GENERAL CARACTERISTIC OF FOLK SONGS

1. Date of songs

The antiquity of a song is an essential condition which in necessary to attain, after it's continuous course of elaboration, a piece of music thus transformed into a folk song.

Before a song can be defined 'folk song' it must be known by many different generations of singers. In this way the original author of the song is by then long forgotten: the beginning of the sequence which brings about the derivation of a folk song elapses, in order to propagate it's up to date developments. This means at least 4 or 5 generations time ways, practically the process takes over 70 years though this criterion is not peremptory. Le pastorali , words by Pietro Casu and music by Agostino Sanna in 1927, have already become folk songs even though both of the authors are known. In fact the songs of 'Le Pastorali' have already been through the process of transformation and of arrangement typical of folk song traditions, so much so that the original melodies of these songs cannot be remembered.

In 1781, Matteo Madau, a Jesuit from Ozieri, quotes the words of 'Su Ninnidu'; I don't believe that the person who transcribed these verses is also the author of these Christmas carols. It is believed that the songs originate from the first half of 1700, thus they are over two and a half centuries old.

The song 'S'attitidu 'è Maria' by Melchiorre Murenu (died 1854) in his works 'incipit'

is the echo of a song that already existed.

Throughout the research of folk songs, most fortunate witnesses often claim to have learned of these songs in their childhood from the elderly in their families, who had learned the songs from older singers when they themselves were young. Some of these records go back as far as ten generations.

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