Folk Song Style

Author(s): Alan Lomax

Source: American Anthropologist , Dec., 1959, New Series, Vol. 61, No. 6 (Dec., 1959), pp.
927-954
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

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Fol~ Song Style
ALAN LOMAX
New York City

MUSICAL STYLE AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

T HE data for a fresh approach to the study of folk and primitive song have
been piling up during the last decade. Previously the student had to de-
pend upon acoustically poor recordings or upon musical transcriptions which
were admittedly skeletal. Today the tape machine gives us a high-fidelity rec-
ord of the folk performance in all of its tonal nuances, with none of its color lost
or distorted. Long-playing records make this new world of musical color avail-
able to students everywhere. Soon vision on tape machines will produce ar-
chives of the musical act itself, but it is already possible to listen to people sing-
ing and making music in every part of the world by the simple act of putting a
few records on the turntable.
The first impact of this experience is revolutionary. Mankind's range of
inventiveness at the tonal level seems well-nigh limitless. Old musical horizons
are swept away forever, and a confusing host of musical languages and dialects
are exposed to view. As students of man's culture we have at hand the keys to
many human mysteries, for if music is the language of feeling, the age-old
traditions of folk and primitive music may stand for formative emotional pat-
terns that have persisted and affected human behavior during all history. As
citizens of one world and as social scientists, we must help to find avenues of
growth for all mankind's musical languages. Let anyone who slights this latter
problem think of the role that our Afro-American rock-and-roll has played in
the lives of his children during the past decade.
It is quite apparent, even from a cursory look, that a Western musical edu-
cation does not prepare us to understand, much less to classify and analyze, the
varied musical interests of mankind. Western European musical notation and
thinking are not adequate for the description of folk and primitive music.
Melodic ornamentation and systems of rhythm occur which make the notation
of a simple primitive chant into a formidable score, from which the transcriber
himself is often unable to reproduce the music. Charles Seeger explains the dif-
ficulty as follows:
The Occidental notation system ... is a set of directions for the reproduction of
products so as to conform to the peculiar traditions of the Occidental fine art. When,
therefore, we notate in it a product of the traditions of the folk art ... the act is one
of translation from one idiom into another. The notated folk song is then, not a primary
but a secondary datum of study. Employment of special symbols to indicate deviations
... not traditional in fine art, may increase the accuracy of the translation. But it
may lull the student into an illusion that it is not a translation . . . (Seeger 1949:828).
927

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928 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
So much for the musical scores of the past, in which the features that
give folk and primitive musics their special charm disappear in a confusion
of symbols. Comparative musicology, based on study of these distorted
skeletons, has not lived up to its promise, either in exposing the patterns of
mankind's musical thought or in showing how these patterns may co-exist in
the future. A new approach is called for.
An important step toward more precise musical analysis has been the re-
cent invention of the melody writing machine. This device, for which Seeger is
responsible (Seeger 1958:2), draws a melody as a continuous line on a piece of
graph paper on which a semi-tonal staff is indicated by ruled lines and seconds
are marked by a timer. Thus the slides, attacks, releases, wavers, and so on,
that distinguish a singing style are faithfully reproduced as a part of the
melody. The perfection of this machine will make it possible to transcribe folk
and primitive tunes quickly and easily, and thus build up precise, composite
pictures of the melodic patterns of a given culture. Yet in my view, this un-
doubted technological advance cannot provide a broad enough base for a true
musical ethnography. Seeger recognizes this (1958: 1).
A song is a complex human action-music plus speech, relating performers
to a larger group in a special situation by means of certain behavior patterns,
and giving rise to a common emotional experience. At the risk of going over
elementary ground, I ask the reader to consider a series of familiar musical
situations: The symphony hall, where the audience sits motionless and with-
drawn into a rapture of inner contemplation, while on stage a man with a little
stick directs the cooperative activity of a hundred musicians, each one with his
attention riveted on a page of type; the bedding-ground of a Texas trail-herd,
where two weary cowboys rode around the cattle singing, crooning, talking,
keeping up a steady stream of familiar sounds to reassure their nervous
charges against the sudden noises and unknown terrors of the night; an Afri-
can village dance, led by a battery of drums, where a dancing throng drama-
tizes erotic, hostile, and playful impulses, and one or two choirs sing well-re-
hearsed polyphony; a Near-Eastern bard, his eyes closed, his face contorted
with his inner vision, reciting a traditional epic for his village, while a small
orchestra provides a repetitious musical ground for the thread of his solo voice.
Other examples would only further emphasize the point that musical reality
is three-quarters composed of such materials, and it is therefore unscientific to
focus our interest on formal musical patterns torn out of their context (as if
music was intrinsically different from other human activities), or upon the pre-
cise measurement of particles of sound (as if musicology were a branch of phys-
ics).
I propose that the new science of musical ethnography be based on the
study of the musical styles or musical habits of mankind. I prefer the term
"style" to "habit," because the former gives the sense of a dynamic current in
culture, while the latter puts the accent on noncreative, mechanical activity.
Fin_e art has no corner on fantasy or creation (Rouget 1954). Moreover, a
style is the result of a certain group of practices; it is the qualitative end-prod-

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 929
uct of a certain set of actions. At the same time, it is the goal the culture aims
for; it represents the intention of a culture. Nonetheless, since a style is the
end-product of a pattern of behavior, it can be broken down into its separate
elements and described.
The study of musical style should embrace the total human situation
which produces the music:
(1) The number of people habitually involved in a musical act, and the way in
which they cooperate.
(2) The relation between the music makers and the audience.
(3) The physical behavior of the music makers-their bodily stance, gestures,
facial expressions, muscular tensions, especially those of the throat.
(4) The vocal timbres and pitch favored by the culture, and their relationship to
the factors under 3.
(5) The social function of the music and the occasion of its production.
(6) Its psychological and emotional content as expressed in the song texts and the
culture's interpretation of this traditional poetry.
(7) How songs are learned and transmitted.
(8) Finally, we come to the formal elements in the situation : the scales, the interval
systems, the rhythmic patterns, the melodic contours, the techniques of har-
mony used; the metric patterns of the verse, the structure of the poetry, and
the complex interplay between poetic and musical patterns (here see Seeger
1958), the instruments and instrumental techniques. Only when the behavioral
patterns covered by points 1-7 are taken into account can the formal elements
under 8 be properly understood, for they are symbols which stand for the
whole.
A musical style is learned as a whole and responded to as a whole by a mem-
ber of any culture. If some familiar element is absent in a performance, the
music gives far less satisfaction. Conversely, the very magic of music lies in the
fact that its formal elements can conjure up the total musical experience. An
Andalucian gypsy finds it difficult to sing well in his flamenco style unless he
is in a bar with wine on the table, money promised, women to clap and dance
the rhythms, and fans to shout encouragement. Yet a melody hummed at work
in an olive grove conjures up this experience to his imagination.
The child begins to learn the musical style of his culture as he acquires the
language and the emotional patterns of his people. This style is thus an impor-
tant link between an individual and his culture, and later in life brings back to
the adult unconscious the emotional texture of the world which formed his
personality.
Thus from the point of view of its social function, the primary effect of
music is to give the listener a feeling of security, for it symbolizes the place
where he was born, his earliest childhood satisfactions, his religious experience,
his pleasure in community doings, his courtship and his work-any or all of
these personality-shaping experiences. As soon as the familiar sound pattern is
established, he is prepared to laugh, to weep, to dance, to fight, to worship.
His heart is opened. The amount or kind of rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic
material then offered him depends upon the musical inventiveness of his cul-

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930 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
ture, but the quantity or excellence of all this does not affect his basic response,
so long as it conforms to the musical style that formed him. I have been in vil-
lages (1)* where one or two tunes brought forth the satisfaction that dozens of
melodies did in another place, or that a symphony produced in a city audience.
Apparently the character and the variety of the music matters less than its
conformity to tradition, which produces a sensation of security. The work of
composers in the folk world is, so far as I have observed, limited by this styl-
istic security-bringing framework.
An art so deeply rooted in the security patterns of the community should
not, in theory, be subject to rapid change, and in fact this seems to be the case.
Musical style appears to be one of the most conservative of culture traits.
Religion, language, even many aspects of social structure may change; an en-
tirely new set of tunes or rhythms or harmonic patterns may be introduced;
but, in its overall character, a musical style will remain intact. Only the most
profound social upheavals-the coming of a new population, the acceptance of
a new set of mores-or migration to a new territory, involving complete accul-
turation, will profoundly transform a musical style, and even then the process
takes place very slowly.
Here it might be useful to examine a comparative trait list of two styles,
with which most of my readers will be familiar, and between which cross-
culturation has taken place. The backwoods white folk culture in the South-
ern United States has been swapping tunes and texts with its neighboring
Negro folk culture for almost two centuries and both sing in English, yet it is
still possible to differentiate them as follows (2):
Ameruan White Folk Ameruan Negro Folk
Solo voiced. Mainly choral.
The group sits and listens in silence, sometimes The group needs an expert leader to cue them
sings in poor unison on refrains, has to be into various points of a song, when they take
taught harmony by a teacher (2a). over with blending voices, improvised har-
mony, hand and foot rhythm, dancing, etc.

The body is held tensely, as. the singer sits or The body of the singer moves sinuously or in
stands stiffly erect. The head is often thrown relaxed easy response to the beat. He dances
far back. his song.

The singing expression is mask-like and with- The singer's expression changes with the mood
drawn, normally, and agonized on high notes. of the song, line by line; there is a great deal of
smiling and even laughing in 'many perform-
ances.

