Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/118

 98 Reviews.

creation of the untrained mind constitutes folk-song. Indeed, Mr. Sharp lays stress on this point elsewhere in his book.

He next raises the following questions. Is folk-song the creation of the common people, or is it only " the fashionable song of a bygone day, the composition of the skilled musician, which found its way into the country villages where, although long ago forgotten in the town or city of its origin, it has since been preserved " ? Against the latter alternative, Mr. Sharp well observes that folk-music differs generically from composed music, and that the originals of existing folk-songs are not to be found amongst the printed music of earlier days.

If, on the other hand, folk-songs have been the creation of the common people, the question arises, — were they composed by individuals and handed down like other songs, or were they composed collectively by the community ? Mr. Sharp concludes that both questions may be answered in the affirmative. "The individual . . . invents; the community selects. . . . Com- munal composition is unthinkable." Nevertheless it is the very process of tradition which makes folk-music and gives it its essential characters.

^' Art-miisic, then, is the work of the individual, and expresses his own personal ideals and aspirations only ; it is composed in, comparatively speaking, a short period of time, and by being committed to paper, it is for ever fixed in one unalterable form. Fo/k-mttsic, on the other hand, is the product of a race, and reflects feelings and tastes that are communal rather than personal ; it is alwaj's in solution ; its creation is never com- pleted ; while, at every moment of its history, it exists not in one form but in many."

Here again we are disposed to quarrel with our author, but the dispute probably arises rather from inaccuracy of statement than from difference of opinion. Art-music is here again con- trasted with folk-music as if all that were not art-music were folk-music. This, of course, as we have said, is not Mr. Sharp's intention ; he would be the first to agree that in all primitive communities there exist songs, composed by individuals, which have not become, and are never likely to become, true folk- songs.

Where everything is so good and so stimulating, it seems ungracious to find fault. Yet it must be confessed there are