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P<br />
Archaeologists tell us women and<br />
men began making music 600,000<br />
years before language was invented.<br />
Music created and preserved by<br />
common people is folk music. lt is<br />
carried from town to town, and generation<br />
to generation. A folk song<br />
may carry on the legends and history<br />
of a nation. When it is passed<br />
from one singer to another it becomes<br />
a ditferent method of learning<br />
from the technique used by<br />
composers and publishers of modern<br />
recording.<br />
As folk music is passed on by the<br />
oral tradition, it goes through many<br />
changes. Singers adapt and modernize<br />
songs. The words and music<br />
change in different ways. Change is<br />
an important part of folk music. There<br />
is a general polishing of the words<br />
which become more direct. Textthat<br />
originally had a narrow meaning is<br />
broadened so it contains more<br />
meaning for more people. lt is this<br />
unique oraltradition that makes up<br />
the back bone of folk music.<br />
<strong>Folk</strong> songs are ditferent from other<br />
kinds of songs. Most folk songs have<br />
been created by people who aren't<br />
trained as writers of music. They are<br />
people who have a story to tell, a<br />
love to express, or a joy to share.<br />
<strong>Folk</strong> songs have come from sailors<br />
hauling a line, farmers plowing a<br />
field, cowboys driving cattle and children<br />
playing in the streets.<br />
Some people say that those who<br />
sing are happy. Not necessarily.<br />
Some of the best folk songs have<br />
grown from misery. The pain felt by<br />
slaves or men at labour.<br />
"Hard<br />
luck is one thing that<br />
you sing louder about than you<br />
do about boots and sadd/es,<br />
or moons on the river, or<br />
crglarettes a-shining in the<br />
dark."<br />
Woody Guthrie.<br />
Very few lolk songs were made<br />
just to entertain. Most folk songs have<br />
a purpose. The purpose is to help<br />
people to work, to dance, to play, to<br />
protest an injustice or to express<br />
anger. <strong>Folk</strong> songs give us pause to<br />
recall the past as well as stir our<br />
emotions which boost the courage<br />
of people in active political protest.<br />
"We<br />
Shall Overcome" is a fine example<br />
of a folk song which has been<br />
created and preserved through the<br />
changing times. The civil rights<br />
marcherswere f ilmed and broadcast<br />
world,locked arm in arm protesting<br />
against the injustice of the southern<br />
United States singing<br />
for television audiences around the<br />
"We Shall Overcome...".<br />
This folk song is used at<br />
mass meetings and rallies to spark<br />
the courage and stirthe spiritamong<br />
many groups. lt is a truly functional<br />
song which has been passed from<br />
one to the other. In the 1940's it was<br />
broughttothe Highlander<strong>Folk</strong> School<br />
in Monteagle, Tennessee, by a group<br />
of Food and Tobacco Worker Union<br />
members. There Zilphia Horton taught<br />
it to Pete Seeger. Both Zilphia and<br />
Pete added new verses of their own<br />
and gave it the form by which we<br />
know it today. lt spread over the<br />
southern United States in manyversions<br />
true to the oral tradition of folk<br />
music.<br />
The oral tradition of folk music is<br />
also preserved during freer times<br />
such as festivals where thousands of<br />
people jump to their feet cheering<br />
and clapping as the singer sings the<br />
song. A single guitar is plucked bya<br />
young composer eager to share his<br />
or her message with somebody willing<br />
to listen and it is during that moment<br />
the tradition of folk music is<br />
reborn.<br />
<strong>Mariposa</strong> started as a result of the<br />
The Orillia Town Council looking for<br />
a tourist attraction. Ruth Jones a local<br />
housewife recognized folk music to<br />
be very popular and suggested to<br />
Councillor Pete McGarveythata con-<br />
"<strong>Mariposa</strong>",<br />
dubbed by McGarvey,<br />
comesfrom Stephen Leacock's name<br />
forOrillia in<br />
cert be organized. The festival's title<br />
"Sunshine Sketchesof a<br />
Little Town".<br />
The first <strong>Mariposa</strong> festival was all<br />
Canadian and featured lan and Sylvia<br />
Tyson, The Travellers, Bonny Dobson,<br />
Jacques Labreque, Alan Mills and<br />
Jean Carigan. Twoyears later Randy<br />
Ferris and Estelle Klein committed<br />
themselves and boosted the festival<br />
with the assistance of many like Joe<br />
Lewis, to a temporary home at lnnis<br />
Lake and then on Centre lsland. The<br />
fine reputation of today's <strong>Mariposa</strong> is<br />
thanks to the judgement and skill of<br />
these early organizers.<br />
The music shared at <strong>Mariposa</strong> in<br />
1988 will by and large contain the<br />
same words and notes sung during<br />
the first gathering in 1 961 . <strong>Mariposa</strong><br />
the <strong>Festival</strong> has also changed just<br />
like the changes experienced in the<br />
custom of folk music.<br />
As new problems, new threats, new<br />
concerns arise, there will be new<br />
songs for people to sing. Let us not<br />
underestimate the power of a folk<br />
song. A folk song can render more<br />
changethana law. To ensure its survival<br />
in an everchanging world <strong>Mariposa</strong><br />
The <strong>Festival</strong> simply has to let<br />
the people sing.<br />
The British scholar, Andrew<br />
Fletcher, wrote in 1703, "Give me<br />
the making of the songs of a nation<br />
and I care not who makes the laws."
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