The voice is rigidly pitched, somewhat higher The voice is based in the singer's normal speak-
than the normal speaking tone, confined to a ing pitch, is markedly relaxed and resonant.
limited range of vocal color; it is often harsh, It plays through the entire vocal range,
hard, nasal-the ideal being a pure violin-like introducing falsetto passages and bass grunts
tone with which the singer can make orna- with no self-consciousness.
ments on the melody.
• Parenthetical numbers refer to notes indicating albums and other recorded music illustrative
of the points made.

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 931
Social functions: to tell a story, point a moral, Social functions: to co-ordinate and enliven
establish a mood, amuse, instruct. group activity in work, dance, worship, with
other functions secondary.

Occasion: much private singing in a mood of Occasion: in almost all folk group activities,
reverie or for close friends or relatives; public one good songster after another takes the lead
performances the source of tension and em- and directs the group. Little shyness in public .
barrassment. Reverie singing recreates the pleasure of group
activities.

Emotional content: strong sexual and aggres- Emotional content: sexual and aggressive con-
sive feelings well masked in impersonal stories, tent openly expressed. Strong satiric impulse.
in moralizing or melancholy songs, or in Many songs obliquely protest against racial in-
"funny" rhymes. Dominant mood in impor- justice. The music conveys the mood· of the
tant songs is melancholy, nostalgic, factual, or singer, however veiled the text may be. Ro-
comic. Strong death-wish expressed. mantic love absent. .Love of fellow man a
0

main theme. Death-wish present but weak.

Learning process: the careful memorizing of all Group singing from babyhood on enables a
details of the song from an authoritative singer to "catch" a tune and at once be able to
source. Singers pride themselves on acquiring improvise something similar or join the chorus.
a ballad intact on .one hearing. The words are The tune is learned first.
learned first.

Tunes are extended, ornamented, considered Tunes are compost<l of short phrases which
as units; fragmentation and excessive variation tend to wander from song to song. Improvisa-
are disapproved of. Simple rhythms, which tion is prized. Polyrhythms and a hard driving
sometimes wander in conformity. to the de- beat which normally dominates tune and text.
mands of the text.

Texts normally dominate the song. Strict The texts are often fragmentary, consisting of
stanzaic structures. Memory slips source of one new line per stanza with extensive re-
embarrassment. Precise repetition the desired frains. Both verses and refrains wander from
trait. song to song. Each singer recreates the song
and re-orders the words with each perform-
ance. No premium on memory; improvisation
prized.

In primitive state, no accompaniment. Early Hands and feet, then other rhythm-makers,
use of dulcimer and fiddle. Gradual adoption used from beginning; early adoption of all
of banjo, guitar, and other stringed instru- European instruments and formation of poly-
ments for a full-fledged accompaniment style, rhythmic and polyphonic bands of varying
and playing of dance-tunes-like a Near-East- sizes and types (3).
ern orchestra (3).

Two important points emerge from an examination of these paired traits.

First, the two groups have exchanged so many traits that it is clear that their
musical styles are converging and will one day merge completely. Without
going into details, one can now point to the blues, spirituals, ballads, jazz, and
instrumental music which the two groups now practice in common (3).
Secon~; _it is nevertheless true that despite two hundred years of close collabo-
ration, the white folk pattern in America still resembles the familiar folk-song
style of Western Europe more than it does that of its Afro~American neigh-

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932 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
hors (4). In its turn, the Negro music of the United States still exhibits more
traits in common with the musical dialects of the West Indies, South America,
and West Africa than it does with those of backwoods white musicians in the
nearby South (5). Thus each trait list becomes a yardstick by means of which
one can define culture patterns that have moved between continents and
through centuries of time.
Application of musical style analysis to the problems of one area thus opens
the road toward the solution of a more important problem-the creation of a
classification system for the traditional music of mankind. I am convinced that
by linking music with its social and psychological setting in the way I have in-
dicated, we will not only achieve a new understanding of the nature of folk
music, but also that ethnomusicology can contribute to the understanding of
culture. The body of this paper is a presentation, admittedly rough and partial,
of the experiences and the thinking that have led to these conclusions. Com-
plete exposition would require a large volume. Final proof, of course, demands
a complex testing procedure, carried out by a number of specialists over a con-
siderable period. All that I can say now is that the approach outlined in this
paper has been tried out over a long period of time on a wide range of material
and through varied field experiences. It has worked so well for me that I would
like to share it with my fellow folklorists.

A CLASSIFICATION OF MUSICAL STYLES

As I have listened to the host of recordings available from many parts of
the world, I have worked out a rough list of stylistic musical families. Because
of the paucity of material from the Soviet Union, Eastern Asia and the
Pacific, this list is incomplete, but it illustrates the world vision which the con-
cept of musical style can afford. Each of the following descriptions is a sort of
cartoon, in some cases incomplete and in every case subject to refinement, but
corresponding, I believe, to a discoverable and operative aspect of reality.
Each of these grand musical families has naturally many species and sub-
species and local variations, produced by a variety of cultural cross-currents.
With these cautionary remarks, here is a preliminary list of the main musical
styles in the areas of the world from which records have been available to me.

I. American Indian: The tribal areas of North and South America, excluding
the areas of high culture in the Andes where a totally different and highly cul-
tivated system of music prevails (6). There seem to be occasional traces of this
Andean music among some groups of jungle Indians (7). Otherwise, as Horn-
hostel and Sachs, among others, have observed (Sachs 1943: 23), one style of
singing with a number of substyles seems to prevail among most of the Indian
aboriginal groups of both North and South America. One remarkable feature
of this whole area is that, considering the length of contact with Europeans,
there has been so little exchange of musical materials between American In-
dians and colonial cultures in contrast to the lively cross-culturation of Euro-
pean with African and Polynesian music. The general rule in America has been

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 933
that aboriginal singers hold to their tradition or else give it up entirely, ac-
cepting in its place, as is the case of several Mexican Indian groups, fragments
of the colonists' folk music (8). In the other direction, the influence of Indian
music on colonial folk song (again with the exception of Peru) (9) is so rare as
to be noteworthy when it occurs. If one may be allowed to hazard a guess about
so complex a question, this phenomenon is due not so much to purely musical
differences between the two families, as to the fact that in function, in overall
emotional content, the Indian and the Modern-European-Colonial styles
stand poles apart.
Among American Indians, group performance in full-bodied, throaty
unison is perhaps the dominant manner. Often leader and chorus alternate,
and frequently a solo voice chants a long song, whose ritual or religious func-
tion is primary. The manner of Indian singing is strikingly muscular in char-
acter-a sound that reflects, often is a by-product of, and does not add to the
weariness produced by long-continued physical exertion. Indians character-
istically sing at full volume. Their singing tones are throaty, husky, sometimes
grating, rich in nasal overtones, and produced at the normal speaking pitch
(10) . Some North American Indians punctuate their throa ty chanting with
high-pitched hunting yells, war cries, yelps, or other animal-like sounds, and
it is out of this material that the electrifying Plains style of singing in a high-
pitched, liquid, almost yodeling tone may have developed (11). The family re-
semblance between these two seemingly divergent ways of singing will become
apparent if the reader will try singing, say, in the deep-voiced Iroquois manner
for a time, feeling the air moving from a relaxed throat straight out between
his lips. Then, by suddenly directing the same stream of air upward against
the back of the hard palate, he will find he can produce the high clear yelling
tone of the Plains.
Songs are often given in dreams, remain valuable individual property, and
have a ritual, magical, or curative function. Singing often functions as a
mnemonic aid in reciting long poems of religious or traditional material which
must be repeated without the smallest error. Song also helps to induce a state
of trance in which ancestral or animal spirits appear to use the shaman as their
mouthpiece. But probably the greatest single function of song is for the dance
and, perhaps largely for that reason, an enormous number of Indian songs are
"all chorus," being composed of repetitions of easily vocalized and relaxing
chains of nonsense syllables. The rhythmic accent is emphatic and regular,
and tempo is maintained evenly. One tone per syllable is the general rule. Two
types of melodic contour are freqqent: tunes which move regularly around one
level and within a small compass of notes, but are occasionally punctuated by
high yells and big upward leaps; tunes which contain big upward skips fol-
lowed by stepwise descending phrases moving slowly to the lowest singing
pitch the singer can reach. Chordal singing and complex rhythms hardly occur
and the most common instruments are rhythm-makers, such as the Asiatic
hand-drum and various kinds of rattles (12).
The remarkable consistency of Indian singing style across t wo continents

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934 American Anthropologist (61, 1959
and its clear connection through Eskimo music with the music of Siberian peo-
ples (Sachs, 1943) not only confirms the Paleo-Siberian origin of the American
aborigines, but is another evidence of the extraordinary stability of musical
styles through vast stretches of space and time.

II. Pygmoid: Small tribal groups in Central Africa, South-West Africa, Central
India, Central Formosa and doubtless other areas still to be documented.
The communal style at its most extreme. Not only is singing conceived of
as a group activity, but melodies are broken up into short phrases, each ren-
dered by different members of the singing group. Melodies often take the form
of rounds or canons. The vocal tone is often high, sweet, and clear, rather
child-like, and the voices blend easily in unison and in rudimentary polyphony.
The consistency of Pygmy vocalizing through space-time is dramatically
shown in a disc prepared by Gilbert Rouget, which presents alternate and
virtually indistinguishable bands of jungle Pygmy and desert Bushman sing-
ing (13).

