Favorite Folk Music Arranger

[Karen Johns]

I’m currently learning the Water Lily, a Norwegian fiddle tune arranged for harp by Aryeh Frankfurter, from his book Music of

[deb-l]

I love Derek Bell’s Carolan Receipt.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Carlos Salzedo did magical things with folk music, and Dewey Owens is my next favorite, especially his Irish tunes.

[tony-morosco]

Yes, Aryeh is excellent, as are all the others mentioned so far. I can’t fault any of them.

I would add Louise Trotter who has put out a very nice catalogue of folk and southern traditional music that is extremely well arranged, and, although better known for her books of classical and early music for lever harp, Deborah Friou has a few arrangements of folk music that are excellent. Her arrangement of Ashokan Farewell (by Jay Ungar) is one of my favorite pieces to play on lever harp. Although it is not traditional since we know who composed it, it is still a great folk piece that sounds like it could have come from the American south in the 1800’s rather than the Bronx in the 20th century.

[jessica-wolff]

The definition of what is and isn’t folk has changed radically. It used to be confined to songs of which the composer isn’t known. But in fact some “folk” songs turn out to be Victorian parlor ballads (“Wildwood Flower”) or minstrel songs (“Oh, Susannah”). Then there are the folklike or honorary folk songs, such as “Dona, Dona” (Yiddish musical theatre), “They Call the Wind Mariah” (musical), anything by Woody Guthrie, various singer/songwriter songs. Actually, some people call it a folk song as long as it’s played on acoustic instruments, I’ll be danged if I understand why.

[deb-l]

I stretch the term ‘folk’ to include some pop and modern music that sounds like traditional, and stretch pop to include rock, light jazz.

[Pat Eisenberger]

Karen – what level is the Water Lily? It sounds very interesting! but I’m only at the low end of intermediate.

Kim Robertson has always been my favorite arranger for all things harp. Even her simpler arrangements are special.

[Karen Johns]

Pat,

That is where I’m at too, so this

[John McK]

On the “what is folk?” topic I would not have classified Derek Bell /O’Carolan – in my mind that fits more into the baroque art music genre. . . not that genre disctinctions are really that important anyway.

[deb-l]

maybe someone can help me with the difference between ‘Early’, ‘Folk’, ‘Baroque’, ‘Traditional’ as I would call all of the above folk and I’m sure I’m off.

[kreig-kitts]

I agree the term “folk” now has multiple meanings. For me the two main
ones are traditional music, which can include parlor music and other written music that
has gotten a traditional following and is widely sung without singers even aware of the song’s origin (often the traditional versions sound
quite different, a great example being the ballad “Lord Lovell” – I remember hearing two versions of it in junior high music class ages ago, one sung as a classical art song and another sung by an old lady in Appalachia), or
maybe a traditional song that also got popularized enough to be sung
classically (think of how many opera singers include classically sung
arrangements of spirituals in their recitals).

The other is the Woodie Guthrie variety, a genre of popular music that really got going in the 20th century and still has some following, usually using acoustic instruments that are popular with traditional music, such as guitars, fiddles, banjos, and dulcimers, and wonderfully portrayed/lampooned in the movie “A Mighty Wind.”

[jessica-wolff]

Deb, if you know that Vivaldi or Joanambrosio Dalza composed it or that Vicenzo Galilei (Galileo’s papa) is believed to have composed it, then it’s not folk.

“Plaisir d’Amour” is often sung by folk singers (including me), but it’s not a folk song (composed by Giovanni Martini aka Martini il Tedesco in a classical context).

Spirituals are folk songs even when sung by opera singers. They rarely sound good when sung by opera singers; opera singers have too much voice. (That’s my opinion; don’t get mad at me.)

[deb-l]

isn’t that the same deffinition of traditional?

[tony-morosco]

“The definition of what is and isn’t folk has changed radically. It used to be confined to songs of which the composer isn’t known. But in fact some “folk” songs turn out to be Victorian parlor ballads (“Wildwood Flower”) or minstrel songs (“Oh, Susannah”).”

[kreig-kitts]

Maybe it’s good to think of “folk” also as a description of a style of musicmaking.

And like you mentioned with Ashokan Farewell and

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