Friday, October 7, 10 p.m. Southern Cross
PWYC
For Folkies Only
Folksongs of Canada Now: An Archive Release of New Field Recordings
collected by Henry Adam Svec, featuring a short lecture by musicologist and archivist Henry Adam Svec and performances from special guest Folk.
What is folk music? In 1954, Edith Fulton Fowke published “Folksongs of Canada”, the until-now, definitive collection of Canadian folk tunes.
Henry Adam Svec, one of Canada’s foremost musicologists, has updated Fowke’s seminal oeuvre for all you post-structural folkies. He does tend to ramble on a bit (hey it’s folk music – if you don’t spend 10 minutes explaining what your song is all about then you’re not doing your job) so, I’d recommend you come to the show after the lecture is over.
As far as the musical component of the evening shall unfold, Mr. Svec has assured us that it will be all a part of the contemporary folk process.
But let our expert speak for himself:
“I have listed the names of the performers I have documented. I have even attributed authorship of these songs to their respective singers. This will seem like an error to those who are familiar with the work of the late Staunton R. Livingston, who has made it obvious that music is an immanent plane of anonymous communion (see The CFL Sessions; The Lost Stompin’ Tom Songs). It is a sin, Livingston has taught us, to write about or to write upon music, and it is a sin to tie Music to an individual source.
I am not sure if Fowke would have been aware of Livingston’s methods, nor am I certain that she would have approved of my own contribution to the field of Canadian folklore. But I forgive her and acknowledge the role she has played in this project. In some ways, Folk Songs of Canada Now can be read as a synthesis of Staunton R. Livingston’s avant-garde methods with the traces of Edith Fulton Fowke’s journey across the territory of the Folk. Yet, faint traces can be just as vivid as broad, strong strokes, and I wish to privilege neither one of the two giants on whose shoulders I stand.”
Henry Adam Svec
Wow!