III. African: The area includes the whole of Negro Africa, except for Pygmoid
enclaves, those tribes converted to Mohammedanism or strongly affected by
Arab culture (14), certain Nilo-Hamites to the North (15), and Ethiopia (16).
It also extends to all areas in the New World where there are large groups of
Negroes.
Music is communally produced, the group dividing responsibility for a
number of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic parts; these parts are exchanged
with great facility. Dancing and singing in chorus. Polyphony and a flowering
to polyrhythm, three to seven parts being quite common. A predominance of
rhythmic and percussive instruments. The vocal style corresponds to the nor-
mal speaking voice of the singer, but there is a great deal of vocal play, inten-
tionally humorous, aggressive (17) or dramatic. Singers leap into falsetto, in-
sert bass parts, grunt, shout, yell. Voices blend easily. The body is always in
motion; the music is danced. Facial expression is lively and animated.
Headed by talented improvisors and rhythmic artists, the African com-
munity becomes a singing, drumming, dancing throng. Their rhythmically-
oriented music plays a part in every life activity-work, religion, dance, story-
telling. Very often it frankly expresses orgiastic sexual pleasure and/ or aggres-
sive violence. A music of many moods, it shifts from humor to irony to joie de
v1vre.
The Reverend Williams, in Volume 1 of the Journal of the African Music
Society, has set down a similar description of African musical style, showing
how it differs from Arab music and pointing out that it remains essentially
the same across the many language barriers of the Bantu world (19).

IV. Australian: The primitive tribes of the continent, with possible traces in
New Guinea. The music is communally produced but tends to alternate be-
tween long arhythmic solos and unison choruses. The voice is rather harsh and

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 935
strident and pitched fairly low. It remains within one vocal framework, and
in group singing there is little vocal blend. A principal function of the music is
to accompany elaborate ritual ballets; thus there is a remarkable control of
tempos, with refined passages of acceleration and deceleration. Songs are often
made up of passages of contrasting tempos. The instruments are rudimentary
-rhythm sticks, a bull roarer, a hollowed stick into which the performer sings
a bass figure. The prevailing mood of the music is serious, often tragic. Its
principal function is the magical control of nature (19).

V. Melanesian: Parts of New Guinea and adjacent islands. I suspect that this
area will turn out to be as complex as Europe, with primitive traces of Austra-
lian, Pygmoid, Eurasian and other as yet undefinable musical styles. How-
ever, along the northern coast of New Guinea and in adjacent islands, some
seemingly constant traits may be noticed. A predominance of choral singing,
accompanied by batteries of drums. Many bass voices, giving an organ-like
sound to the huge choruses. Some tunes seem African in character, but the
prevailing tone of the music is grave (20).

VI. Polynesian: Here too, few modern documents have been available to me.
Apart from Micronesia, which has another character, the prevailing musical
organization seems to be communal and there is an extraordinary control of
tempos. The sense of Polynesian vocalizing-in their paddling songs, for ex-
ample-is of a perfectly co-ordinated group, working together with great but
relaxed energy. One principal function of the chorus is to accompany elaborate
ballets in which the dancers perform, in perfect unison, highly refined and
sometimes sensual movements. The singing is likewise incredibly precise, the
great choruses pronouncing intricate chains of syllables in perfect unison and
at extremely rapid tempos, so that the chorus resembles one great voice. This
primitive tendency has been continued in the modern Europeanized music of
Polynesia, in which the Western system of harmony has been easily absorbed.
The voices of the males are quite low-pitched, produced deep in the throat
and chest, with relaxed yet dynamic energy. The singing tone is normally open
and liquid. The prevailing mood of many songs is joyful and sensual, often dra-
matic. Orgiastic pleasure in sex and aggressive behavior is dramatized with
little reticence; instruments are mainly rhythmic in character; there is much
hand-clapped rhythm (21).

VII. Malayan: Inspection of numbers of recent recordings indicate that there

may be a Malayan singing style which has spread across Indonesia and into the
Philippines, which has deeply affected the music of Polynesia and Melanesia,
and which is linked in ways as yet impossible to assess with the musical styles
of Japan and China (22).

VIII. Eurasian: I believe that the area includes Ireland (23); parts of the
British Isles and France (24); Spain south of the Pyrenees (25); Italy south of
the Via Emilia (26); the Moslem areas of Jugoslavia and Albania (27); south-

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936 American Anthropologist (61, 1959
em Greece (28); Turkey (29); Arab-Africa (30); the Near and Middle East
(31); Pakistan (32); India (33) apart from tribal areas and the Tamil culture;
Inda-China (34); Indonesia (35); China, Korea, and Japan (36), not including
the Ainu. This musical style family includes the folk and cultivated music of
the classical world and of the great empires of the past. There are many en-
claves of tribal and primitive music on this vast Eurasian music continent
which seem to be survivals of older style families.
The whole area is characterized by singing in solo, by unblended unison, by
instruments used for accompanying songs or for dance tunes. The tone of these
instruments very often corresponds to the voice quality, which is ordinarily
high-pitched, often harsh and strident, delivered from a tight throat with
great vocal tension, frequently with an effect of being pinched or strangulated.
The expression of the singer's face is rigidly controlled or sad, often agonized.
The singing tone-so frequently soprano or falsetto in character, even for male
singers-is suitable for the presentation of long and highly decorated melodic
line, where variation is achieved by the addition of rapid quavers, glottal
stops, and the like.
The prevailing mood of the music is either tragic, melancholy, nostalgic, or
sweetly sad, or else, in dance tunes, characterized by frenetic gaiety and a
rather aggressive release of energy. Control and individualism are the key de-
scriptive terms here. Cooperative music-making is achieved only by groups of
adepts, and in some areas, such as China, was virtually nonexistent until
recently. The whole area has a long history of slavery, serfdom, and exploita-
tion by ruthless aristocracies. The position of women, though often idealized,
is never equal, and, especially in the east, may be one of virtual slavery.
Seeger writes me that he is of the opinion that two, if not more, musical
languages compose this grand musical family. It certainly appears that the
music of eastern Asia was formed by influences that came into China from the
North, and it seems very likely that this Proto-Mongoloid style has close affin-
ities with the style which gave rise to American-Indian music in the Western
hemisphere. Yet too few folk song recordings are available from China and
from Eastern Siberia for more than a tentative opinion to be hazarded about
the matter. In any case, it seems likely that the social forces that favored the
dominance of strangulated solo singing were similar in the Far and the Near
East.

IX. Old European: The area includes the Hebrides (37); Wales and the west
and north of England (38), Scandinavia (39); Brittany, Pyrenean France
(40); Spain north of the Pyrenees (41); northeastern Portugal, Switzerland,
most of Austria, Germany, Italy north of the Apennines (42); Czechoslovakia,
western Jugoslavia (43); northern Greece, parts of Bulgaria and Rumania
(44); Lithuania (45), White Russia, the Ukraine ( 46) and the Caucasus (4 7).
In this whole area, singing and dancing are basically choral and coopera-
tive. The voice is produced from a relaxed throat and the facial expression is
lively and animated, or at least relaxed. (Even the solo singers of Central

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 937
Europe use a deeper pitch than Eurasian singers; their voices are richer in
overtones, and their throats and facial expression less tense.) Old European
tunes tend to be comparatively simple and unornamented. Blended unison is
normal and many forms of polyphony exist. (Herzog 1949: 1032.) Some poly-
phonic types perhaps antedate the early composed tradition. Elsewhere the
ready acceptance and adaptation of modern harmony show the aptitude of the
peoples for polyphonic practice, and hint that older polyphonic styles may
have been submerged. (Wales, Galicia, Genoa, Tyrol, and so on.)
The favored singing pitch is lower than in the Eurasian area; voices are
generally rounder, richer in timbre, fuller; a liquid or yodeling tone is some-
times found, and bass and contralto voices, rarely used in musical Eurasia, are
extremely common here. The mood of the music, while often affected by long
contact with the Eurasian style and therefore tragic in tone, seldom expresses
the degree of agony or frustration found in the folk music of that area. Often,
in fact, it is joyous, tenderly senuous, and noble.
The Old European area consists then of those regions of Europe sheltered
in some degree by geography or circumstance from the successive waves of the
Eurasian high culture and solo-song style, whether Persian, Roman Catholic,
Arab, or Turk. In isolated high mountain valleys, the hilly centers of islands,
in the lands to the Northwest, older and frequently communal social patterns
persist alongside of what appears to be an old stratum of musical style. The
position of women tends to be equal and opposite; courtship practices are less
restrictive (bundling being common in Northern Europe), sexual contact and
illegitimacy do not destroy the woman's position. A high value is put upon
cooperative norms of every sort. Perhaps it is worth noting that the rise of in-
dustry, which depends on mutual trust, took place in the heart-land of this
group-oriented Old European style.

X. Modern European: Although this seems to be a hybrid style which grew up

in the borderlands between Eurasian and Old European, it may deserve a
separate description, if only for its great importance to contemporary folk
song. The fact is that most of the folk singing which Western Europeans and
Americans know belongs to the Modern European style. The area includes
Lowland Scotland, Eastern and Southern England, Western and Central
France, Central Spain (48), Central Italy, Hungary (49), Central Bulgaria,
Rumania, and Colonial America. Here people sing solo songs in harsh, hard
voices, or combine in unblended unison on refrains. The whole area has a
stronger interest in text than in tune, in sense than in emotional content. This
is the land of the narrative ballad, the quatrain, the lightly ironic, lyrical love
songs, which have come to characterize the folk songs of Europe. It is also the
area which most strongly influenced the development of folk songs in the
colonies of North and South America (SO), perhaps because the witty, intellec-
tualized Modern European ballads and songs could move into new cultures
more readily than the vague and dreamy choral songs of Old Europe, or the
highly charged, highly elaborate and melancholy music of the South.

