French folk music

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Corsican group L'Alba

As Europe experienced a wave of

Basques
and Bretons.

In many cases, folk traditions were revived in relatively recent years to cater to tourists. These groupes folkloriques tend to focus on very early 20th century melodies and the use of the piano accordion.

Folk music and dance now has an established place as a popular pastime in its own right with innumerable festivals, concerts and bals folks across France and a number of regular publications devoted to it.[2]

Auvergne

Auvergne is known for cabrette bagpipes. The cabrette (little goat in Auvergnat) is a bagpipe made of goatskin (goats being an integral part of Auvergnat traditional life) and without drones, blown by elbow-driven bellows. Some famous old players : Martin Cayla, Jean Bergheaud, Marcel Bernard, Antoine Bouscatel, Joseph Costeroste, Georges Soule, and some modern players: Dominique Paris, Victor Laroussinie, Didier Pauvert, Stéphane Charpentier, Michel Esbelin, François Lazarevic. They play both regrets (slow airs), bourrées (typical auvergne danse) and swift, 3/8 dance music.

Songs of the Auvergne
.

Béarn

Aragón, Spain

Béarn's revivalist scene has been quite limited in scope, though it has produced the nationally renowned singer

tambour de Béarn
, a six-string drum used as a rhythm drone instrument to accompany the three-holed recorder.

Brittany

Corsica

Gascony

One of the biggest stars of the French roots revival was Perlinpinpin Folc, formed in 1972 and led by Christian Lanau, whose Musique Traditionelle de Gascogne was a popular release that sparked interest in the traditional music of Gascony.

Gascon small pipes, called boha (bouhe), are a well-known part of the local scene. They have a rectangular chanter and drone combination, which is unique to Gascony, and are made out of sheepskin with the fleece showing.

Languedoc

Languedoc is home to several unusual instruments, including the bodega, a kind of bagpipe, and the aboès and graille, both kinds of oboes. The bodega is made out of goatskin, using an unusual process in which the innards of the animal are removed through the neck so that the entire, unbroken skin can be used for the instrument. It has only one large shoulder drone. The bodega is known from at least the 14th century. Popular traditional groups from Languedoc include Calabrun, Trencavel, Laurent Audemard's Une Anche Passe and Trioc.

Limousin

Limousin is known for its violin music, as well as the chabrette bagpipe.

Dominique Regef
and Valentin Clastrier.

Provence and Alps

Singer Miquèu Montanaro

The most iconic form of Provençal folk music is a duo of

Alpes Maritimes choral tradition, which includes choirs like La Compagnie Vocale and Corous de Berra, and the northern region, which has produced a vibrant violin tradition, Dauphiné's rigaudon dance and performers Rigodon Sauvage, Patrick Mazellier and Drailles. Dauphiné also features one of the rare sword dances that have stood the test of time, the Bacchu-ber performed yearly in Briançon
.

Roussillon

The southwestern region of Roussillon's music is shaped by its unique ethnicities, and includes forms of Catalan and Gypsy music. The former includes the sardana and is based around the city of Perpignan. The sardana is played by a band (coble) consisting of three kinds of oboes, flutes and other instrument, including shawms and bagpipes among some recent revivalists. Modern traditional performers include Cobla Mil-Lenaria, La Cobla de Joglars, Els Ministrles del Rossellano and La Colba els Montgrins.

References

  1. ^ [1] Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "TRAD Magazine". TRAD Magazine. Retrieved 2014-06-27.

External links