Folk HymnodyFolk music is distinguished from "cultivated" music by the manner in which it is transmitted. Rather than conforming to one authentic version published in a musical score, the folk song is transmitted by oral tradition, thus resulting in numerous variants. Since people hear and perform folk music from memory, a folk song may be sung in highly distinctive ways by different persons, especially if the singers come from different locales and contrasting cultures. In hymnology there is generally a distinction between a folk hymn and folk hymn tune. In the British tradition, for example, the hymn text may be the result of a cultivated tradition but the hymn tune may be transmitted by oral tradition. In American tradition, both the hymn text and the hymn tune may both have been transmitted together orally. Consequenlty, the American folk hymn ususally refers both to the tune and text. [From Sing with Understanding, by Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath (Nashville: Church Street Press, 2nd edition, 1995.] See the following individually:
American Folk Hymns (both tunes and texts) were preserved almost entirely through the publication of the various Southern shape-note tune books from the c. 1815 - 1860. Tunebooks containing large quantities of folk tunes/texts include:
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