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938 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
Before I end this summary of folk music style, I must say a word about in-
struments. One primitive tendency is for the adoption of instruments which
conform to the pattern of the vocal music. But instruments are often acquired
or invented which are counterposed to the vocal style. Rarely, however, do
newly acquired instruments seem to alter these deeply rooted, traditional
singing styles. The same instruments can and do function in a variety of
ways in diverse cultures. The many-voiced bell and xylophone orchestra
lives companionably with the monodic pinch-voiced style dominant in Indo-
China and Indonesia, whereas the introduction of the xylophone into East
Africa has vastly augmented pre-existing polyphonic tendencies there (51).
Eurasian melodic instruments such as the violin or the lyre are mainly employed
for percussive effects by members of the African style family. The bagpipe,
with its drone system, often seems to stimulate experiments in vocal poly-
phony in areas where this tendency exists, such as littoral Jugoslavia (52)
and in Slavic communities in Southern Italy (53); whereas in Spain (54) and
the British Isles (55) it is thought of as another, and singularly accomplished,
solo singer.
Instruments are part of the technology of music and can be diffused with-
out profoundly altering the musical style of the areas they invade. The same
may be said of melodies, poetic forms, systems of harmony, and rhythmic pat-
terns. The Europeanized African has in recent years adopted all these eleme;nts
from Europe but his music remains African in character, whereas the Moslem-
ized African, whose family pattern has been profoundly reshaped by Arab in~
fluence, speaks a different musical language. He has become a high-voiced solo
wailer, accompanied by virtuosos on the ancient bardic instruments of the
Orient.
We come, then, to the several factors in musical style which seem most
fundamental and by means of which the music of an area may be most readily
classified and diagnosed.
(1) The degree in which song is a communal or individualistic product.
(2) The amount of blend in choral singing and the degree of chordal singing or
lack of it.
(3) The quality of the voice and its mode of production.
(4) The position and use of the body by the singer, the muscular tension evidenced
in the throat and the facial eXl)ression.
(5) The circumstantial and functional background of the music, both social and
psychological.
(6) The prevailing mood of the music, evidenced by its melodic contour and the
content of the verse.
(7} Of all the social and emotional factors involved, by far the most important in
the areas in which I have worked, seem to be: the position of women, the sexual
code, the degree of permissiveness about sexual enjoyment, and the affectual
relationship between parents and children.

These ideas were in process of development during my six months' field-re-

cording survey of Spanish folk music in 1953, a nd were supplemented by ob-

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 939
servations as I made forty hours of tapes in all parts of that country. I went to
Italy in 1955 to test this point of view against a fresh field experience, with the
foreknowledge that several musical styles existed in this country. Fifty-five
hours of field recordings and a year of varied field work have further refined the
approach. And it is a summary of these experiences which, after this long but
essential preamble, will be presented now.
MUSICAL STYLES IN SPAIN
Leaving aside Catalonia, which presents special problems, Spain may be
divided into three main stylistic areas-the south, the center, and the north.
The South, including Andalucia, Murcia, Valencia and parts of Castile
(56), is Eurasian, with strident high-pitched monody among the folk and a
high, pure controlled tone among professionals (57), both delivered from a
tense throat and with an expression of agony on the face. The melodies are
long, highly decorated, and the mood varies from tragic to nostalgic; dances
are solo or duo improvisations, tense, impassioned or frenetically gay. Both
dance and song are, as in the Arab world, often performed by highly skilled
folk professionals. Southern Spain formed a part of the Mediterranean world
of high culture in classical times, and subsequently was thoroughly accul-
turated by the Arabs who brought fresh Oriental influences.
This is a land of great estates and of extremes of poverty and wealth.
Labor was once performed by slaves, and today the country people who work
on the land often live on the edge of starvation. Even today women are house-
bound, Arab style; courting couples may not be alone together except at the
barred window; chaperones are strict, and marriages are arranged. Three main
roads lie open to the Andalucian woman-marriage, prostitution, or old-maid
dependency. Sexual pleasure is a male prerogative, and love-making is often
forced on married women, wearied by child-bearing and fearful of pregnancy.
Equal measures of physical punishment and passionate love are meted out to
the children. The whole area is dominated by hunger and, beneath a surface
gaiety, an underlying asceticism and melancholy and a mood of violence and
sexual jealousy exist-all brilliantly expressed in a neo-Eurasian musical
art, in which dance and song are inextricably linked. The instruments are the
flute and tabor, the guitar, the Arab friction drum, castanets, and other
rhythm-makers.
Central Spain, including Extremadura, parts of Castile, and Leon, is a
Modern European region with Eurasian influences to the South, Old
European traces to the North, and strong influences from the high culture of
the Middle Ages (58). It is a monodic area with some unblended unison singing.
The Castilian voice is lower-pitched and more open than the southern, but still
is harsh, high-pitched, and strident, delivered from a tense throat, the body
being rigidly held with the face a composed mask. The melodies are extended
but not prolonged as in Andalucia and, compared to southern Spanish tunes,
relatively undecorated. This is the ballad area par excellence of Europe, a cul-
ture where words have more importance than the melodic ornament. Work

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940 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
songs are similar to those of Southern Spain-long, high-pitched wails of des-
pair. Instruments are the guitar, the banduria, played as rhythmic instru-
ments, the flute and tabor, a simple oboe, castanets, a primitive violin, the
Arab friction-drum, and various rhythm instruments. Dances are both duo
and group in form.
This area, dominated by the Romans and conquered by the Arabs, is poor
but there are many small holdings as well as large estates, and less misery than
in the south. Women are still restricted to the house and jealously guarded.
Contact between the sexes is difficult, but courtship customs are freer than in
Andalucia, though marriages are still arranged between families. Children are
given more independence and are not so often punished physically.
The North, including the provinces north of the Pyrenees as well as parts
of Catalonia and Aragon, is Old European with Eurasian traces; the picture is
further complicated by the Celtic ties of Galicia and by the mystery of the
Basques. Although there are many types of solo songs-some, like the Asturi-
anada, in flowery Eurasian style-the majority of songs and dances are choral.
Voices are more open and more low~pitched than in Central Spain, with more
liquid vocal quality and occasionally with ringing tones. Bass voices are fairly
common (41).
There is less vocal tension. The singer's body is relaxed, the throat is not
distended with strain and the facial expression is often composed and lively
and, though not always animated, neither melancholy nor mask-like. The
voices blend easily, and choral singing comes naturally to the people. I did not
find any old polyphonic forms, but a bent toward polyphony is evidenced by
the ease with which the northerners have adapted simple chordal ideas from
Central Europe to the melodies of their regions. Melodies are brief and undec-
orated and most songs are short, except in the case of the Asturian ballads and
the improvised satirical songs of the Basques. Often the singers pass from one
tune to the other, weaving together long chains of tender, slightly ironic lyric
songs-a trait of Udina in Italy and of Croatia. The mood of the songs is ten-
der, gay, ironic, at times wholeheartedly joyous. The simple flute, the bagpipe,
and the various forms of flat hand-drums are the commonest instruments.
This is an area of small holdings scattered in the mountains, of small vil-
lages of shepherds and independent proprietors, of factory towns and mines
and strong unions. Lightly colonized by the Romans and hardly touched by
the Arabs, this area was the base for the reconquest of Spain by the Chris-
tians. In the Middle Ages the pilgrim route linked this region with the rest
of Europe. Yet beneath a Christian surface, there are many traces of a pagan
past and a pre-Roman communal society, especially among the Basques.
Women occupy a fairly independent position, courtship is a more relaxed
affair, and there is freer contact between the sexes-as, for example, at the
corn-shucking bees common to the Basque countryside. In spite of centuries
of campaigning by the church, coastal Galicia has an illegitimacy rate of
almost 40 percent, but the people themselves do not appear to be unduly dis-
turbed by this. Children are treated with tenderness, and early acquire a
sturdy independence.

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 941
MUSICAL STYLES IN ITALY: TEST OF A HYPOTHESIS
When I left Spain, I had established in my own mind the possibility that a
correlation exists between a musical style and certain social factors, most
especially the position of women, the degree of permissiveness toward sexual
love, and the treatment of children. I had also begun to see the bearing of
local history on the problem, but this still seemed secondary to the more
basic factors of social structure and sexual pattern. I then prepared to test
these tentative conclusions in Italy. To say that the strident falsetto in
Andalucia was Arab and the open voice of the North was Nordic was merely
to beg the question-to put it comfortably in the dist;rnce. Why then do the
Arabs sing in strident falsetto, the Nordics in a more open, deeper-voiced
style? A more provocative question posed itself-why was one style accept-
able and another unacceptable in a given area?
The main questions that I proposed for my Italian research were: (1) What
role did history play in the formation of musical style, and (2) what were the
social and psychological mechanisms involved in implanting a musical style
in all the individuals of a given region?
Italy proved to be an ideal laboratory for posing these questions and testing
my hypotheses. Its equable climate, its fertility and beauty, had attracted in-
vaders for thousands of years. Since the time of the Romans, however, no
strong national culture had united Italy, and hundreds of cultural enclaves,
some dating back to the dawn of European history, had been protected in the
folds of her rough terrain. The early urbanization of Italy had worked for rath-
er than against the preservation of a variety of folk patterns.
Since the high culture of the Italian city states of the Renaissance was
based upon the culture of classical times, a high wall sprang up between the life
of the townsfolk and that of the peasants, though each city was proud in a
rather snobbish way of the peculiarities of its dependent villages. Thus the
two-way exchange between city and country which gave unity to the emerging
Spanish, French, and English national cultures, scarcely disturbed the ancient
variety of Italy until modern times.
Italy proved to be a museum of music, as it was of classical art during the
Renaissance. For example, the pagan practice of the sung funeral lamentation,
which has virtually disappeared in the remainder of western Europe, is still an
everyday matter in most rural areas south of Rome . However, when the in-
numerable cultural pockets hidden in the folds of the Italian hills had been
taken into account, the main contours of Italy's stylistic map proved to have
the same north-south orientation as that of Spain.
The North (including the Alpine arc, the province of Genoa, the Valley of
the Po, and the northern slopes of the Apennines) is Old European but far
more markedly so than northern Spain, as it directly adjoins Central Europe
and thus has been constantly reacculturated by invasions from the north.
Dancing and singing is choral-so strongly so, in fact, that song is virtually im-
possible without a harmonizing group. Polyphony exists in a wide variety of
forms, from the seven-part longshoremen choruses of Genoa to the Slavic use

