Folk music

Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared and performed by the entire community (not by a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth.

External links

Folksong material:

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• mudcat.org, the home of the Digital Traditions (DIGITRAD) folksong database. The latest (2002) edition of DIGITRAD contains lyrics, and in some cases tunes or chords, for around 9000 folk rock, folk revival, and authentic American, English, and Irish folk songs, as well as some parodies. The database may be searched online, or downloaded as a standalone application. Another portal to DIGITRAD with file formats converted to emerging standards (e.g. ABC) is available at http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/.
• The Traditional Ballad Index search page. Provides bibliographic information and some theoretical genealogical information for many ballads in English.
• Photos of Regional and Cultural Genres of Music and Dance
• http://www.smsu.edu/folksong/maxhunter/. The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection is a set of about 1600 field recordings made by Max Hunter between 1956 and 1976 in the Ozark Mountain region of Missouri. The recordings are downloadable.
• Northumbrian Traditional Music The folk music of Northumbria in North-East England.
• http://ingeb.org. A list of folksongs from all over the world
• http://www.volksmusiknet.ch/. Swiss Folkmusic
• Musipedia contains several thousand folk music tunes. musipedia.org
• http://www.tritonus.ch/. Swiss Folkmusic and -instruments
• Pticice - a free MP3 album of native Serbian music
• http://folktunes.org/. The Folktunes Wiki, with streaming and downloadable songs, lyrics, and all things folk. In its infancy.
• FolkAlley.com - 24-hour streaming folk music
• Folk and Roots- A guide to the folk scene in the UK
• Music from the Florida Folklife Collection - From Shove It Over, a WPA recording of a work song performed by Zora Neale Hurston, to Orange Blossom Special, performed by Gamble Rogers and Will McLean, this CD spans fifty years of Florida folk music. The recordings are downloadable.
• Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946. Presented by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center and Mills Music Library Special Collections. The Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946 contains Wisconsin field recordings, notes, and photographs made by UW-Madison faculty member Helene Stratman-Thomas as part of the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin and the Library of Congress during the summers of 1940, 1941, and 1946; and recordings collected by song catcher Sidney Robertson Cowell during the summer of 1937 for the Special Skills Division of the Resettlement Administration.

Pastiche and parody:

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• A web page on "The Ballad of Sir Robin", with lyrics and sound file
• Gilligan's Island theme:
• Sound files
• Lyrics: one of many sites