Authenticity in Folk Music

Author(s): Ahmed Adnan Saygun

Source: Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 3 (1951), pp. 7-10
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/835762
Accessed: 23/11/2010 22:51

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ictm.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

International Council for Traditional Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Journal of the International Folk Music Council.

http://www.jstor.org
 AUTHENTICITY IN FOLK MUSIC 7

AUTHENTICITY IN FOLK MUSIC

by
AHMED ADNAN SAYGUN (Devlet Conservatoire, Ankara)
I SHALL try to define what I mean by "the authenticity of folk music." I do not
propose to discuss the approach of the composer or of the pedagogue who necessarily
considers folklore melodies from a different point of view from that of the folklorist.
The composer, whose work is purely artistic, approachesthe subject from the personal
and subjective points of view. He is not concerned with the objective and scientific
aspects, which interest the folklorist, and he has every right to act according to his
own wishes when he borrows folklore melodies. The folklorist, however, must work
on authentic documents in order to reach more objective and less erroneous con-
clusions. Naturally, every folklorist is, a priori, supposed to be familiar with the
peculiarities of the music of his own country. For example, if you were to present
me with a melody, composed according to the principles of the tonal system, I should
tell you immediately that it had nothing to do with the folk music of my country,
but if it were a melody of descending character in, say, the dorian mode, I should be
obliged to consider it carefully before replying. I should try to discover its charac-
teristic features, by comparing it with other melodies of the same kind which I had
previously collected and analysed. Should it have been collected in another country,
I should ask myself if there were not some link between that country and mine.
Before making this comparison and reaching any conclusions, it would be necessary
for me to have made a profound study of a considerable number of melodies, com-
paring them one to another, while trying to define the differentinfluences, establishing
my types, etc. Thus the question of authenticity raises the problem of comparative
study.
I say "problem" because, in effect, it is a problem and it is necessary to define
the diverse objectives of the folklorist's occupation before resolving this problem.
His is a work of multiple phases which puts him in contact with various branches of
science. In the first place, it is "the study of folk music as a spontaneous language
of the human race." This is the linguistic phase of folk music. In the second place,
it is "the study of folk music as a means of exteriorising unconscious beliefs." This
is the sociological phase of folk music. In the third place, it is "the study of folk
music as an historical document." This is the archaeological phase. A study with
so many phases must be made with great care, and the authenticity of the documents
acquires great importance. Now, we must have some criteria to keep us from
erring in our research. As I have said, it is only comparative study which can guide us
in this matter and without this, it is literally impossible to arrive at anything of value.
A melody is introduced in one way or another into a society where it adapts itself
more or less, to local customs, and thus becomes a popular melody, almost a folk
melody. This is where the facts derived from our comparative studies intervene
and enable us, to a certain extent, to distinguish between the false and' the true.
It goes without saying that our documents must be collected and annotated as
perfectly as possible, and must contain all necessary explanations. Alas! Most of
the folklore collections are disappointing in this respect. They only give us scraps
of melodies and of words, described in too subjective a manner and with few explana-
tions. At the most, we are given the place and the date of the collection, the name
of the singer and a few stanzas of the words. We have very few collections in which
8 INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