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942 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
of seconds and fourths to the East. Voices are open, clear, bell-like, and deep
in pitch; in Genoa, again, basses are more common than tenors. Singers stand
with arms round their cronies' shoulders, or, leaning across a wine-soaked
table, blend their voices, smiling at one another benignly over the pleasures of
drink, sweet chords, and the often bawdy or tenderly sexual verses of their
songs. Most songs are short and lyrical in character, but even the ballads of
Piedmont and Genoa are performed in chorus and with such a strong beat that
it is plain they had once been danced as they were sung (57) .
The open, comradely, tolerant spirit of the North is evident to any visitor
who knows the whole of Italy. Where the people work in factories or in big
estates, they sing together at work, organize powerful unions, and vote labor
at the polls. The courtship patterns are closer kin to those of France, Switzer-
land, or Croatia than of Italy to the South. Contact between men and women
is relaxed and friendly, and children, especially in the mountains, are treated
with respect.
The Center. The Apennines, running in a southeasterly direction to the
Adriatic South of the Po Delta, form the most dramatic stylistic borderline
that it has been my fortune to encounter. I criss-crossed this hundred-mile-
wide mountain barrier at a dozen points, and always found that I passed from
one musical style area into another. As one musician, who lived in Northern
Tuscany fifty miles south of choral Piedmont, remarked to me, "It is impossi-
ble to organize a chorus in my town. These people simply can't sing together."
Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio and parts of the provinces further South-this is
Italy's Modern European area. Here, song is predominantly solo in perform-
ance, with occasional harsh and unblended unison choruses. Singers stand or
sit stiffly erect, their throats showing the tension of this vocal delivery, their
expression withdrawn, and their eyes often closed-in other words, following a
familiar Modern European pattern. The singing voice is harsh or hard and
clear, and notably higher in pitch than in the North. The function of the song
is to mount the text, even more than in Central Spain, for Tuscan singers favor
long, improvised, somewhat satirical verses (stornelli and ottavi) or present
long, melodically dull folk operas (maggi). A generation ago, most marriages
were arranged between the families of these small land-holders; girls were
closely supervised until marriage, and illegitimacy was severely stigmatized.
The texts of the countless stornelli consist of an allusive, ironic fencing with
the opposite sex. One woman told me, "South of the Apennines, the men are
wolves, and they wish only to eat you once" (60).
The South. The old kingdom of Naples, together with Sicily and Sardinia,
is another Italy and is so regarded by many Italians of the North. From the
point of view of musical style, it is indeed another world. The norm of Southern
Italian singing is in solo, in a voice as pinched and strangulated and high-
pitched as any in Europe. The singing expression is one of true agony, the
throat is distended and flushed with strain, the brow knotted with a painful ex-
pression. Many tunes are long and highly ornamented in Oriental style, and in
Lucania are often punctuated with shrieks, like the cries of the damned (61).

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 943
The universal subject is love, the beauties of women, the torments of court-
ship; the commonest song-type is the serenade, of which there are two kinds-
the serenade of compliments and the serenade of insults, if a suitor is refused.
Laments for the dead are common to the whole area, and a singer from Lu-
cania (which is the area of greatest isolation) moves from a lament to a lullaby
to a love song (62) without change of emotional tone. Here, too, sexual jeal-
ousy reaches a peak unique in Southern Europe. The presumption is that a
man and a woman left alone together for five minutes will have sexual contact,
and thus the smallest violation of courtship taboos may stain a woman's repu-
tation so that she will never find a husband. For a person sensitive to the treat-
ment of children, travel in the South is a torment, so slapped and pushed and
mistreated are the young people of this Arabicized world.
However, the poverty, isolation, and political retardation of Southern
Italy have also permitted the survival of many cultural enclaves of varying
musical style. Most of these cultural pockets, in which one can hear various
types of polyphony, were formed when one or another group of invaders came
into the area and took over a region or built their villages on hill tops. Thus we
find chordal singing in the villages where Byzantine Greek is still spoken along
the Eastern Coast of Puglia (63), and again in the Albanian-speaking villages
of Abruzzi, Lucania, and Calabria (64). But there may be survivals of a more
ancient level of Old European singing style in the strange, shrieked chords of
Lucania and Calabria (65), and in the case of Sardinia, to which we will pres-
ently come.
In Italy, as in Spain, history and the social patterns seem to work together.
For over two thousand years the South has been dominated by classical
(Eastern) culture and exploited by imperialistic governments. The principal in-
vaders, after the Romans, came from Eurasian musical areas-the Byzantine
Greeks, the Saracens, the Normans, the Spaniards.
The center, between Rome and Florence, was formed by the Etruscans, an
Oriental people of high culture who apparently brought the saltarello with
them from the east. Later, the flowering of poetry in the Renaissance confirmed
the folk of the center in their attachment to solo lyric poetry, to improvisation
and to the primitive solo-decked Maytime operas of the high Renaissance.
In pre-Roman times, the north was the domain of the Ligurians, who today
are the most accomplished polyphonic folk singers in Western Europe. Celts
from the North poured into the Po Valley in the Roman era, and later in-
vaders-the Longobards, the Goths, and the Slavs-all came from the heart-
lands of the Old European song style. Moving across the North, from west to
east, one passes from Liguria into French Piedmont, the ballad country of
Italy, where ballads are invariably sung in chorus, into an area of Tyrolese and
Austrian song, and finally into the eastern provinces where Slavic choral sing-
ing is found.
One of the most important discoveries of the trip showed a North-South
line of Slavic influence which cut across these three Italian musical areas. In
the mountains near the Austrian border are small enclaves of Slavic-speaking-

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944 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
and-singing people (66). The whole province of Friuli has a Slavic cast to its
song (67). In La Marche, on the Adriatic coast facing Jugoslavia, the dominant
type of work song is in two parts, harmonized in seconds and fourths and sung
with an open, far-carrying tone in the Slavic manner favored in Croatia and
the mountains of Bulgaria and Rumania (68).
Anywhere in the mountains south of Rome one may come upon a com-
munity that sings part songs in a Slavic style (69) . The province of Abruzzi,
today an island of accomplished modern rural choruses in the Eurasian south,
has a coastline closer to Jugoslavia than any other part of Italy, and its oldest
choral songs, found on the coastal plain (rather than in the mountains which
were once monodic) are Slavic in color (69) . I believe it was by this avenue that
the bagpipe and the custom of singing counter-melodically with the bagpipe
entered Italy, for one finds this instrument and this practice all along the
mountain routes of the shepherds from coastal Abruzzi into Calabria.
Many colonies of Albanians came to Italy as refugees from the Turks in the
13th century. In their villages, scattered through the hills of Abruzzi, Lucania,
and Calabria, old Albanian dialects are still spoken, and singing is without ex-
ception in the choral, open-throated, Old European style. Some non-Albanian
villages in the South have apparently adopted Albanian style, but it is inter-
esting to note that here the harmony is shrieked in high-pitched, agonized
voices, and that the mood is one of torment and frustration as compared to the
Albanian. This may be a case of the formal elements of a musical style failing
to carry with them their emotional content.
The folk-song map of the south is further complicated by the colonies of
Byzantine Greeks in Puglia and Central Sicily, who practice an antique har-
monic vocal style that they imported with their Greek Orthodoxy many cen-
turies ago. However, as these villages have been absorbed into the southern
pattern of sexual jealousy, the singing is harsh-voiced and strident and so is
the harmonic blend.
Finally, I discovered in the mountains between Naples and Salerno some
colonies of Saracen origin, people who had fled into the hills when their coastal
cities were recaptured by the Christians, and who have preserved intact the
music of their North African forebears (70). This is, I believe, the only occur-
rence of purely Arab music in Europe.
To return to the main theme, in every case which I had the opportunity to
examine there is a positive correlation betwen the musical style and the sexual
mores of the communities. The Slavic enclaves of the North are open-voiced
and permissive, those of the center less markedly so, and finally, in the South,
the Albanian and other Slavic communities stand like islands of feminine in-
dependence in the sea of southern jealousy and frustration, though the Eura-
sian social and musical patterns have altered the Albanian style considerably.

