The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173101   Message #4197476
Posted By: Tattie Bogle
18-Feb-24 - 02:17 PM
Thread Name: Preserve trad folk songs (melodies)
Subject: RE: Preserve trad folk songs (melodies)
Aha! I saw that post on Facebook, but something told me it would get moved here! So I didn't answer at the time.
Of course, music changes and moves on, but for me (again personal taste) it's whether those changes are an improvement or of benefit to the song.
I can think of a couple of songs where someone has decided to write a completely new tune to a well-known song - maybe they didn't know the original, or maybe they just thought theirs was better - not necessarily so. Without resorting to aspic, in this case, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Then there are others where the accompaniment is so funky that it breaks up the flow of the lyrics, and the song loses its meaning. I'm not against accompaniment per se, but it should be sympathetic and not intrude or overwhelm the song.
Many of our younger singers now have gone back to original texts and recordings, and have produced lovely versions of these songs without changing them much at all, and yet, they still sound fresh.