the folklorist devotes himself to a profound study of the melodies, analysing them
as to their rhythmic, modal or structural qualities in order to establish the connection
between the melodies and the words, etc. Studies of this type enable us to appreciate
the great value of folklore melodies. Through them, we see the enlightenment
which a thorough study of melodies can bring to science.
Let us take a concrete example. Bela Bart6k, starting with certain types of
melodies, succeeded in establishing a kinship between ancient Hungarian folk music
and that of the Tcheremiss people of Asia. For my part, I was able to discover the
same type in Anatolia, and to draw an immense triangle between the countries of the
Turks of Anatolia, the Tcheremiss of Asia and the Hungarians of Europe. This
permits the folk musician to study the folklore documents of these three peoples with
a view to discovering prototypes which will serve him as a foundation for further
research. Thus, by eliminating heterogeneous elements, he will be able to re-
construct the original language of these three regions. On the other hand, this
authentication allows the historian to study the question of the emigration of peoples,
in a new light.
This demonstrates sufficiently, I believe, the importance of comparative studies
in this intricate question of authenticity. Such work supplies us, on the other hand,
with the means of considering the melodies in two quite different ways, one being the
complement of the other. These are the horizontal analysis and the vertical analysis,
if I may so express myself. The first consists of the comparative study of the living
melodies, first from a single region, then from different regions within the country
and finally from different countries. The other, profiting by historical facts, is carried
on in the sense of depth, and permits the folk musician to work as an archaeologist.
Actually, the materials of folklore resemble in every way, these artificial mounds
which conceal the material remains of crumbled civilisations, differing little from the
archaeological materials which the excavations bring to light. Only a study, carried
out in the sense of depth, like an archaeological digging, can give an opportunity to
consider closely the different superimposed layers, to see what each group, each
civilisation has contributed, to discern the various influences and to each finally the
original sources.
As an example of this, I shall come back to Anatolia. If the horizontal study of
melodies puts us in contact with the music of the Tcheremiss and the Hungarians,
the study of these same melodies, carried out this time in the direction of depth,
enables us to understand better the music of the ancient Greeks, to grasp more
easily the meaning of different points passed over in silence or explained vaguely in
the treatises of that time, and to establish in some degree the bonds which link the
music of Anatolia to that of the Phrygians, the Lydians and the Dorians. Again,
allow me to introduce you to this instrument which every Turkish citizen knows.
It is the same instrument which is represented in the bas-reliefs of the Hittites. It is
quite possible that it has been modified somewhat in the course of the centuries.
But it continues to live just the same. Could one claim that nothing of their musical
conception has come down to us, beyond admitting that this has been submitted
to a thousand influences? Only a study in depth can help us to solve the problems
which face us. Thus, by gradually establishing our prototypes and zones of influence
as we advance through the centuries, we can come to recognise the various types
which give us the basis for our evaluation of authenticity. Hence, in order to speak
with authority on this subject, we must pursue our comparative studies in the two
directions, above-mentioned. In other words, the comparative study of folklore
materials, constitutes the principal prop in this question of authenticity.
 AUTHENTICITY IN FOLK MUSIC 9
All that I have just said can, up to a certain point, suffice the folk musician or
even the one who is merely interested in linguistics. When it is a question of the
folk-musician who considers his material from a sociological point of view, these
facts are quite insufficient and one feels the need of supplementing them with others.
Now, these additional facts may be found in the very place where we collect our
melodies. Given the fact that a folk melody reflects for us some circumstance of life,
or to express it more clearly, that it correspondsto a specific occasion in life, nothing
is more reasonable than to consider it in its native surroundings. If one finds it
isolated and lacking the details which surrounded one must make an effort to re-
establish these details. If not, one has every rightit,to consider it with distrust, even
to the point of questioning its authenticity. Hence, another criterion of authenticity
is to be able to locate a folk tune in its own environment. Once located in its right
place this melody comes to life and gives us its secret. It is only by studying
thoroughly all the details which have a bearing on this circumstance that the folk-
lorist finds the way to new comparisons and new analyses.
Let us take as an example, what one calls a "funeral chant." This chant, part
of a ritual, is sung generally according to a certain order, established by usage: the
melody, sung by a soloist, must alternate with the chorus sung by the mourners;
the dead person must be praised, his personal objects must be exposed, the funeral
meal must be served and so forth. Deprived of this frame, the melody which appears
as a single line frequently of restricted length, would be of limited interest to us.
On the other hand, all these details widen the horizon toward the imperfectly explored
lands of human science, which the folk-musician has scarcely touched. In fact,
placed in its original frame, this funeral chant brings us into contact with several
problems. For example, we see the ceremony carried out in the same way among the
peoples, called primitive, of our own time.
Thus, a new phase of analysis and of comparative studies begins, and in this way
one discovers the true meaning of many things which escaped us before. One can
establish the bonds which connect the melodies of a certain mourner of a certain
country to the incantations of the primitive man carrying out the different compli-
cated details of the funeral ceremony, or to the magic incantations of Shaman trying
to exorcise the evil spirit from the body of the patient; and one grasps better, through
example, the true meaning of the repetition to the point of satiety of a motif which
seems insignificant. One can, thanks to this research, find convincing answers to
those thousands of questions which face us, such as, for example, the problems of
pentatonism with its many forms, that of the descendant or ascendant tendencies of
melodies, or again, that of static or irregular broken lines of melodies; and in this
way, one can solve the mystery of the influence of all these spontaneous manifesta-
tions on the human soul that conceives them. Briefly, one can discover the motives
which seek to exteriorise themselves in a thousand ways. It is only in a study of this
sort that a connection can be established between the man of to-day and primitive
man, because, in truth, the human soul has lost nothing of this dualism.
This research, these analyses and these comparative studies permit the folk
musician to consider his material from the sociological standpoint by establishing its
types and by explaining the different peculiarities according to the exigencies of this
new conception. Thus, he arrives at a better understanding of the characteristics
of a music destined for a particular situation, and in this way he is better able to look
for them in other folklore documents; and it is thus that he acquires the ability to
distinguish between what is authentic and what is not.
In many cases the folklorist-musicianwould feel it to be beyond his scope to study
IO INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

