Folksong Spring 1988

Trevor Leggett was head of the Japanese Department of the BBC.

This is one of his broadcasts to Japan

Zubari for Spring 1988

Hello listeners.

Many composers have used folk-songs in their music. For instance, the famous ending of Stravinsky’s “Firebird” ballet music is a Russian folksong.

(tape – about 30 seconds)

We always feel that the ancient beauty of the folksong helps the composer.  But we have never in fact heard the folksong as it was originally sung.  And so it is a shock to be told that in some cases the composer improved folksong very much.

A Scotswoman early in this century collected 200 of the ancient Gaelic folksongs – from local singers. She recorded them on the primitive wax cylinders of the time. Then she arranged them for voice and piano, and voice and orchestra, and they became enormously popular.

But recently, musicologists have been studying the original recordings, and have found that she much changed the primitive songs. Here is one of her arrangements:

KISHMUL arranged by Margaret Kennedy Frazer.

Now listen to the original recording. Of course it is scratchy, but still we can hear the singer.

KISHMUL on original recording

Well, which did you prefer? Here is the Kennedy Frazer arrangement again – do you think that she improved the old folk tune?

KISHMUL arranged by Kennedy Frazer

© Trevor Leggett