It used to be believed that "folk music" was a kind of music that mystically expressed the essential ethnic characteristics of a nation.

To the Romantic thinkers who came up with the idea, that meant that a nation's "folk music" was music known to almost everybody but not imported from abroad. National anthems, thought to embody the true spirit of the nation, were regarded as prime examples, but so was the unwritten music of the unlettered (and thus uncorrupted) rural population. "Art music" could also be "folk music" if it displayed obvious ethnic features.

In the nineteenth century, ethnicity was largely defined by stereotype and it was thought to be inseparable from personal character. The modern idea that "folk music" is defined more by style than by ethnic content would have been rejected as missing the point entirely.

Quiz on this material tomorrow.