Folk Music

- Folk music, dance, drama have a distinct place in the cultural heritage of a country
- All countries have developed folk music and dance, regardless of culture
- Plays an important part in the like of common folk
- Develop spontaneously
- Folk music of all countries possess certain common characteristics
- Intended to be sung by rustic folk with untrained voices
- Compass is limited (range, difficulty, complexity)
- Folk music, dance, drama are older than classical music, etc.
- Includes all songs that do not strictly come within the sphere of art music
- Comes mostly through unknown authorship (anadi sampradaya)
- Vs art music where the contributions are of known vaggeyakarar (composers)
- There is no law or lakshana to determine and define the lakshana and growth of folk
music
- Foundation upon which later classical music was developed
- Thyagaraja Swamigal immortalized many folk tunes current in his time, in his
operas, divyanama keerthana, utsava sampradaya keerthanas
- Also called “pothu janagaanam”, “paamara janagaanam”, “naattupaadal”,
“naadodipaadal”
- Affords endless solace to the weary farmer and laborer when they return home after a
day’s hard toil
- Infinite delight and pleasure to the housewife and householder
- Sung daily in the homes of millions of women and men, old and young
- Have a certain charm, please us the moment we hear them
- To listen to folk music in their pristine purity, one should go to villages removed some 50
to 60 miles away from the railway stations (India)
- Or places that have not yet succumbed to the influences of modern civilization

Classical vs Folk Music

- Function of folk music is primarily entertainment
- Pleasant, light music
- Stops with making a superficial and temporary appeal to emotions
- Classical music has a higher purpose than mere entertainment
- Appeals to our intellect and emotion
- Takes us to the realm of the “supreme” and helps us taste celestial bliss
- Enlarges our imagination, purges the mind of unclean feelings, elevates us
- Purpose: creation of “anandha rasa” (emotional joy)
- For proper appreciation of classical music, one needs to know its science (technical
aspects)
- Classical music is confined to the metropolis and towns, centres (city)
- Occasionally we hear classical music in rural parts, but they happen at musical centres
or connected with a famous musician/composer
- Classical music = intellectual music, music of the upper ten thousand
- Folk songs revolve around discovering real feelings and ideas of people
- Verses are added or subtracted, new ideas replace old ones
- Up-to-date inner feelings of people always find expression in folk songs
- Dynamic
- Never rise to the level of set literature, yet they are faithful reflection of all popular
sentiments and beliefs

- Profusion of folk songs in South Indian languages

- Dhatus (swaram/musical setting) have a peculiarity of their own
- With the exception of prathi madhyamam, all other eleven notes (swarasthanam) figure
in them
- Notes are sung in a plan, unadorned manner (no gamakam)
- Compass is limited (range, complexity)
- Not possible to assign specific ragas to many of the songs
- Some songs are crude, primitive, comprise of only three or four notes
- Marriage songs and folk songs of refined nature are in well-known old and popular ragas
- Some songs are literally packed with words
- Music and sahithyam are simple, no place for sangathis and vowel extension
- Sometimes gamakam is present in some songs
- Compass of most folk songs embraces the upper tetrachord of the lower octave and the
lower tetrachord of the middle octave (high mandhara - middle madhya sthayi)
- Songs are mostly in couplets or quatrains (2-4 lines in a verse)
- Division into pallavi, anupallavi, charanam is noticed in only a few instances, and in a
later period
- Recognizable ragas: Punnagavarali, Nadanamakriyai, Anandhabharavi, Saindhavi,
Kurinji, Navaroj, Nilambari
- Kurinji ragam had its origin in the “kuram” songs
- Thala: Adi, Rupaka, Chapu (Misra, Khandam, Tisram)
- Many songs begin in sama graham, some in anagatha graham
- Tunes of songs used in sorcery, witchcraft, demon worship, Kali worship are of an
awe-inspiring character