The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research

THE problem of folksong classification has been extensively dealt with in the ethnomusicological literature since the beginnings of the discipline in the late nineteenth century.' That no ideal solution has been found so far is shown by the constant appearance of new endeavours throughout our century. Today, even though no major breakthrough is foreseen for the immediate future, the use of the computer promises at least the possibility of more efficient methods of handling large amounts of information. Obviously, one of the requirements that a classificatory system should meet is that of making it easy to locate a given song within a large collection. A second, and equally important requirement, is that of underscoring similarities and relationships among tunes, thereby helping in bringing together groups of variants or, to put it otherwise, of what folksong scholars define as tune families.2 For the purpose of comparative analysis, the investigator should have at his disposal, in easily accessible form, the entire complex of a given melody-group, including every known variant and derived melodic form. These variants should be arranged so as to permit study that will explain how each one of them is related to all the others. The question, therefore, is to discover a system whereby a large number of melodies are indexed in such a fashion that they can be readily compared and, at the same time, distinguished from each other on the basis of what individual features they may show. Such goals are not easy to achieve. It is for this reason that over the years many different methodologies have been devised, adopted, modified and improved. No single one is satisfying in all respects, since both advantages and disadvantages are inevitably intrinsic to them all. The first attempt to create a melodic index was made, at the best of our present knowledge, by the Benedictine monk Johannes Werlin in 1646. He catalogued several hundred tunes on the basis of their initial three tones, according to the principles of solmization. His was, however, an isolated enterprise which had no follow-up for roughly two hundred years. In more recent times, another attempt to index melodies was made by Johannes Zahn in his Die Melodien des Evangelischen Kirchenliedes (1889-1893). Here the metric features of the tunes are the basis for classification (duple metre, triple metre, either simple or compound). However, in the study of musical folklore, that is, in the study of music living in oral tradition, Zahn's approach is of limited utility. Tunes that are similar in their melodic contour may appear unrelated to each other if classified only according to their metrical and rhythmical pattern. Looking back at the history of folksong scholarship one can see that the criteria used for classification throughout the whole nineteenth century were solely based on the literary content of the text.3 This is the case with Child's famous collection4 in which the same principles are used (form of the text and its narrative content) that had been used by the Danish folklorist Svend Grundtvig, who preceded Child in publishing a collection of folk ballads. It was customary for folklorists of the time to study folksong

Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis

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