Folk songs most accurately reflect the spirit of a people, and art music is an extension of the spirit of the folk song. Three ways composers use folk songs are: "(1) verbatim, as a musical germ from which to develop a composition; (2) verbatim, but having no particular relation to the musical structure; (3) as suggestion--toward the composition of folk-like themes expressive of the folk spirit."

Works: Haydn: Symphony in D Major (583); Weber: Der Freischütz (584); Schumann: Rheinweinlied (585); Brahms: Academische Festoverture (585); Grieg: Humoreske Op. 6, No. 2 (586), No. 1 of Aus dem Volksleben Op. 19 (586), Ballade Op. 24 (586), Improvisata Op. 29 (586), Norwegian Dances Op. 35 (586); Glinka: Life to the Czar (587); Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 (587), String Quartet Op. 11 (587), Piano Concerto in B flat Minor, Op. 23 (587), Marche Slav (587); Borodin: Prince Igor (588), Steppenskizze (588); Rimsky-Korsakov: Fantasie, Op. 6 (589), La Pskovitaine (589), Antar (589), Sinfonietta, Op. 31 (589), La Grand Paque Russe (589); Stravinsky: Firebird (589), Petrouchka (589); Smetana: Die Brandenburger in Böhmen (589), Das Geheimniss (589), Aus meinem Leben (590), Tábor (590), Aus Böhmens Flur und Hain (590); Dvořák: Slavonic Dances (590), Hussitska Overture (590); Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (590), Mazeppa (590), The Battle of the Huns (590), Hungarian Coronation Mass (590), St. Elizabeth (590); Pedrell: Los Pirineos (591); Bizet: L'arlesienne (592).

Index Classifications: General, 1700s, 1900s

Contributed by: Bradley Jon Tucker