The Literary, Musical and Social Conditioning of the Czech Folk Song

Abstract

The article consists of three excerpts from the book Czech Folk Songs from the 60s to 80s of the 20th century by Josef Prokeš. The publication maps out the phenomenon of singer-songwriting in Czechoslovakia. The fi rst two extracts – „Folk Song lyrics in the context of Literary Studies” and „The Folk Song Genre in the context of Music Studies” – deal with methodological issues regarding the ways of analysing folk song lyrics in a wider cultural context, and the possibility of situating folk music in the fi eld of Czech Music Studies. The third excerpt, entitled „The Status of the Czech Folk Song in national culture”, discusses the sources of folk music in Czech culture, the inspirations of major singer-songwriters, the development of folk music in the analysed period as well as its signifi cance during the totalitarian era in Czechoslovakia, and fi nally poses questions about its future in the context of national culture.