Exploring the Structure of Germanic Folksong Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Andrew Brinkman Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2020 Dissertation Committee: David Huron, Advisor Daniel Shanahan, Co-Advisor Ryan Skinner 1 Copyrighted by Andrew Brinkman 2020 2 Abstract The history of musical development in cultural groups across Europe is vast and varied. We know, for instance, that groups of people use music as a way of both creating social cohesion and differentiation or exclusion (Hagen & Bryant, 2003). The relationship between cultural group identity and musical characteristics is one that has gathered some attention in European folk music scholarship over the years. However, the question of how musical features act as a reflection of unique cultural groups needs further exploration. Additionally, the Essen Folksong Collection, one of the only large databases of Western folk music, has seen extensive overuse over the past few decades, thus eliciting further inquiry into the representativeness of the Collection itself. In this dissertation, I attempt to provide an in-depth analysis of the Essen Folksong Collection as a representation of 19th-century German folksong by exploring its origins, how scholars have used the Collection, and what the Collection still has left to tell us about the nature of Western folksongs. In particular, I discuss the somewhat unclear background of the Essen Collection and how Helmuth Schaffrath and his colleagues in Essen, Germany first came upon the materials that make up the Essen Collection. Afterwards, I provide a small meta-analysis of the research that has cited the Essen Collection, pointing out three general topic trends. Finally, I provide an exploration of the relationship between basic statistical properties of the Essen Collection and their geographical spread across the iii German region. By taking this long look at the history and usage of the Essen Collection, we can begin to better understand how empirical research in folksong studies has been shaped by the past and how best to approach it in the future. iv Acknowledgments Without the help of my advisors and faculty support of the Ohio State University. Great thanks is given to all of these people for their dedication to making my dissertation a reality and to God who has stood by me every step of the way. v Vita 2014 ..................................................B.A. Music Education, Midwestern State University 2016 ...................................................M.M, Music Theory, Louisiana State University 2016 to present...................................Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Music, The Ohio State University Publications Brinkman, A., & Huron, D. (2018). The leading sixth scale degree: A test of Day- O'Connell's theory. Journal of New Music Research, 47(2), 166-175. Fields of Study Major Field: Music vi Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita ..................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Outline of Chapters ....................................................................................................... 11 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2. The Background and Structure of the Essen Folksong Collection ................. 17 The Origins of the Essen Collection ............................................................................. 21 The Structure of the Essen Collection .......................................................................... 34 The Issue of Capta Versus Data ................................................................................... 50 Statistical Properties of the Essen Collection ............................................................... 55 Chapter 3. Scholarly Attention to the Essen Collection ................................................... 70 Proscriptive Studies with the Essen Collection ............................................................ 78 Computational Modeling Studies ................................................................................. 84 Descriptive Studies ....................................................................................................... 96 Pitfalls and Mentions .................................................................................................... 99 Chapter 4: Geographical Distributions of Statistical Properties ..................................... 104 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 145 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 149 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Total counts of folksongs in the Essen Collection ............................................ 38 Figure 2: Tallies of scale degrees across six subsections of the Essen Collection as percentages. Each colored portion represents the percentage of tallies of a given scale degree found across all folksongs in each subsection of the Essen Collection ................ 57 Figure 3: Tallies of scale degrees across six subsections of the Essen Collection ........... 58 Figure 4: Tallies of diatonic intervals across six subsections of the Essen Collection. .... 62 Figure 5: Tallies of diatonic intervals across six subsections of the Essen Collection ..... 63 Figure 6: Tallies of durations in the Essen Collection. Specifically, breves, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, eighth-note triplets, and sixteenth notes are included ............................................................................................................................. 66 Figure 7: Tallies of durations in the Essen Collection. Specifically, breves, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, eighth-note triplets, and sixteenth notes are included ............................................................................................................................. 67 Figure 8: Bins represent instances of perfect fifth intervals across folksongs in the Essen Collection where lower instances are more green and higher instances are more red. Transparent black points represent tallies of quarter notes taken from individual folksongs and appear at the point indicated by their latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates. Larger circles represent higher instances of quarter notes while darker shades represent multiple different coordinates in a similar location. ....................................... 109 Figure 9: A reproduction of Figure 8 in which the data has been standardized based on standard deviation from the overall means. Larger circles represent areas where there is a significant difference in instances of quarter notes from the overall mean of quarter notes across all folksongs. ........................................................................................................ 111 Figure 10: Presence of scale degree 1, represented by a binned heatmap, and quarter-note tallies, represented by shaded circles. ............................................................................. 114 viii Figure 11: A reproduction of Figure 10 in which the data has been standardized based on standard deviation from the overall means. Larger circles represent areas where there is a significant difference in instances of quarter notes from the overall mean of quarter notes across all folksongs. ........................................................................................................ 116 Figure 12: Presence of scale degree 1, represented by a binned heatmap, and eighth-note tallies, represented by shaded circles. ............................................................................. 118 Figure 13: A reproduction of Figure 12 in which the data has been standardized based on standard deviation from the overall means. Larger circles represent areas where there is a significant difference in instances of eighth notes from the overall mean of eighth notes across all folksongs. ........................................................................................................ 120 Figure 14: Presence of scale degree 1, represented by a binned heatmap, and sixteenth- note tallies, represented by shaded circles. ..................................................................... 122 Figure 15: A reproduction of Figure 14 in which the data has been standardized based on standard deviation from the overall means. Larger circles represent areas where there is a significant difference in instances of sixteenth notes from the overall mean of sixteenth notes across all folksongs................................................................................................ 124 Figure 16: Presence