The use of folk instruments alongside classical instruments : a practitioner's survey

Abstract

As a practitioner, I have extensively engaged with the integration of folk instruments into classical instrumentation. Drastic differences in timbre, temperament, and sonority between the folk and the classical instruments can be a hindrance to the compositional process. In order to gain a deeper insight into this fusion genre, this dissertation aims at providing an in-depth examination of how composers have handled this combination throughout Western music history. Composition that combine folk and classical instruments exist in Western music since the Classical period. Many of the early examples in the Classical period, however, have not received enough scholarly attention, and so, they remain largely unknown. This survey also pays attention to this neglected musical repertoire. Chapter 1 traces the common origins of folk and classical instruments and examines the context in which the division between folk and classical instruments arose. Chapter 2 focuses on compositions from the Classical period written for the alphorn, the Jew’s harp, the hurdy-gurdy, the musette de cour, the mandolin, and the salterio. I pay particular attention to how the different compositional strategies relate to the instruments’ specific idioms in each case. Chapter 3 analyse how Romantic composers compensated the incompatibility between folk and classical instruments in the classical context through musical imitation. Chapter 4 examines the reemergence of folk instruments in Norwegian classical compositions at the dawn of the twentieth century, and it considers the prominent role that the hardingfele had in art musical works. Chapter 5 includes a selection of works that feature folk instrument(s) and imitation examples written in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The increased availability and accessibility of folk instruments and musicians worldwide have significantly contributed to the revival of this genre in the contemporary context. Based on the existing strategies found in the previous chapters, chapter 6 puts forward possible ways of furthering the development of the fusion of folk and classical instruments by focusing on innovative compositional techniques. The concluding ideas serve as basic principles in the accompanying portfolio. Chapters 7 to 11 are an artistic reflection based on the written part through analyses and explanations of the works included in the portfolio. In this dissertation I first investigate how preceding composers handled the combination between folk and classical instruments; I then unearth a largely neglected repertoire, based on the combination of folk and classical instruments; third, I provide a detailed account of the historical development of this musical genre; and finally I investigate the use of imitation of folk instruments in musical compositions. The accompanying composition portfolio features the use of folk instrument(s) alongside classical instrumentation and the imitation of folk instruments by classical ones, thus providing artistic realisations of my research outcomes.