Paper short abstract:

The paper reflects on the creative process and problems of authorship, as folksong is transformed by a composer, following other criteria than those of a traditional performance situation/practice.

Paper long abstract:

Based on the romantic paradigm, a "folksong" has dual meaning: anonymously inherited musical piece sung by all or at least by majority of a "folk", and the same piece, but transformed by a composer. This duality has resulted in accepted practice to label the composer's creative product as "arrangement". This may seem right, if the accepted claim for the composition's originality focuses just on the melody and text. In fact, a musical event, also the performance of a folksong, can be characterized meaningfully by a set of formal, stylistic, performative, contextual and other aspects, which clearly distinguish the traditional situation and which are going to be transformed by the composer. Thus, even if the text and melody remain the same, the different style, instrumentation, musical form, and, above all, the context of the performance let qualify this situation as not equal with the traditional, and the musical result in the new situation as creative intention of the composer. As an obvious difference from "usual" compositions an identifiable thematic source can be indicated in this case.