ABSTRACT
What are the characteristics of English folk-melody that make it sound English? It ought to be possible by technical analysis to distinguish features of mode, interval, rhythm and cadence to allow some generalization to be made with the same degree of applicability as enables us to predicate a falling fourth as a common feature of Russian melody, a rising sixth and twicerepeated-note cadence of Irish, the augmented second of the Near East, the absence of anacrusis as a feature of Finnish and Hungarian tunes, syncopation of negro origin, and so on in the matters of phrase-lengths, use of sequence, transposition and motivic organization. We have been warned (e.g. by Sir Julian Huxley) against trying to identify national characteristics with racial origins in such a mixed population as that of modern Britain, though language is allowed to have a powerful influence on melody. Nevertheless we recognize in the British Isles not only the Celtic fringe and the Gaelic that was spoken in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man, but some more psychological, even ethical, characteristics that differentiate the Englishman not only from the Frenchman and the German but also from the Scot or the Welshman. Are these reflected in our national music?
