The singer and the song

The singers of these songs may be said to have the following characteristics in common:

1. a. Their singing appears to define a music idiom, or idioms, characteristic at times of geographic region, at times of social stratification.

2. b. Their individual singing-techniques have, for the most part, been acquired through such processes as the “learning of a song” or the “composing of a song,” or the singing and resinging of songs already learned or “composed.” While there is abundant evidence of application in the practice and study of the idiom, this study appears not to be consciously regarded as such by the possessors of the idiom.

3. c. Their repertoire, in a vast majority of cases, has been acquired by means of no other written technique than that of language— and, in many cases, with no written technique at all. The “learning of a song” has been, thus, in the main “by ear,” and in conformity with prevailing oral traditions. It is reasonably certain that few could read or write any music notation, or that they learned the songs from singers who could read or write it.

assed on year after year from one person to another, a majority of the songs can be said to have been modified in many ways, and to styles of performance in the singing any one song can differ radically, with the result that the lineage of the song isii at times hard to detect. Occasional performances can, in fact, become so highly individual that the question will arise whether the singer may be said to have “composed” a new song. It would be of interest to trace the identity of some one tune as “common possession” through a series of such variations in style of performance, and to attempt to determine whether and at what point it may be felt to have taken on a sufficiently different character to allow classification as a “new” tune, and, therefore,iii claim of composition by its singer. It would appear that many claims of this sort would be found to constitute a normal step in some such process. Invention, composition indeed, there certainly has been, but mainly as added increment to a current stock or repertoire unaffected, except in rare instances, by considerations of authorship, copyright, publication or critical review.