Dr. P. Namsidimbou Zeliang

Introduction

Folksongs are found everywhere in primitive societies. They are inseparable parts of the life of the primitive people. None of their social, religious function is complete without folksong. Backman (2016) argued that folksongs had community root and were probably as old as spoken language.

Meaning

Folksongs are indigenous songs of a society. Forcucci, in his book ‘A folk song history of America’ (1984), portrayed folksongs as the songs of the people. They are sung in traditional style of a community. Traditional style includes the themes, words and tunes of the songs that have existed for a long time among the indigenous people. Folksongs are creations of one or more individuals. These songs are not written down, but passed on from person to person, group to group, generation to generation (Brault, 2019).

Purpose

It is the use of human expression to describe one’s way of life (Forcucci, 1984). The purpose of folksong is to describe one’s as well as societal experiences. Often, the purpose of these songs is to teach a lesson or to describe characteristics of one's culture. The songs are also entertaining.

Importance

Folksongs represent different ethnicities, places and cultures. Such aspects can play important role in the preservation of our culture and tradition. They help us to look back to the culture, which our ancestors gave us. It was through folksongs that the true spirit of the community was popularized. So, understanding them, their meaning and their implication was essential to the project of nation building. The collection of local folksongs was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences.

Folksongs are also great as they make it so easy to teach history and culture. They are important in education because of the historical and cultural experiences we can give students. There’s something indescribable about folksongs people were singing hundreds of years ago. In addition, there was an expressive quality to the songs, which caused our forefather to stick around for so long.

Society needs to remember their past and keep it alive. Our past provides the right direction to our future. Folksongs play an important role in keeping our past alive as a community. They keep us connected to our culture and heritage. It narrates all the stories of joys and sorrows in the simplest way. As such, folksongs reflect our cultural identity. They are passed between the generations to enhance and protect the culture. Most of the folksongs are uniting us.

Joys and sorrows are pertinent parts of human life and they live and die with the person. Folksongs were, are and will be the art of telling and narrating stories of joys and sorrows people have been living with. They increase our enthusiasm for social functions and they bring joy in life. Folksongs remove their tiresomeness at the time of work and make the singers fresh. Folksongs provide entertainment to people. Folksongs help people to get relief from tension, pain and tiredness.

Conclusion:

The thoughts and sentiments of the primitives are expressed clearly from folksongs. Folksongs tell stories and give us a snapshot of life forgotten. They highlight the true spirit of our community; keep our culture alive as a community; connected us to our culture and heritage; remove our tension, pain and tiredness; and refresh our mind. They also play an important role in education as they make it so easy to teach history and culture. To be more effective, teach students about folksongs in school and colleges. Local institutions or organizations should conduct folksongs events and competition time and again.

Courtesy: ANP 2021 Issue Vol.3