Folk-Lore, Vol. LXVII, 1-4, 1956Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1956), p. 55Published by: English Folk Dance + Song SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4521529 .

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Journal of the lIzternational Folk Music Council, Vols. VII and VIII, 1955 and 1956. The annual publication of the International Folk Music Council fulfils a double function as a

report of the proceedings of the Council's annual Conference and as a survey of current work in folk music.

Nearly half the Journal is usually devoted to reviews, which offer an informed commentary on most of the world's output of books, periodicals and gramophone records of folk music. Equally useful as a guide to work in progress is the section of Notes and News.

The Conferences which provided the material for these two Journals took place half the world apart. Sao Paulo, Brazil's fast growing modem city, was the host in the summer of 1954, and the Latin American element naturally weighted the proceedings. But those European members who managed to undertake the journey clearly had an unforgettable experience.

Latin America seems to have been an appropriate milieu for a Conference which had the relation- ship of folk and popular music as its underlying theme. It is one thing to discuss the definition of folk music in Europe where the dividing line between folk and popular seems fairly clear (although opinions differ, even in Britain), and quite another in an atmosphere where to quote Maud Karpeles- 'popular music . . . was based very largely on folk music and had developed, one might say, to a fine art'. A definition was, in fact, drafted by a special commission and accepted at a plenary session of the Conference. It is given on page 23 of the 1955 Journal.

A large proportion of the papers presented at the Conference in Brazil dealt with the relationship of folk and popular music in one way or another. Dr. Vicente T. Mendoza chose the historical approach in 'The Frontiers between "Popular" and "Folk"' dealing with the music of his own country, Mexico, and the same theme is implicit in Andrew Pearse's thorough treatment of 'Aspects of Change in Caribbean Folk Music'.

Two contributors write of the tragedy of a dwindling folk music which is in danger of extinction beneath the tide of advancing alien culture: Kikuko Kanai on 'The Folk Music of the Rytikyus' and T. G. H. Strehlow on 'Australian Aboriginal Songs'.

The European Conference and Festival at Oslo in 1955 was concerned with one of the oldest forms of folk music-the song-dance. One of the most interesting items in the Festival was the performance by a group of Faroe Islanders of their ancient ballad-dances which are a direct sunival of the medieval carole, itself inherited from the Bronze age as shown by Dr. Wolfram in his article on 'European Song Dances'. The song-dance survives in Western Europe mainly in children's games, but Dr. Wolfram can point to a renaissance of this form among adults in Southern Germany, as the result of the rediscovery of the traditional Rohe or Reigen in Allgau. In 'Greek Song Dance' Dr. Mihaelides traces a thread of continuity from the dances of ancient Greece to the Greek folk dances of today. A parallel with a tradition of ancient Greece is also found by E. Emsheimer in 'The Singing Contests of Central Asia', among the pastoral nomadic Kazakhians and Kirghis, whose way of life would seem not unlike that of the Greeks of Homer's time.

In these two Journals there are of course many other interesting articles on a wide variety of sub- jects, besides those mentioned above. The 1956 Journal also contains a Report of the Radio Com- mission on various aspects of the recording and broadcasting of folk music.

Journal of the lIzternational Folk Music Council, Vols. VII and VIII, 1955 and 1956. The annual publication of the International Folk Music Council fulfils a double function as a

report of the proceedings of the Council's annual Conference and as a survey of current work in folk music.

Nearly half the Journal is usually devoted to reviews, which offer an informed commentary on most of the world's output of books, periodicals and gramophone records of folk music. Equally useful as a guide to work in progress is the section of Notes and News.

The Conferences which provided the material for these two Journals took place half the world apart. Sao Paulo, Brazil's fast growing modem city, was the host in the summer of 1954, and the Latin American element naturally weighted the proceedings. But those European members who managed to undertake the journey clearly had an unforgettable experience.

Latin America seems to have been an appropriate milieu for a Conference which had the relation- ship of folk and popular music as its underlying theme. It is one thing to discuss the definition of folk music in Europe where the dividing line between folk and popular seems fairly clear (although opinions differ, even in Britain), and quite another in an atmosphere where to quote Maud Karpeles- 'popular music . . . was based very largely on folk music and had developed, one might say, to a fine art'. A definition was, in fact, drafted by a special commission and accepted at a plenary session of the Conference. It is given on page 23 of the 1955 Journal.