MUSICAL STYLE AND LIFE STYLE

There remains the question of the mechanism which links a musical style
to the preference pattern of the individual, and to community mores. I found

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LOMAX) Folk Song Style 945
one answer in an examination of Italian lullabies, some two or three hundred
of which are recorded. Southern Italian lullabies are agonized, sorrow-ridden
wails, often hard to distinguish from funeral lamentations. Northern Italian
mothers sing playful baby-bouncing songs, or wistfully tender sleep-songs.
An apparent exception seems to emphasize the pattern: in the coastal areas
round about Venice, there is a treasure of lullabies in the Southern Italian
manner. The Venetian fisherfolk have harsh singing voices and are positively
unable to sing polyphonically or to blend their voices. The existence of this
Eurasian musical island in the North is explained by the isolated position of
these people, who took refuge in their pile villages in the lagoons during the
invasions from the North. Later Venice, as the Queen of the Mediterranean,
faced East toward its Oriental trading empire (71).
The distribution of lullaby types in Spain conforms to this North-South
pattern, but with a precision that would delight a linguist. From the Andalu-
cian sleep-producing refrain vocable-a high-pitched, nasalized ay-ay-ay
(72)-the refrain vowel gradually grows rounder as one moves toward the Old
European area until, in the Basque country, the women signal their babies to
sleep with a low-pitched, liquid 00-00-00 (73).
The child in Southern Italy and Southern Spain has his first musical con-
tacts with his mother and his other female relatives. Their voices, as they rock
him to sleep or move about their housework, accompany his waking and sleep-
ing hours. And what he hears is a high-pitched voice and a wailing melody,
expressive of the tragedy of Southern Italian life, its poverty, and its frustrat-
ing sexual pattern. The lullabies call on the Saints to protect the little one, born
into a harsh and menacing world, and they threaten the irritable child with the
wolf who often comes to eat the lambs of the flock (74).
Lullabies for an Italian woman have direct sexual connotation. At first, un-
married girls flatly refused to perform them for me, overcome with embarrass-
ment at having to sing them to a strange man. The reason for this is clear.
The Catholic church virtually interdicts sexual relations except for the purpose
of procreation, and since, at least in theory, no unmarried girl has sexual
experience and no married woman permits intercourse without childbearing in
mind, lullabies are intimately associated with love-making in the mind of the
Italian peasant woman.
Now what is the quality of the sexual experience of the Southern Italian
woman? In the first place, as a young girl, she has feared the father and broth-
ers, who jealously protected her and would drive her from the house if they
so much as suspected her of making love to a man. In her period of courtship,
she feared all men. Carlo Levi says about the peasants of Lucania that they
"consider love or sexual attraction so powerful a force in nature that no power
on earth can resist it. If a man and a woman are alone in a sheltered spot, no
power on earth can prevent their embrace; good intentions and chastity are of
no avail. If by chance nothing comes of their propinquity, it is just as bad as if
something had come of it, because the mere fact of being together implies love-
making ... " (From the introduction of Christ Stopped at Eboli.)

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946 American Anthropologist (61, 1959
The Southern Italian girl knows that there is no trick or deceit to which her
hungry and predatory admirer will not descend for a sexual contact. She also
knows that he will regard her as a whore if she yields to his sexual desires, and
that her chances of marriage, her only career, may thus be forever closed.
In the minds of a Southern Italian there are two idealized feminine cate-
gories-the madonna, the virginal mother figure, and the prostitute. If he has
any actual sexual experience in his youth, it is likely to be with a prostitute.
He comes to the bed of his inexperienced madonna flushed with wine and the
repressed passion of a long engagement, a feeling that is closely akin to anger.
Little wonder that so many Southern Italian marriages are sexually infelici-
tous, and that the man goes back to his cards and to his prostitutes, after duti-
fully siring his children, leaving his nagging madonna to wail out her frustra-
tion in her lullabies and add her sorrowful feminine notes to the love songs she
heard on moonlit nights. For now she is in prison. Even though unfulfilled sexu-
ally, worn out by hard work and childbearing, she will seldom attempt to es-
cape her marriage. Divorce is forbidden and separation in this patriarchal
community means condemnation to concubinage or slavery as a servant. Is
it any wonder that the women of this land wail their children to sleep? The
women bear the heaviest burden of pain in this Southern Italian world, bled
white by the Romans and exploited since then by corrupt and rapacious feudal
systems.
This is the social and psychological background of the singers who shape
the musical preference pattern of the babies of Southern Italy. Their wailing
voices blend with the child's first experiences of love and affection, the satis-
faction of his need to be fed, cleaned, kept warm, and cuddled. When he grows
up, he finds no reason to change his emotional perspective. The mother, who is
pressed by church law into a succession of exhausting pregnancies, has a new
baby in her arms and refuses the older sibling. When the child is obstreperous,
he is severely punished or slapped and then may be covered with passionate
caresses by a mother to whom he represents the whole of life's satisfactions. I
have never seen children so harshly treated as in Southern Calabria and in
Sicily, nor have I ever encountered such timorous little girls and such mis-
chievous, maddening little boys.
Girls, from an early age, must stay at home to help their mothers. The idea
of free play or long schooling for them is unthinkable. As soon as they begin to
mature, they are housebound and guarded like so many potential criminals.
The boys, on the other hand, have little or no organized sport, and spend their
time standing in the streets and piazzas with the older boys, being cuffed and
tormented, and in turn cuffing and tormenting the smaller ones. During
adolescence they burn with frustrated desire, for contact is forbidden with the
girls they yearn for. There are no dances, no parties, and unless a girl is en-
gaged she cannot even go to the movies with her young man. Thus Southern
Italy has become famous for the beautiful eyes of her women, eyes which can
say everything in a glance. Thus your young Italian, summoned by the burn-
ing glances of the girls, stimulated by wine, by the sun, by a culture whose only

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 947
folklore deals with love in the most passionate and romantic terms, is left to
burn in the piazza. He becomes a silent hunter, waiting and hoping for the
moment when he can catch a girl unaware, or briefly reach a haven in the arms
of some complaisant married woman. In this culture, no man can really trust
his friend, for to leave one's wife or fiancee alone with another man is far too
risky.
Thus the whole society of Southern Italy comes to share in varying degrees
the sorrows and frustrations of its housebound women. And there is almost
literally nothing in the folk poetry of this area but yearning for unattainable
love-love songs which the males sing in voices almost as high-pitched and fal-
setto as their mothers', sending through the barred windows a vocal sign of
their identification with the emotional problems of their imprisoned sweet-
hearts.
But, you may ask, is high-pitched, strident singing necessarily a musical
symbol of the burning pain of sexual starvation? It appears to me that this is
so, for people sing in this fashion in all the areas in which women are secluded,
owned, exploited, and thus never can trust or be trusted completely by their
men.
However, when the relationship between the fundamental vocal means of
expressing emotion (laughing, crying, and the like) are studied in relation to
singing style, another great step forward will have been made in scientific
musicology. In this particular case a few preliminary observations can be
shared. When a human being, especially a female, is given over to agonized
grief, she emits a series of high-pitched, long, sustained, wailing notes. Even
grown men sound like little children when they howl in sorrow. Then the head is
thrown back, the jaw thrust forward, the soft palate is pulled down and back,
the throat is constricted so that a small column of air under high pressure
shoots upward and vibrates the hard palate and the heavily charged sinus. An
easy personal experiment will convince anyone that this is the best way to
howl or wail. Then, if you open your eyes slightly (for they will automatically
close if you are really howling), you will see the brows knotted, the face and
neck flushed, the facial muscles knotted under the eyes, and the throat dis-
tended with the strain of producing this high-pitched wail.
This is quite an accurate picture of the Southern Italian or Andalucian folk
singer. This is what the Southern Italian or Spanish child learns in the cradle
and in the kitchen, and later uses for abstract expressive purposes, recalling
feelings of infant love and security. The proof is that everyone in the culture
sings or tries to sing in this way. Not only do mature women howl or wail when
they sing, but so also do most of the men, especially the most highly esteemed
singers. It is rare to find a low singing voice among Southern Italian men.
Tenors with a falsetto quality are the rule. And this is the tale of Tunis,
Egypt, Arabia, Persia, of the raga singers of India, and of all the lands where
women are the chattel slaves of high culture.
I come now to a final example which sharpens this cartoon of Italian musi-
cal styles. In the central mountains of Sardinia there is a small area said never

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948 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
to have been conquered by the Romans. The population live a quasi-tribal
life, pasturing their flocks on communal land, resisting the modern Italian
government as they did Imperial Rome. In fact, they are celebrated brigands
who make travel on the roads unsafe after dark, and frequently carry out raids
on neighboring villages. Yet I was told that murders due to jealousy rarely oc-
cur among them. Women, as clan members, are not the slaves of their hus-
bands, and infidelities and sexual irregularities are talked out between families.
Sard lullabies often run to the lilting rhythm of the ballo tondo (75), the
primitive Sardinian circle dance (76), and even in funeral lamentations, the
voices of the mourning women are low-pitched and husky. The men, who prac-
tice the art of song to the exclusion of every other art and whose songs trans-
mit the tribal lore, sing and dance together in a line with arms round each
other's shoulders (77). Their voices are pitched so low that, in the Italian con-
text, you think at once of Zulu singing style. All songs are choral and the
choruses are composed of baritones and basses, sounding a lively polyphonic
bass figure as their song-leader (sometimes a tenor) tells his story. Their har-
monic system is unique in Italy and in Europe, and indeed seems to be the one
genuine prehistoric chordal style that has survived intact in modern Europe.
Coastal Sards sing in modified Hispano-Arabic style, in high-pitched stri-
dent voices, mostly in solo (78), even though their accompaniment is the most
elaborate polyphonic instrument produced in the Mediterranean-the Greek
aulos, called in Sardinia the launneddas, which is in effect a triple clarinet (79).
The bass song style of Central Sardinia is linked, in my mind, with the
polyphonic music of Liguria (80), and in both areas one finds a permissive atti-
tude toward sex, more equality for women, tenderness for children, and many
mementos of a primitive communal life. Indeed, I have come to feel that these
areas belong to an Old European culture pushed back into the mountains and
surrounded by the onrush of Oriental civilization which overwhelmed and shat-
tered most of the older tribal societies, made chattels of the women, and
brought in its train a folk-art of strident monody. The Catholic church, also
Oriental in origin and in musical preferences, sustained this monodic pattern;
indeed for centuries it resisted polyphonic influences from the North with all
its strength. In the mountain Sard we have perhaps an indication of the kind
of life and music that existed in Europe before high culture came from the
East. The most recent and dramatic example of the disappearance of the Old
European choral tradition was the clearing of the Scots highlands in the 18th
century. The clan system was broken and the people shipped off to the Mari-
time Provinces of Canada. There in the Gaelic-speaking enclaves one hears
the only non-Negro polyphonic singing on the E astern seaboard (81) .
I do not know how this system of stylistic analysis will work out in other
parts of the world, especially in primitive cultures. It seems to me that it con-
siderably clarifies the picture in the areas I know intimately-Britain, Italy,
Spain, the West Indies, and the United States. It gives promising indications
when applied in other areas. Perhaps sexual tensions may not prove to be a
determinant for musical style in the music of many primitive peoples, but I

