa, Director, AbleStable®
An account of my first contact with folk music as
a young boy.
Shared
Expression
One of the most important functions of music is
to bind a society or culture through shared expression.
No doubt this is one of the fundamental reasons
music developed among our species in the first place.
Folk music encapsulates this primal and significant
human activity. It is also the reason folk music
and its followers resist changes in musical style
and instrumentation.
My First Experience of
Folk
I experienced folk music for the first time when
I attended my local summer fete in the church meadow
as a young boy. The fete was a gathering of local
people that took place on the Saturday closest to
the longest day in the year. No doubt such a gathering
began not long after a community established its
presence over eight hundred years ago.
These were strangely wonderful events, and although
they were distant from the excitement of everyday
fashion and technology, they connected me to the
place and its people in way that only festivals
and celebrations are capable of.
The stalls were home-made affairs where aunties
would sell home baked buns or items of little or
no value which had long since passed their useful
life. There were games that the older boys at first
refused to participate in for fear of appearing
foolish to their girlfriends, but which all in their
heart secretly desired to join in with. And at the
centre of these events was music and dancing.
The Main Attraction
The music and dancing, which was the highlight of
the day, took place in a central area surrounded
by a ring of people. A second group of people in
unfamiliar costumes and instruments made there way
into the middle of the ring and began their music
making.
As a young boy I was transfixed by this ritualistic
experience. These musicians and dancers performed
unselfconsciously and were deeply committed to continuing
a tradition they obviously viewed as important.
These were ordinary people who lead the community
in shared experience, and as a young boy, it was
plain to see their enjoyment in achieving this.
I wasn't sure at the time what the songs or the
dancing signified, but the warmth and sense of belonging
these days engendered was undeniable.
After
All is Sung and Danced
Even after the last post was pulled from the ground
and the final sweet wrappers cleared from the field,
something remains in that meadow. Perhaps it's the
faint sound of music and merriment that lingers
in my memory. Perhaps it is that a place is as much
defined by it's past as it's physical present.
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