Canadian Folk Music: A Renewed Statement of Purpose

David & Rosaleen Gregory

Canadian Folk Music/Musique folklorique cana- Folk Music is of necessity more eclectic in its subject dienne is, in the parlance of the Social Sciences and matter than such a periodical would have been fifty Humanities Research Council, a “transfer journal,” years ago. that is to say, it aims at translating into ordinary lan- Canadian Folk Music thus seeks to give reflec- guage for a general public the knowledge that aca- tive voice to the multitude of vernacular musics demics and professional musicians may express in found in Canada today. It does so in ordinary lan- specialized terminology or jargon. The periodical, guage designed to be accessible to students, musi- which has for many years been published quarterly, cians, aficionados and any members of the general employs a magazine format, but it is not a commer- public interested in finding out more about Canadian cial magazine. Rather, in its provenance, mandate musical traditions. Since most Canadians are either and aims, it falls halfway between a research journal immigrants or descendants of immigrants, this entails such as Musicultures or Folk Music Journal and a exploring a wide variety of source traditions, includ- glossy magazine such as Penguin Eggs or Canadian ing the musics of Asia, Africa and the Americas, as Musician. In this it appears unique in Canada, al- well as those of Europe (including, especially, though to some degree precedents may be found in France, Britain and Ireland). It entails studying the the UK and the USA in such publications as English early stages of music-making in the geographical Dance and Song and Sing Out!. regions that now make up Canada, beginning with the The subjects covered by Canadian Folk Music music of First Nations and that of the original Euro- are any and all of those of interest to researchers, pean settlers. It means tracing the history of tradition- practitioners, and lovers of Canadian folk music. The al song and dance in Canada from the colonial era to term “folk music” is rather vague and somewhat am- the present day and researching the role of music in biguous, but it is still a useful way of denoting the our ancestors’ social life and culture. It means re- sum of a number of related musical traditions. As minding readers of the legacy of traditional song and employed in Canadian Folk Music, the label does instrumental music collected by Marius Barbeau, include the commercial music of singer-songwriters Helen Creighton, Edith Fowke, Kenneth Peacock and and folk-rock artists who make a living in the music other Canadian folklorists, while at the same time business but who nonetheless still trace the roots of exploring, studying and celebrating the work of con- their music to the post-war folksong revival or older temporary artists following in the footsteps of the folk traditions. tradition-bearers they recorded for posterity. And it However, the main focus of Canadian Folk Mu- means exploring and studying the burst of creative sic is on the variety of vernacular music traditions musical energy evident in the post-war folk music that flourish outside, or on the fringes of, the com- revival that has continued, albeit with some ebbs and mercial music industry. Such traditions find expres- flows, to the present day. sion in oral transmission, in print (in particular in To attempt all of this is a formidable task, and if broadsheets and songbooks), and in self-financed the magazine achieves only a few of these goals per- recordings. They are living continuations of a “bot- haps it may still be counted a success. It is worth em- tom-up” form of do-it-yourself popular culture that phasizing again that Canadian Folk Music is open to has existed for many centuries alongside the culture printing articles on a wide range of Canadian and of the more educated classes. Music has always been non-Canadian traditional and contemporary folk mu- an integral part of such lower class culture; in the sic, but that such pieces must be aimed at the ordi- past it has mainly taken the form of what is usually nary reader and not couched in the kind of esoteric called “traditional music” (as in the title of the Cana- jargon that makes so much academic writing impe- dian Society for Traditional Music). Nowadays, it netrable to the non-specialist. The content of the draws on a variety of musical heritages from all parts magazine will naturally reflect what its contributors of the world and also from such musical genres as submit: articles, regular columns, reports on local and blues, gospel, jazz and rock music. Because of this regional activities, opinion pieces, letters, book re- broadening and interaction between different strains views, CD reviews, instrumental compositions, and, of traditional music, and because Canada has become above all, songs, lots of songs. So it’s mainly up to a multi-ethnic and multicultural society, Canadian you! 1