Martin Luther, for his hymns, wrote new poems to old, mostly German folk (beer-drinking?!) melodies. So the oldest and most hoary Lutheran hymns are directly folk, in that the melodies were folk melodies usurped (if you'll pardon the verb) for sacred use.

Similarly, Christmas carols were originally written outside of the church (they were considered to vulgar for church use until late in the 19th or early in the 20th century). Many of the melodies and some of the words, even, of the oldest christmas carols/songs are "folk" in the pureset sense -- written by the people and passed along orally.

Praise, if you'll send me a snail mail addy I'll send you some pcopies of music in the eastern european Orthodox tradition. In email we can discuss what sorts of things you might be interested in. There's a whole world of slavic and byzantine hymnody that most "western" Xians aren't at all familiar with -- very different from what you're most likely used to, and some of it breathtakingly beautiful!

email me at mousethief@yahoo.com

Alex
O..O
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