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Investigates the concept of folklike tone within German and Austrian classical music, using innovative computational methods to analyse its origins, tracing from British and French folk music.
German and Austrian classical music is said to have a 'folklike tone' (in German: Volkston), often given as one reason for its popularity among the wider public and its ability to bridge social differences. For many years scholars have sought to identify the folklike tone in the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but have not been entirely satisfied with the barely more than vague allusions they have found.
This book deconstructs the long-standing concept of the Volkston and argues that, if Viennese classical music has a folklike tone, it is in fact not Austro-German, but rather English/(pseudo)Scottish and French. Using innovative computational methods relevant for the digital humanities, this work demonstrates how popular musical forms travelled with genres such as 'Scottish songs' and 'country dances' from London in the decades around 1700 to German lands and Vienna in the late eighteenth century, where they contributed to and shaped the evolving Volkston.
German and Austrian classical music is said to have a 'folklike tone' (in German: Volkston), often given as one reason for its popularity among the wider public and its ability to bridge social differences. For many years scholars have sought to identify the folklike tone in the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, but have not been entirely satisfied with the barely more than vague allusions they have found.
This book deconstructs the long-standing concept of the Volkston and argues that, if Viennese classical music has a folklike tone, it is in fact not Austro-German, but rather English/(pseudo)Scottish and French. Using innovative computational methods relevant for the digital humanities, this work demonstrates how popular musical forms travelled with genres such as 'Scottish songs' and 'country dances' from London in the decades around 1700 to German lands and Vienna in the late eighteenth century, where they contributed to and shaped the evolving Volkston.
Price: $190.00
Pages: 432
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date:
08 December 2026
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837653461
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
MUSIC / History & Criticism, Theory of music and musicology, MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Theory, HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Germany, History of music, European history, Computer science
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and External Repositories
Introduction: Music Historiography and Computer Science
Translation and Mindsets
The Volkston Thesis
Deconstruction and Persistence
Popularity, Musical Form and Migration
Music Information Retrieval
Part 1: Concepts and Theories
1 In Search of a Form - Theories on this Matter of the Past and Present
Forms, Letters, Lines, Repetitions - Contradictions and Differences
Repeat Signs and Other Difficulties
What is Form (according to the Discourse on Music in the History and Present)?
The Cart before the Horse - Problems regarding Past Studies on the Genesis of Classical Musical Forms
2 Folk Music and Classical Music
The Volkston Thesis and Musical Form
Folk Music and Art Music - from Dichotomy to Synthesis
Consolidation and Refinement
Shifting the Focus on the Concept of Polygenesis
Genetic Mutation and Classification
Polygenism and the Cultural Discourse - before, in and after National Socialism
The English-Language Variants of the Volkston Thesis
3 Folk Music Collections and Computer-Assisted Analysis of Musical Form - Two Mutually Enriching Research Fields
The Volkston Thesis in the Broader Context of Efforts to Systematise Folk Music
Another Biologistic Approach
The Objectivity-Emphasising Approach - with and without the Assistance of a Computer
The success story of folk tune collections
Part 2: Database and Algorithms
4 How to Analyse Form - by Human Beings and by Computers?
Musical Form and Segmentation in Computer Science I: Models Focusing on Caesuras and Their Contexts
Musical Form and Segmentation in Computer Science II: Models Focusing on Repeated Note Sequences (or Note Strings)
On computational comparison and philosophical concepts of identity
Algorithms for Identifying Repeated Note Strings
5 Selecting and Creating the Database
The Corpus to be Investigated
Selections and Transcriptions
The Ambiguity of Repeat Signs
6 A Tool for the Identification of the small rounded two/three-part form (SRTTPF)
Design Principles - Four Episodes
Defining the Criteria for the Four Sectors
The Individual (Work) Steps of AnalyzeSrttpf - User Interactions (Second and Third Episode)
Digital Interpretation of the Results (Fourth Episode)
Auxiliary Scripts and Tools
Part 3: History and Numbers
7 Reprint Strategies
The Significant Role of Reprints in Shaping the Popular Repertoire - Two Outliers
Protecting Authorship from Oblivion
Reprint Strategies and Musical Form - before and in 1719
Promotion of the Fully-Developed and Hybrid SRTTPF after 1719
The SRTTPF in the Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera's International Dissemination
8 National and International Reprint Connections - 1651 to 1825
The Distribution of the SRTTPF in Europe
The History of the Reprints in the Course of Time
9 Scottish Songs - on Authenticity and Invention
Reviewing Paradigms: Anglophilia, Caledophilia and Folkphilia
The Origin of 'Scottish Songs'
Creating a Scottish Corpus a posteriori
The invention of 'Scottish songs' and the establishment of the SRTTPF
10 Scottish Song Arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven
The contributions of Napier, Thomson and Whyte
The Sources and Selection Principles for Haydn and Beethoven's Song Arrangements
Republications of Haydn's and Beethoven's Scottish Song Arrangements in the German-Speaking Market
11 Country Dance, Contredanse, Contredanse Allemande
Influence from England to France
Reception of the Country Dance and Contredanse in German-Speaking Areas
Social Reasons for Cultural Transfer
SRTTPF in Country Dance and Contredanse in the London, Paris and German-Austrian Corpora
Viennese Classical Music and Country/Contre Dances
In Advance: Music-Historical Conclusion
12 Perspectives: Worldly Ambiguity and its Role for the Understanding of Music
Understanding the World through Classification and Categorisation
The Future of Music Analysis Based on Fuzzy Categorisation
References
Index
Abbreviations and External Repositories
Introduction: Music Historiography and Computer Science
Translation and Mindsets
The Volkston Thesis
Deconstruction and Persistence
Popularity, Musical Form and Migration
Music Information Retrieval
Part 1: Concepts and Theories
1 In Search of a Form - Theories on this Matter of the Past and Present
Forms, Letters, Lines, Repetitions - Contradictions and Differences
Repeat Signs and Other Difficulties
What is Form (according to the Discourse on Music in the History and Present)?
The Cart before the Horse - Problems regarding Past Studies on the Genesis of Classical Musical Forms
2 Folk Music and Classical Music
The Volkston Thesis and Musical Form
Folk Music and Art Music - from Dichotomy to Synthesis
Consolidation and Refinement
Shifting the Focus on the Concept of Polygenesis
Genetic Mutation and Classification
Polygenism and the Cultural Discourse - before, in and after National Socialism
The English-Language Variants of the Volkston Thesis
3 Folk Music Collections and Computer-Assisted Analysis of Musical Form - Two Mutually Enriching Research Fields
The Volkston Thesis in the Broader Context of Efforts to Systematise Folk Music
Another Biologistic Approach
The Objectivity-Emphasising Approach - with and without the Assistance of a Computer
The success story of folk tune collections
Part 2: Database and Algorithms
4 How to Analyse Form - by Human Beings and by Computers?
Musical Form and Segmentation in Computer Science I: Models Focusing on Caesuras and Their Contexts
Musical Form and Segmentation in Computer Science II: Models Focusing on Repeated Note Sequences (or Note Strings)
On computational comparison and philosophical concepts of identity
Algorithms for Identifying Repeated Note Strings
5 Selecting and Creating the Database
The Corpus to be Investigated
Selections and Transcriptions
The Ambiguity of Repeat Signs
6 A Tool for the Identification of the small rounded two/three-part form (SRTTPF)
Design Principles - Four Episodes
Defining the Criteria for the Four Sectors
The Individual (Work) Steps of AnalyzeSrttpf - User Interactions (Second and Third Episode)
Digital Interpretation of the Results (Fourth Episode)
Auxiliary Scripts and Tools
Part 3: History and Numbers
7 Reprint Strategies
The Significant Role of Reprints in Shaping the Popular Repertoire - Two Outliers
Protecting Authorship from Oblivion
Reprint Strategies and Musical Form - before and in 1719
Promotion of the Fully-Developed and Hybrid SRTTPF after 1719
The SRTTPF in the Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera's International Dissemination
8 National and International Reprint Connections - 1651 to 1825
The Distribution of the SRTTPF in Europe
The History of the Reprints in the Course of Time
9 Scottish Songs - on Authenticity and Invention
Reviewing Paradigms: Anglophilia, Caledophilia and Folkphilia
The Origin of 'Scottish Songs'
Creating a Scottish Corpus a posteriori
The invention of 'Scottish songs' and the establishment of the SRTTPF
10 Scottish Song Arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven
The contributions of Napier, Thomson and Whyte
The Sources and Selection Principles for Haydn and Beethoven's Song Arrangements
Republications of Haydn's and Beethoven's Scottish Song Arrangements in the German-Speaking Market
11 Country Dance, Contredanse, Contredanse Allemande
Influence from England to France
Reception of the Country Dance and Contredanse in German-Speaking Areas
Social Reasons for Cultural Transfer
SRTTPF in Country Dance and Contredanse in the London, Paris and German-Austrian Corpora
Viennese Classical Music and Country/Contre Dances
In Advance: Music-Historical Conclusion
12 Perspectives: Worldly Ambiguity and its Role for the Understanding of Music
Understanding the World through Classification and Categorisation
The Future of Music Analysis Based on Fuzzy Categorisation
References
Index