Folk music has been used as source material for composers of many eras. Composers of the Viennese classic period were influence by and used folk music in their compositions; for example, Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 uses a Yugoslavian dance melody for the primary theme. Other composers who used folk material include Chopin, Smetana, Dvořák, and Mussorgsky. In the twentieth century, composers began to collect or study folk music in an attempt to integrate that music into their style. Three possibilities exist for the use of folk materials in Western art music. A composer can simply compose an accompaniment for an existing folk melody, a newly composed melody can take on folk characteristics, or folk music can be integrated into the style of a composer to such an extent that neither folk melodies or imitations of folk melodies are used, but the composer's works are imbued with the style of peasant music.

Works: Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Pastoral (340); Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (340); Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (343); Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus (344).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes