Re: song mythology

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

And I guess comparable mythology arises around composed songs that gives 
them the history of (in a traditional, not very valid sense as exclusively 
defined) "folk songs"--an elaboration of the process by which 
"Trad[itional]" and "Anon[ymous]" are, as is well known, the two most common 
composers of "folk" songs.

The folksinger Rod Macdonald was once congratulated for showing a fondness 
for old, traditional songs (as opposed to young upstarts) after he sang his 
(own) song "Sailor's Prayer" to a group of, I believe, sailors.

Si Kahn was told in England, I gather, that his song about a city's being 
left for dead when its industrial mill closed--I can't remember the title; 
great song--was a "traditional" folk song--went back generations.

Lee Hays of the Weavers used to puncture this sort of stuff with his 
customary sardonicism when he would introduce a song by saying, "Here's an 
old folk song that we wrote last week."

In a really bizarre example, I was shown a video of some sort of Jewish 
teens retreat, or whatever, in Europe--maybe _in_ Poland, in fact--in which 
the kids, prior to chanting Debbie Friedman's lovely Havdalah blessings 
together, were advised that this was an ancient melody, handed down over the 
generations and sung in the Warsaw Ghetto!!!

--Robert Cohen



>Have you ever spoken to the folks who do sacred circle dance?  They have a
>story or history for every folk dance even if the dance was created very
>recently and the choreographer has even been very public about what 
>inspired
>him/her to create the particular dance.
>
>Willa

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