a subject which seemed to him to be non-folklore. Let us consider again our example
of the "funeral chant." There we are well in the domain of folklore. But if it were
a question of a commemorative ceremony in which professional actors and musicians
participated, we should hesitate to consider it. Yet, it deals with a funeral ceremony
carried out in the identical manner of the other. These ritual solemnities which form
a separate category and which fill a gap existing between the spiritual manifestations
of our ancestors, the primitives, and us, belong to the spiritual level of humanity
where the "Sir Ghost" and spirits of every sort give way to "Gods." The solemnity
of Moharrem, of whom I hope to speak at the Mid-century International Folklore
Conference, Mevlid, a kind of Muslim Requiem, requiems in general, solemnities of
Spring or Christmas, of the harvest, mysteries of all sorts make up this intermediate
category. In order to understand all this thoroughly we must try to supply ourselves
with all the details which can be found to-day in these solemnities. On the other
hand, we must follow up these details through historical facts. Studies of this type
are the ones that reveal to us the secret of so many historical facts to which textbooks
make only allusions and before which the historian, finding little to say, draws back.
The task of unveiling all these mysteries of ancient times, and of filling in the gaps
which exist between pre-historic times and the present day, comes back to us the
folklorists. As for pre-historic times, for the lack of something better, we should
content ourselves with the facts which the primitive peoples of our time can furnish
us. Evidently we must also confront them with the facts of these other primitives,
ourselves.
I must admit that here, as the boundaries of the folklore domain expand, the
question of authenticity becomes more difficult. The two principles, already dis-
cussed, must always, I think, guide the folklore-musician in his research. I believe
that he will not withdraw, in his turn, before such obstacles unless he wishes to
deprive himself voluntarily of valuable documents.

SOME REFLECTIONS ON AUTHENTICITY IN FOLK

MUSIC
by
MAUD KARPELES (London)
THEtitle of my paper, "Some Reflections," is intended to be taken literally because
in it I shall be thinking aloud rather than presenting you with well reasoned argu-
ments and conclusions. This is not out of disrespect to my distinguished audience,
but on account of the extreme complexity of the subject. Most of us have a general
sense of what is and what is not a genuine folk song or folk dance, but there are many
border-line cases that are hard to classify, and personally I should find it difficult to
state categorically what are the particular musical elements that can be said to
constitute authenticity. In any case I think that authenticity must always be a
comparative rather than an absolute quality. I hope, however, that I may be able
to suggest certain methods of approach, which others better qualified than myself
may be tempted to explore further. My aim is to be practical and to discuss what
we in the Council can do towards preserving the purity of the folk music that has
come down to us.