American Folk Music: Window on the American Soul

A nation’s folk music provides a window into its heart and soul.  Its history, its aspirations, its struggles, its work, its play are all found in the music of the folk.  For that is what true folk music is, music created by ordinary people in the midst of getting on with life.

Across the centuries folk around the world have come up with songs to accompany just about anything: singing babies to sleep, working in the fields, dancing, carousing, worshiping, entertaining children and adults, enshrining history, battling enemies, mourning, finding love or leaders; you name it, there is a song to go with it.  Folksong seems to spring spontaneously from the stuff of life.  And because of that, we don’t usually know who wrote it.  But that’s what makes it so very human; just folks making music, not for gain, but because it speaks about their lives.

Because of the rich and diverse cultures that have fed American music, our folksong is particularly varied and colorful.  Just think of it: spirituals, cowboy songs, Appalachian tunes, shape-note hymns, dancing songs, sea shanties, blues and Cajun music; such a kaleidoscope, and all of it a part of our song heritage.  Some of it came with settlers from the Old World, some sprouted out of our own soil, fed by Africans, Hispanics, and Europeans of all stripes.

It’s a fascinating polyglot, and has led to many a wonderful choral arrangement.

Take, for example, one of the most beautiful of sea shanties, Shenendoah.  Sailors sang shanties to accompany their shipboard chores, but this one may have originated on American or Canadian inland waters.  Perhaps that fits the song, for the lovely Shenandoah Valley in Virginia is bordered by both the Potomac and James Rivers.  The word Shenandoah is probably of Native American origin, and some musicologists hear both Irish and African American influences in the tune.  Such an American mixture!

Whatever its origins, it expresses a longing that is universal in the human breast, the longing for home.  Maybe because of that, and maybe because of the beauty of the melody, it has been cherished and passed from singer to singer, taking on varied names and melodic licks as it traveled, for several centuries now.

Here is how composer James Erb captured that sense of longing.  It’s one of the numbers that MCE will sing in upcoming All-American Independence Celebration on June 30.  And we love it!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside