POLLEN 



3230 



FOMOR1AN 



and occasionally in the major, 

 but never in the minor mode ; and 

 it is free in its rhythm, metrically ir- 

 regular, often in five-time and other 

 compound measures. Aesthetically, 

 the characteristic of the folk-tune is 

 its transparent sincerity, freshness, 

 spontaneity, naivete, and directness 

 of statement. 



These considerations, coupled 

 with the fact that folk-tunes are 

 invariably anonymous, have led 

 to speculative theories concerning 

 their derivation. Some experts 

 maintain that folk-songs, like 

 other songs, were composed in 

 the past by individuals, and have 

 been handed down more or less in- 

 correctly by oral tradition, i.e. that 

 the folk-song is not a genuine wild 

 flower, but merely a garden escape. 

 Others contend that folk-songs are 

 the creation, not of individuals, but 

 of homogeneous groups or com- 

 munities ; that the process of oral 

 tradition has been responsible, not 

 only for their preservation, but for 

 the course of their development, 

 and, in a sense, for their actual 

 creation ; that the alterations un- 

 consciously made by individual 

 singers have at every stage of the 

 evolution of the folk-song been 

 weighed and tested by the com- 

 munity and accepted or rejected 

 by their verdict ; and that the life- 

 history of the folk-song has, there- 

 fore, been one of continuous 

 growth ever approximating to a 

 form congenial to the taste of the 

 community and expressive of its 

 feelings, aspirations, and ideals. 



The weakness of the individual- 

 istic theory is that it fails to ac- 

 count not only for the anonymity 

 of the folk-song, but also for its 

 distinctive national flavour, which 

 is, perhaps, the most characteristic 

 and most valuable of its many 

 peculiar qualities. It is because 

 folk-song is pre-eminently a 

 national utterance that its preser- 

 vation is essential to the musical 

 well-being of the nation of which it 

 is the natural musical expression. 

 No nation has suffered more than 

 England through the failure to 

 realize the necessity of maintaining 

 a close connexion between its folk 

 and its art music, as may be seen 

 by contrasting the foremost posi- 

 tion which the country held in 

 musical Europe prior to Purcell, 

 with the humble place to which ?t 

 has since been relegated. 



Fortunately for the future 

 history of English music, the 

 efforts that have been made since 

 the beginning of the century to 

 collect and record its popular music 

 have been attended with a success 

 far greater than, in the circum- 

 stances, could have been expected. 

 In this all-important work the 



English Folk Song Society, founded 

 in 1898, has played a leading part, 

 having already recorded in its 

 Journal several thousand authentic 

 folk-songs. In addition, several 

 selections of harmonised folk-songs 

 have been published by musicians 

 and collectors, e.g. Lucy Broad- 

 wood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 

 George Butterworth, and Cecil 

 Sharp. Cecil J. Sharp 



Follen, KARL (1795-1840). 

 German poet. Born at Ramrod, 

 Hesse, Sept. 5, 1795, his father 

 was a lawyer. He was educated at 

 the university of Giessen and 

 became a teacher of law, but his 

 revolutionary ideas made it neces- 

 sary for him to betake himself to 

 Switzerland and then to the U.S.A. 

 He became a professor of German 

 at Harvard and later a Unitarian 

 minister at Lexington. In Jan., 

 1840, he lost his life when on a 

 burning steamer. He is known by 

 his patriotic songs. His brother, 

 August Ludwig Follen (1794-1855), 

 was also a poet. 



Follicle (Lat. folliculus, little 

 bag). In anatomy, a minute gland 

 or sac such as the hair-follicles of 

 the skin. In botany, a dry 

 dehiscent seed case, consisting of 

 one carpel, which opens along the 

 ventral suture. 



Follies, THE. Pierrot troupe 

 which achieved popularity in 

 London between 1907 and 1912. 

 The Follies owed their success 

 largely to the personality of 

 H. G. Pelissier, " an admirable 

 parodist, not only of words, and of 

 actions, but above all of music." 

 Potted Plays, a series of burlesques 

 of contemporary productions, were 

 a popular feature. 



Folio wing-- up System. Name 

 given in business to the method by 

 which possible buyers have the 

 merits of goods brought before 

 them more than once, by means of 

 the post. It was developed in the 

 United States, where the selling of 

 goods through the post is on a very 

 large scale, and was soon taken up 

 in Great Britain. The system is 

 worked from a card index con- 

 taming the names of possible cus- 

 tomers ; these receive a first letter ; 

 after a time another follows, and 

 then possibly others, until business 

 results or the name is crossed off 

 as hopeless. See Advertising. 



Folly. Name given generally to 

 a building for which there appears 

 to be no particular use or reason. 

 The term is of twofold origin and 

 derives from both the French word 

 folie meaning a pleasance, a 

 delight, or a whimsical phantasy, 

 and as a rule applied to garden - 

 pavilions, belvederes, or look-out 

 towers and from a castle built in 

 the Welsh marches by Hubert de 



Burgh. He had scarce completed it 

 when, under the terms of a treaty 

 with the Welsh, he was obliged to 

 demolish the fortress. This futility 

 was styled "Hubert's Folly." 



A typical instance of what the 

 rustic calls a folly is the Folly Gate 

 of Brookmans Park, near Hatfield, 

 an embattled red-brick structure of 

 imposing design, thought to have 

 been erected by Sir Jeremy 

 Sambrooke in the 18th century. 

 " Roebuck's Folly " in the grounds 

 of Midford Park, near Bath, is said 

 to have been built in 1700 to com- 

 memorate the winning of a fortune 

 by the ace of clubs. The Farmers' 

 Folly, a pillar erected at Alnwick 

 in 1816 by the tenants of the duke 

 of Northumberland, to testify to 

 their appreciation of him, was com- 

 pleted by the duke at his own 

 expense. Sham Castle, or " Allen's 

 Folly," overlooking Bath, was 

 built in 1760 by Ralph Allen. The 

 palatial building erected at Font- 

 hill, Wiltshire, by the author of 

 Vathek, is sometimes referred to 

 as Beckford's Folly. 



Folquet of Marseilles (c. 1150- 

 1231). Provencal troubadour. He 

 was the son of a merchant from 

 Genoa settled at Marseilles. His 

 few surviving poems show his 

 amorous and passionate, disposi- 

 tion ; his verses won him the 

 admiring friendship of distin- 

 guished men and gained him a 

 place in Dante's Paradise (Book 

 ix). He became abbot of Le 

 Toronet, Provence, in 1198, and 

 seven years later was made bishop 

 of Toulouse. With Simon de 

 Montf ort he fanatically persecuted 

 the Albigenses. 



Fomalhaut (Arab, fum al hut, 

 mouth of the fish). Star Alpha in 

 the constellation of Piscis Austra- 

 lis, the southern fish. It is a star 

 of the first magnitude, and one of 

 the four ancient royal stars. It 

 can be seen low down the southern 

 horizon in Great Britain in Sept. 

 Pron. Fo-ma-16. 



Fomentation (Lat. fovere, to 

 warm). Fold of boracic lint or simi- 

 lar material, wrung out in boiling 

 water and applied to relieve pain or 

 inflammation, or to assist the dis- 

 charge of pus. It should be covered 

 with jaconette, or oil silk, and 

 cotton wool, in order to retain the 

 heat as long as possible, and re- 

 newed every three or four hours . 



Fpmorian (Goidelic, sea-people, 

 or giants). Legendary name of an 

 early Irish race. They are claimed 

 by some as Gaelic spirits of dark- 

 ness and the sea, by others as an 

 echo of the Viking age. Archaeo- 

 logy, however, points to early 

 arrivals of Nordic " giants " from 

 the Hebrides, and of early voyagers 

 from the Mediterranean. 