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LOMAX) Folk Song Style 949
feel that it is along the lines indicated in these pages that we will come upon
the answers to many of the puzzles facing the new science of musical ethnology.
One of the most promising aspects of this approach is the possibility of
introducing precise laboratory measurements into the study. The develop-
ment of the melody-writing machine will soon make it easy to transcribe tunes
and thus build up a picture of the melodic norms of any culture area. We have
seen that the diagnostic factors in the musical style situation center around the
way the voice is produced, its characteristic timbre and normal singing pitch.
These elements may now be measured precisely and linked with studies of the
psychological and emotional tension patterns of which vocal tension is the
product. Thus, since voice production stands at the center of the problem-on
the one hand limiting and coloring the formal musical product, and on the
other sensitively reflecting the main emotional and social tensions of the society
-an attack at this point could well produce decisive results.
What might be envisaged is a laboratory procedure with the following
steps:
(1) A mechanical study of the physical characteristics of a series of singing styles
and melodic contour patterns.
(2) A laboratory study of typical singers from each stylistic area, which would
include measurement and description of the physiological traits basic to each
style.
(3) Testing responses of members of musical culture groups to various aspects of
their own and other musical styles.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Now to recapitulate the main points of this paper and to propose a conclu-
s10n.
1. Comparative musicology in studying folk and primitive music cannot
depend upon our present system of musical notation, nor could such an ap-
proach possibly produce a picture of mankind's music, especially since, as we
have shown, the formal aspects of music can be altered in culture contact with-
out altering the fundamental color or intent of the song style. There is pro-
posed a fresh concept-musical style-which includes these formal elements
but sets them in their proper context of vocal technique, physical and emo-
tional tensions, group participation, and social background.
2. Considered in this light, there appear to be ten or more musical style
families in the world, whose number and precise description will be modified
as more material comes in. Perhaps these categories may serve as a useful
starting-point- Eurasian, Old European, Modern European, Pygmoid, Afri-
can, Melanesian, Malayan, Polynesian, Australian, and American Indian.
It seems quite clear that these styles have spread over large areas during ex-
tremely long periods of time, possibly with the diffusion of the modern races
of mankind. They appear to change more slowly than any other human art.
3. The diagnostic elements in musical style appear now to be the degree
and kind of group participation in music-making, the characteristic pitch and

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950 American Anthropologist (61, 1959
timbre of the voice and the vocal technique, the facial and bodily tensions,
and the underlying emotions which determine these tensions. These emotions
seem to arise from limited areas of social tension-almost like neuroses at the
level of individual psychology. Thus the basic color of a music symbolizes a
fundamental social-psychological pattern, common to a given culture.
4. In those societies considered, the sexual code, the position of women,
and the treatment of children seem to be the social patterns most clearly linked
with musical style. Where women are made into chattels, as they have been
during recent history in most areas of high culture, their feelings of melan-
choly and frustration have determined that the entire music of the various
societies take on a nostalgic or agonized character, in singing style, melodic
type, and emotional content. The women in these societies fix the early musi-
cal preferences of the young, so that when these children become adults they
experience a pleasurable recall of childhood emotions associated with their
mothers and their mothers' sad songs; thus a sorrowful music fills them with a
feeling of security and they find it beautiful and pleasurable.
5. Since music has to do with such fundamental human values and such
primordial human experiences, which do not alter until the entire underpin-
nings of a society are changed, we may now see clearly why musical style is so
conservative and why musical patterns have seemed to externalize eternal
verities. The Pythagoreans believed that the fundamental tonal patterns in
music were a sign of man's relationship with the patterns of the physical uni-
verse--the music of the spheres. Now we see that musical styles may be sym-
bols of basic human value systems which function at the unconscious level and
evolve with glacial slowness because the basic social patterns which produce
them also evolve slowly.
6. For us, these concepts open up several important possibilities :
(a) Using musical style analysis as a diagnostic instrument, we can begin the study
of the emotional and esthetic history of the world's peoples.
(b) Using musical style as an analytic tool, we can perhaps reconstruct the emo-
tional character of past societies.
(c) Musical style analysis may afford a fairly precise index of the deep-running
emotional and esthetic factors which have been operative in the process of
cultural evolution alongside economic and institutional factors.
(d) We can anchor the study of the arts of mankind in fundamental concepts of
psychology and physiology, and perhaps discover a realistic basis for the pro-
tection of certain cultural values, about whose disappearance under the pressure
of western technology we can now only express a sentimental concern.
(e) With musical style analysis as a predictive tool, we can start to make hypotheses
and to test them upon the rapidly evolving music of our own times, and perhaps
achieve a better evaluation of esthetic problems.

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LOMAX] Folk Song Style 951
REFERENCES CITED
METFESSEL, MILTON
1928 Phonophotography in folk music. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press.
HERZOG, GEORGE
1949 Song: folk song and the music of folk song. In Standard Dictionary of Folklore,
Mythology and Legend. Funk and Wagnalls.
ROUGET, GILBERT
1954-55 A propos de la forme clans Jes musiques de tradition orale. Extrait de Les Col-
loques de Wegmont, Vol I.
SACHS, CURT
1943 The rise of music in the ancient world. W. W. Norton.
SEEGER, CHARLES
1949 Oral tradition in music. In Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend.
Funk and Wagnalls.
1958 Singing style. Western Folklore XVII, No. 1, University of California Press.
1958-2 Prescriptive and descriptive music writing. The Musical Quarterly. XLIV: No. 2.
TRAEGER, GEORGE L.
1958 Paralanguage: A first approximation. Studies in Linguistics 13, Nos. 1-2, University
of Buffalo.

RECORD BIBLIOGRAPHY
This list must deal selectively with the records from only two or three of the series which are
available. Otherwise it would run to far too many items. First, here are the principal sources from
which discs of field-recorded folk and primitive music are available.
The archive of American Folk Lore, Library of Congress, which will mail its catalogue of field
recordings from North and South America on request.
The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, edited by A. Lomax, with others,
available from Columbia Records Inc., 779 7th Avenue, New York. 18 regional albums.
Folkways Records, 117 W. 46th Street, New York City, whose vast catalogue of excellent lps
includes material from most regions of the world.
The Department of Musicology, Musee de l'Homme, Place Trocodero, Paris, editor Gilbert
Rouget, a small but extremely important catalogue of primitive music.
Westminster Records, Inc., 275 7th Avenue, NYC, with a growing catalogue of series of lps
which treat one region exhaustively.
The World Collection of Recorded Folk Music, UNESCO, Paris, editor C. Brailoieu, a small se-
lection of otherwise unavailable recordings, arranged by type.
(1) Iviza, S pain, KL 216, Columbia ... Songs and Dances of Spain, WF 12002 and WF
12019, Westminster.
(2) Good examples of white folk singing style may be found on: Anglo-American Ballads, Ll;
Anglo-American Sea Chanties, L2; Anglo-American Songs and Ballads, L21, L12, Library of Con-
gress ... The Ritchie Family of Kentucky, FA 2316; Pete Steele, FS 3828; Wolf River Songs,
FM 4001; Folk Songs of Ontario, FM 4005, Folkways.
(2a) Sacred Harp Singing, Lll, Library of Congress.
(2b) Good examples of Negro folk singing may be found on: Afro-American Spirituals, etc.,
L3; Afro-American Blues and Game Songs, L4; Negro R eligious Songs and Services, LlO: Negro
Work Songs and Calls, LB, Library of Congress .. . Negro Prison Songs, TLP 1020, Tradition
Records, Inc., NYC . . . Negro Folk Music of Alabama, FE 4471-75; Country Dance FA 2201,
Folkways.
(3) Southern music at various stages of cross-culturation on: Blues in the M ississippi Night,
United Artists, 725 7th Ave., NYC ... Folk Music: USA, FE 4530; American Folk Music, FP