A large proportion of the papers presented at the Conference in Brazil dealt with the relationship of folk and popular music in one way or another. Dr. Vicente T. Mendoza chose the historical approach in 'The Frontiers between "Popular" and "Folk"' dealing with the music of his own country, Mexico, and the same theme is implicit in Andrew Pearse's thorough treatment of 'Aspects of Change in Caribbean Folk Music'.

Two contributors write of the tragedy of a dwindling folk music which is in danger of extinction beneath the tide of advancing alien culture: Kikuko Kanai on 'The Folk Music of the Rytikyus' and T. G. H. Strehlow on 'Australian Aboriginal Songs'.

The European Conference and Festival at Oslo in 1955 was concerned with one of the oldest forms of folk music-the song-dance. One of the most interesting items in the Festival was the performance by a group of Faroe Islanders of their ancient ballad-dances which are a direct sunival of the medieval carole, itself inherited from the Bronze age as shown by Dr. Wolfram in his article on 'European Song Dances'. The song-dance survives in Western Europe mainly in children's games, but Dr. Wolfram can point to a renaissance of this form among adults in Southern Germany, as the result of the rediscovery of the traditional Rohe or Reigen in Allgau. In 'Greek Song Dance' Dr. Mihaelides traces a thread of continuity from the dances of ancient Greece to the Greek folk dances of today. A parallel with a tradition of ancient Greece is also found by E. Emsheimer in 'The Singing Contests of Central Asia', among the pastoral nomadic Kazakhians and Kirghis, whose way of life would seem not unlike that of the Greeks of Homer's time.

In these two Journals there are of course many other interesting articles on a wide variety of sub- jects, besides those mentioned above. The 1956 Journal also contains a Report of the Radio Com- mission on various aspects of the recording and broadcasting of folk music.

Folk-Lore, Vol. LXVII, 1-4, 1956. During the year, the Editorship of Folk-Lore passed from the Rev. Professor E. 0. James, who has

piloted the quarterly issues for the past twenty-five years, to Miss Christina Hole, well-known as the author of Batsford books on folklore, customs, etc.

'Dramatic Jigs in Scotland', in the June issue, is the text of a paper read by Dr. T. M. Flett to members of the E.F.D.S.S. and the Folk-Lore Society at their Third Joint Meeting in January 1956. Although the ground had been partly covered by Dr. and Mrs. Flett in their articles on Hebridean Folk Dances in the E.F.D.S.S. Journals for 1953 and 1954, this paper presents their further thoughts on the subject, especially their opinion that the mimetic dances of the Highlands and Hebrides might have some link with the Elizabethan entertainment known as the Jig. This volume also contains accounts of the Haxey Hood Game in Lincolnshire, as seen in January 1956, and of Good Friday Skipping, a stimulating article by R. U. Sayce on 'Folk-Lore, Folk-Life, Ethnology' and a study of folk-play allusions in 'Hamlet' by Dr. William Montgomerie-all of interest to the E.F.D.S.S. The controversy on Robin Hood has been sustained through the year by a lively exchange of correspondence.

55

Folk-Lore, Vol. LXVII, 1-4, 1956. During the year, the Editorship of Folk-Lore passed from the Rev. Professor E. 0. James, who has

piloted the quarterly issues for the past twenty-five years, to Miss Christina Hole, well-known as the author of Batsford books on folklore, customs, etc.

'Dramatic Jigs in Scotland', in the June issue, is the text of a paper read by Dr. T. M. Flett to members of the E.F.D.S.S. and the Folk-Lore Society at their Third Joint Meeting in January 1956. Although the ground had been partly covered by Dr. and Mrs. Flett in their articles on Hebridean Folk Dances in the E.F.D.S.S. Journals for 1953 and 1954, this paper presents their further thoughts on the subject, especially their opinion that the mimetic dances of the Highlands and Hebrides might have some link with the Elizabethan entertainment known as the Jig. This volume also contains accounts of the Haxey Hood Game in Lincolnshire, as seen in January 1956, and of Good Friday Skipping, a stimulating article by R. U. Sayce on 'Folk-Lore, Folk-Life, Ethnology' and a study of folk-play allusions in 'Hamlet' by Dr. William Montgomerie-all of interest to the E.F.D.S.S. The controversy on Robin Hood has been sustained through the year by a lively exchange of correspondence.

55

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