Theorising ownership and control in folk music 

Some questions to think about

• What happens with ownership when a practice is redefined as “heritage”?

• Who controls and makes decisions about “heritage” practices?

Read

• “From knowers to doers and marketers: shifting control over folk music”,  pp 270-273 in: Ronström, Owe. 2010. ‘Fiddling with Pasts: From Tradition to Heritage’. In Crossing Over: Fiddle and Dance Studies from around the North Atlantic 3, edited by Ian Russell and Anna Kearney Guigné.. Aberdeen: Elphinstone Institute, 

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Three examples which can be interpreted as "knowers", "doers",  and "marketer" roles in the context of Swedish herding calls: 

• Extract from documentary by “knower” (and “marketer”) Matts Arnberg with source singers and their animals,

• Performance by “doers”, singers recorded at outdoor performance at Falu Folk Festival in the 1990s, 

• YouTube video by “marketer” social media influencer Jonna Linton, working within one aspect of the “attention economy”, 

Folk Clubs as Heritage: “If folk clubs did not exist where would we go to sing ?”

Some questions to think about

• What is the place/role of folk clubs in the contemporary folk scene?

• Are folk clubs valuable as a cultural entity in their own right or as a means to preserve folk songs and singing?

• What role does nostalgia play in the folk club scene?  Does this promote or hinder a wider  inclusion?

Read

• Slides from Sweet Thames: The London folk Club Heritage Project, Carroll, Sam and Bliss, Zoe, 2023

• “Introduction” in, Bean, J. P. 2014. Singing from the Floor: A History of British Folk Clubs. London: Faber & Faber. 

Additional reading

• ”Behavioural norms, leadership and navigating (invisible) rules” and “Conclusion” in Hield, Fay, and Paul Mansfield. 2019. ‘Anything Goes? Recognising Norms, Leadership and Moderating Behaviours at Folk Clubs in England’. Ethnomusicology Forum 28 (3): 338–61.

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Extracts from Boz Hayward’s film “Folk Club - 3 hour epic musical tour of Chorlton Folk Club [Manchester] between 2010 and 2019”. 

• Intro and how the club started

• Styles of music

• Acoustic vs amplification and the club policing itself

Ethnonationalism and folk singing heritage - a view from Hungary 

Some questions to think about

• Who benefits from states and international organisations taking a role in producing folk culture?

• What are the risks of states and international organisations taking a role in producing folk culture?

• What impact do you think taking a folk tradition out of its original context and reproducing it in another might have - on the tradition, the people who perform it, the wider culture?

Read

• Táncház method: A Hungarian Model for the Transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

• Pages 47-50 in Taylor, Mary N. (2009). ‘Intangible Heritage Governance, Cultural Diversity, Ethno-nationalism’. Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology 55: 41-58. 

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• Hungarian Csángó folk singing in Gyimes, Romania  (1970s) 

• A Hungarian Csángó folk camp in Romania (2008) 

• A Csángó ball in Budapest (2016) 

Commercialisation of folk singing heritage - a view from Vietnam 

Questions to think about

• What role can commercial interests play in folk singing heritage?

• Is commercialisation a negative or positive process?

Read

• “Commercialisation: How much for a song” and “Conclusion”, pp 152-155 in Meeker, Lauren. 2010. ‘How Much for a Song? Local and National Representations of Quan Họ Folksong’. Journal of Vietnamese Studies 5 (1): 125–61. 

Listen/View

• Quan Họ Bắc Ninh folk songs (UNESCO, 2009),