ABSTRACT
The Low Countries, so called because large parts lie below or just above sea level and on the deltas of major river systems such as the Rhine, include Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and French Flanders. In the Middle Ages, the Low Countries have been among the most urbanized areas of Europe. The traditional repertoire of songs in the Low Countries can be divided roughly into two groups, according to whether they originated first in oral tradition or in written form. Songs in oral tradition are generally cheerful. Dance-songs and game songs are sung by a group. In the Low Countries, folksinging is essentially monodic. Accompanying harmony is only rarely provided by a musical instrument. Though a large variety of instruments can be documented historically many had disappeared from everyday practice by 1900, or are now played only in one or a few locales. Such group of instruments are noisemakers; idiophones; membranophones; and aerophones.
