Herder’s conception of the culture of the people is very important for subsequent work on folk music and culture. Filene identifies Herder as ‘the most influential proponent of the
new cultural outlook,’ and claims, ‘Herder’s ideas influenced a generation of intellectuals’62. Herder’s ideas emerged from the existing German Romantic Movement, which itself was a revolt against the rationality of the Enlightenment. There was also a certain degree of anxiety over national identity involved with this revolt, and Berlin attributes this emerging disillusionment with culture and intellectualism to Germany’s fractious political makeup and its humiliation by France in the Thirty Years War.63 In this spirit of national anxiety and the exaltation of the natural expression of the self, Herder promoted his idea,
…that each human group must strive after that which lies in its bones, which is part of its tradition. Each man belongs to the group he belongs to; his business as a human being is to speak the truth as it appears to him…64
Herder also advanced a notion of a clearest possible understanding of culture and tradition based on consideration of the context in which is exists. As Berlin observes, this may be the beginning of historicism, which would be very influential in the work of Child and the development of folklore studies.65 Bendix attests to the importance of Herder in the development of folklore, arguing that, ‘Herder’s philosophical and literary legacy inspired countless philosophical, literary, and social experiments. In Germany his efforts in folksong collection were continued in the works of prominent poets; the nascent popular press also drew inspiration from him.’66 This situates Herder very clearly in the Romantic context, in which Romantic poetry drew from numerous sources in an attempt to express the
fundamental voice of humanity. Herder’s 1778 Volkslieder collection was not the earliest collection of its kind, but its pioneering emphasis on the poetry of the ‘Volk’ suggests the contribution Herder’s scholarship made to the folklore discipline.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm’s famous collection Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder – und Hausmärchen, first published 1812) is a significant advance in the scientific study of folk culture, as Dégh argues in her article, ‘the comparative method they initiated
62
Filene, Benjamin. 2000. Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music. University of North Carolina Press. p. 10.
63
Berlin, Isaiah. 1999. The Roots of Romanticism: The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. Princeton University Press. p. 36.
64
Ibid. p. 66. 65 Ibid. p. 62.
66 Bendix, Regina. 1997. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 42.
opened a new chapter in philology. They established a new discipline: the science of folklore…evidently Household Tales was originally intended for the scholarly reader.’67 It is arguable whether the Grimms definitively established the ‘science of folklore’, but they clearly had moved on to a certain extent from the Romantic search for the natural expression of the self, and were more interested in the systematic study of the language and culture their own country. Bendix connects the work of the Grimms to their
contemporary Carl Lachmann, who ‘…attempted to “objectively” construct a genealogy of handwritten manuscripts, and working backward through time he hoped to lay bare the oldest text; soon he included medieval German texts in his endeavours.’68 Bendix also concedes that, ‘Lachmann’s inspiration and drive, like the Grimms’, stemmed from
Romantic impulses, and his ultimate goal was to make available in as pure a form as possible the sublime poetry of a past age.’69 Considering Child’s fascination with the Grimms, it is clear how his work emerged as a conflation of pedantic manuscript scholarship and the Romantic impulse Bendix describes to document poetry from a previous era.
One of the earliest examples of folk music collecting which features in this thesis is
Thomas Percy’s (1729 – 1811) Reliques of English Poetry, published in 1765. This work established many conventions for literary folk song collections, including a general preface presenting the collector’s theories on folklore, an introductory commentary for each song, and footnotes explaining unfamiliar words or phrases.70 Perhaps the most troubling aspect
of Percy’s collection, for the literary scholars in whose field folk poetry fell, was the editing Percy had done on the songs in his collection which was sometimes seen as tantamount to vandalism, certainly in the case of Child.71 Bendix argues that Child’s collection accrued praise from his contemporaries be appeared to have resisted the urge to ‘tinker’ with his texts, ‘To his literate contemporaries, ever freshly scandalised by the Ossian “forgery” and the editorial tinkering in Percy’s Reliques, the scholarly organisation and arguments Child’s edition was convincing proof of the authenticity of the edition’s contents.’72 Percy’s work
67 Dégh, Linda. 1979. ‘Grimm’s Household Tales and its Place in the Household: The Social Relevance of a Controversial Classic.’ Western Folklore. 38/2. p. 83.
68
Bendix, Regina. 1997. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 60.
69 Ibid, p. 64. 70
Percy, Thomas. 1765. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London.
71 Palmer, Roy. 1996. ‘‘Veritable Dunghills’: Professor Child and the Broadside’. Folk Music Journal. 7/2. p. 157. 72 Bendix, Regina. 1997. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 87.
was a popular source of reference, even for Child, but it may also have contributed to the strict textual scholarship of the Grimms and Child. Early precedents such as these form the foundation on which the practice of folk music collecting in America is based.