Drinking Songs

[Jules Levin]

At 08:11 AM 2/21/02 -0500, you wrote:
>There are anumber of folks song archives on the internet and most drinking
>songs are 'folk songs' (a generalizied statement which may not always be
>true).  One website asserted that these so-called Russian drinking songs
>were not true folk songs, but instead composed lyrics dating from the 19th
>Century or during the Soviet era - or even from popular films.

This statement assumes that there is a valid scholarly distinction to be
made between "true folk songs" and "composed lyrics dating from the 19th
C..."  I recommend an article by Alfred Senn "Folklore in Eastern Europe",
Annali Dell'Instituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli 1970.  Senn argues,
with many cited sources, that what we call folklore is simply ancient and
medieval high art (Aesop, etc.) that drifts down and spreads over the
centuries to the "folk".  I have read elsewhere that the European folk
fiddle--Hardanger fiddle, Ozarks fiddle, etc., is just 18th C. waltz music
played at a much faster tempo.  So the "true folk songs" not composed in
the 19th c. or later were just composed (by someone!) in the 18th C. or
earlier.  The status of folk song can be earned rapidly.  I have met
Americans who were surprised to learn that the "folk song" 'You are my
sunshine' was composed by a governer of Louisiana in the 20th C.

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