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952 American Anthropologist [61, 1959
251-3; Jazz, FJ 2801-11, Folkways ... Knee Deep in Bluegrass, DL 8731, Decca Records ... Ray
Charles at Newport, Atlantic 1289.
(4) Folk Music of Nova Scotia, FM 4006; Cajun Songs from Louisiana, P 438; Folkways ...
Venezuela, KL 212, Columbia ... Bahaman Songs, etc., L 5, Library of Congress.
(5) Afro-Bahian Music from Brazil, Album 13; Folk Music from Venezuela, Album 15, Library
of Congress ... Bresil No . 2-Bahia, Musee de !'Homme ... Negro Folk Music of Africa and
America, FE 4500; Music of the Bahamas, FS 3844-5; Cult Music of Cuba, P 410; Folk Music of
Jamaica, P 452; Folk Music of Haiti, FE 4407; The Black Caribs of Honduras, FE 4435, Folkways.
(6) Traditional Music of Peru, Fe 4456, Folkways.
(7) Venezuela, Side I, Nos. 1, 7, 9, KL 212, Columbia ... Music of Matto Grosso, P 446;
Indian Music of the Upper Amazon, FE 4458, Folkways.
(8) Folk Music of Mexico, Album 19, Library of Congress ... Yaqui Dances, FW 6957;
Music of the Indians of Mexico, FW 8811; Tarascan Music, FW 8867; Indian Music of Mexico, FE
4413; Folk Music of New Mexico, P 426, Folkways.
(9) Traditional Music of Peru, FE 4456, Folkways ... Folk Music of Venezuela, Album 15,
Library of Congress.
(10) Examples of the Amerindian "norm" . . . Canada, KL 211, Columbia .. . Eskimos of
Hudson Bay, P 444; songs in Music of Mato Grosso, FE 4446; Songs from the Great Lakes Indians,
FM 4003; Apache, San ldelfonso, Zuni, Walapai material from American Indians of the S oitthwest,
FE 4420; ... Songs from the Iroquois Longhoitse, Album 6, Library of Congress . . . Venezuela,
Side I, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, KL 212, Columbia ... Bresil-1, Musee de !'Homme.
(11) Music of the Sioux and Navaho, FE 4401; Music of the Indians of the Soitthwest, Taos and
Navaho material, FE 4420, Folkways.
(12) Seventeen lps dubbed from the field cylinders of F. Densmore taken in most Indian
culture areas, are now available from the Library of Congress. Folkways lists additional records.
(13) Musique de Boschman at Musique Pigmee, LD-9, Musee de !'Homme; Music of the Ituri
Forest, FE 4483; Africa South of the Sahara, Side I, Nos. 5 and 6, FE 4503 ... French Africa,
Side II, Nos. 34-38, KL 205, Columbia.
(14) Musique Maure, Musee de !'Homme ... French Africa, Side I, Nos. 2-14, KL 205,
Columbia ... W olof Music of Senegal and Gambia, FE 4462, Folkways.
(15) Songs of the Watusi, FE 4428; Africa, Soitth of the Sahara, Side IV, Nos. 31 and 32, FE
4503, Folkways.
(16) Folk Music of Ethiopia, FE 4405; Music of the Falashas, FE 4442, Folkways.
(17) Notably in Folk Music of Western Congo, FE 4427, Folkways.
(18) A remarkable dramatization of intercourse and orgasm on Giiinee Fran,aise, Side II,
No. 13, MC 20, 097, Vogue, Paris, France. Three lps give a summary picture of African Negro
music: French Africa and British Africa on Columbia, and Africa South of the Sahara on Folkways
. . . Hugh Tracy, director of the African Music Society, PO Box 138, Roodepoort, South Africa,
has recorded over the whole area of British South and East Africa and has published a tremendous
archive of records ... Gilbert Rouget makes available a smaller but very good selection of press-
ings from the Musee de !'Homme. All in all, Africa is not only the richest but the best recorded con-
tinent, musically speaking .... Of special interest is Folk Music of Liberia, FE 4465, Folkways, in
which the link between Pygmoid and Negro music becomes clearly evident.
(19) Australia, KL 208, Columbia ... Tribal Music of Australia, FE 4439, Folkways.
(20) New Guinea, Side II, KL 208, Columbia ... Music of New Guinea (Austral-Trust Ter-
ritory, Inc. New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, Bougainville), Wattle Records Inc., 131 Cathedral
Street, Sydney . .. Indonesia, Side I, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (?), and 6, Vol. VII, Columbia.
(21) Most of the material I have heard was on private discs in London or Paris. A Polynesian
specialist could certainly add more items to .. . Maori Songs of New Zealand, FE 4406; Tahiti,
one item, in Music of the World's Peoples, No. 12, FE 4504; Samoa, one item, Side IV, FE 4505,
Folkways. Europeanized Polynesian songs are available in any large record catalogue.
(22) Indonesia, KL 210, Columbia, strong Malay traces Nos. 1-5, Moluccan Music Nos. 7-14,
Dyak, Nos. 15-18 Side I (See also Musee de !'Homme disc of Borneo Music), also Nos. 25 and 28
Side II from Bali, KL 210, Columbia ... Hamtn6o Music from the Philippines, FE 4460; Temiar

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LOMAX) Folk Song Style 953
Dream Music of Malaya, FE 4460; Japanese Buddhist Rituals, Side I, Nos. 1, 2, FE 4449;
Veddic chant, No. 3, Side I, Religious Music of India, FE 4431.
(23) Ireland, KL 204, Columbia ... Songs of Aran, P 1002, Folkways.
(24) England, KL 206; France, KL-207, Columbia.
(25) Spain, KL-213, Columbia.
(26) Italy, KL-5173-4, Columbia.
(27) Jugoslavia, Serbian bands, KL-213, Columbia ... No. 28, Music of the World's Peoples,
FE 4454, Folkways.
(28) Folk Music of Greece, FE 4454, Folkways.
(29) Songs and Dances of Turkey, FW 8801; Folk and Traditional Music of Turkey, FE 4404.
(30) Musique Maure (see 14) ... Folk Music of the Mediterranean, FE 4501 , Folkways.
(31) Folk Music of Palestine, FE 4408; Kurdish Folk Songs and Dances, FE 4469; Music of
South Arabia, FE 4421; Music of the Russian Middle East, FE 4416; Songs and Dances of Armenia,
FP 809, Folkways. In Israel Today, WF 12026--29; Songs and Dances (with material from Kaza-
kistan, Uzbekistan, Khirgizia, and Moldavia), WF 12012, Westminster.
(32) Folk Music of Pakistan, FE 4425, Folkways.
(33) India, KL 215, Columbia .. . Religious Music of India, FE 4431; Traditional M1tsic of
India (remarkable examples of the female-male voice), FE 4422; Music from South Asia (the In-
dian subcontinent), FE 4447, Folkways.
(34) Music of South East Asia, FE 4423; Burmese Folk and Traditional Music, FE 4436,
Folkways.
(35) Indonesia, KL 210, Columbia. Music of Indonesia, FE 4406, Folkways.
(36) Japan, The Ryukyus, Korea and Formosa, KL-214, Columbia. Folk and Classical Music
of Korea, FE 4424; Folk Music of Japan, FE 4429, Folkways. No long playing records of Chinese
folk music are available in the west, as far as I know, but one hears that field recording is being
actively carried on there now.
(37) Scotland, KL-209, Columbia. Songs and Pipes of the Hebrides, FE 4430; Songs from Cape
Breton Island, FE 4450, Folkways.
(38) England, KL-206, Columbia. In 19~1 Westminster will publish a series of field record-
ings covering all regions of the British Isles.
(39) Folk Music of Norway, FM 4008, Folkways.
(40) France, KL-207, Columbia.
(41) The Spanish Basques, WF 12018; Galicia, WF 12020; Asturias and Santander, WF
12021, Westminster.
(42) North and Central Italy, KL-5173, Columbia.
(43) J ugoslavia, Side I, KL-217, Columbia.
(44) Bulgaria, KL-5378, Columbia ... Rumanian Songs and Dances, FE 4387, Folkways.
(45) Lithuanian Songs in the USA, FM 4009; one Esthonian item, in Vol. IV, Music of the
World's Peoples, FE 4507.
(46) Music of the Ukraine, FE 4443; No.18, Folk Music of the World's Peoples; Russian Folk
Songs, FW 6820, Folkways.
(47) Folk Songs from Armenia, WF 12013; Folk Songs and Dances including material from
Georgia, WF 12012, Westminster. One Georgian item, Folk Music of the World's Peoples.
(48) Castile, WF 12022, Leon and Extremadura, WF 12023, Westminster. Examples of other
regions in Modern European area to be found in lps listed in 37-47.
(49) Folk Songs of Hungary, FW 6803, Folkways.
(50) For USA items see No. 2. Also, Folk M1tsic of French Canada, FE 4482; Spanish and
Mexican Folk Music of New Mexico, FE 4426; Folk Music of New Mexico, FE 4426; Folk Music of
Colombia, FW 6804; Folk Songs and Dances of Brazil, FW 6953. Folk Music of Puerto Rico, Album
18, Library of Congress. Venezuela, KL-212, Columbia.
(51) British East Africa, KL 213, Columbia.
(52) Jugoslavia, KL-217, Columbia.
(53) Southern Italy and the Islands, KL 5174, Columbia.
(54) Galicia, WF 12020, Westminster.

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954 American Anthropologist [61, 1959]
(55) Scotland, KL-209, Columbia.
(56) Spain, KL-216, Columbia. Cities af Andalucia, WF 12001, Jerez and Seville, WF 12003;
Eastern Spain and Valencia, WF 12019, Westminster.
(57) CanteFlamenco, WAP301, Westminster.
(58) Castile, WF 12022, Leon and Extremadura, WF 12023, Westminster.
(59) Northern and Central Italy, Side I, KL 5173, Columbia.
(60) Side II, Nos. 18-25, ibid.
(61) Southern Italy and the Islands, Side I, No. 14, KL-5174, Columbia.
(62) Nos.17-18, ibid.
(63) No. 12, ibid.(64) Side II, Nos. 31-37, ibid. (65) Side II, No. 22, KL-517. (66) Side I,
No. 12, KL-5173. (67) Side I, No. 11, ibid.
(68) Side II, No. 23, ibid.
(69) Side II, No. 27, 30, KL 5173; Side I, 6, KL-5174.
(70) Side I, Nos. 2, 3, KL-5174.
(71) Side I, 14-15, KL 5173.
(72) Jerez and Seville, Side I, Nos. 7, 11, WF 12003, Westminster.
(73) The Spanish Basques, Side II, No. 4. WF 12018, Westminster.
(74) Side I, No. 17, KL-5174, Columbia.
(75) Side II, No. 35, KL-5174.
(76) Nos. 34-39, ibid.
(77) Nos. 37, 38, ibid.
(78) No. 37, ibid.
(79) Nos. 33, 39, ibid.
(80) Side I, Nos. 1, 2, 3, KL-5174.
(81) Songs from Cape Breton Island, FE 4450, Folkways.

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