The American Folk Revival and Confucianism: A Comparative Analysis
Abstract
This paper will analyze the Confucian ideal of music as according to prominent scholars in the tradition, then apply its principles to the American Folk Revival. Confucius believed that music, unlike ritual, should promote both unity between people and harmony within the individual. He believed that music ought to inspire peace and positive emotions and spoke against music deemed warlike or aggressive. The Folk Revival was a movement that lasted from the 1940s to the late 1960s and promoted togetherness among those in the United States during an extremely turbulent time. It is characterized best by protest anthems that advocated for change, such as promoting Civil Rights. Upon careful critique, it can be concluded that the Folk Revival met the Confucian standards for pure music, given its nature to unify peoples and inspire positive emotions. The members of the Revival did this by embracing and celebrating economic, racial, and gender diversity within the United States. They wrote influential anthems that became rallying songs of protests across the nation, unifying stratified groups and harmonizing their internal emotions. These songs came to represent the era and have stood up to both the test of time and the Confucian method of musical analysis.
The great Eastern philosopher, Confucius, once famously said “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”[1] This single sentence contextualizes the entire Confucian school of thought on music; they believe that it is meant to unite people across socioeconomic divisions and shape the individual in a positive way, both of which express values inherent in Confucianism, unity and harmony. This ideal interpretation of music’s role in society can be compared with the music produced in the United States during its “folk revival”, or a period from the 1940s to the 1960s that saw the flourishing of music that emphasized ongoing individual, social and political movements, the beauty of America, and the working class. The a priori obligations of music expressed in Confucianism, unity and harmony, are embodied to a great degree in the American folk revival, particularly in protest anthems produced by artists within the movement.
The Confucian school of thought regarding music prioritizes the two aforementioned purposes. The first emphasis is placed on the concept of unity through shared cultural music. It is said, in Confucius’ Musical Records, that “Music serves to unite; ritual serves to differentiate. With uniting there is mutual closeness; with differentiation there is mutual respect.”[2] Confucius is essentially saying that rituals in society, such as bowing before royalty (to use an example from his time), create important class distinctions that enable society to function smoothly. However, the tool with which to overcome such distinctions and establish unity for a given period of time is music, hence Confucius’ belief that the effect of good music is societal solidarity. This was especially important in Ancient China, where class distinctions were stark, evidenced by the ritualistic behavior the philosopher himself emphasized. Because Confucius holds music to such a high standard, it follows logically that he would be greatly concerned with the type of music promoted in society as a whole. His philosophy secondarily emphasizes the way in which music shapes the individual. This is done through an analysis of how music is interwoven with one’s emotions. In the book The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, Li Zehou analyzes Confucius’ writings on music. He concludes that “These passages make it exceptionally clear that, in contrast to the rites, which regulate external aspects, it is only by its direct appeal to the inner “heart” and “emotions” that music can supplement and complement the rites.”[3] Music, therefore, exists independently of ritual; it serves a wholly unique purpose. On an individual level, it can shift and influence the emotions, which ritual is unable to do. Also in these writings, Confucius differentiates between what he deems pure music and vulgar music, primarily based on which form creates the correct emotions in a listener; these “correct emotions” are synonymous to the harmony that has already been addressed. As a result, Confucius both indicates the purpose of music, then separates music into two categories: purpose-fulfilling and purpose-lacking. The former is considered pure music, while the latter is considered vulgar. This impact on the individual that music possesses is also supported by modern psychology. Jensen Kirkendall, in an essay titled “The Well-Ordered Heart: Confucius on Harmony, Music, and Ritual”, explains how modern research supports the Confucian school of thought regarding music, saying “Psychological research confirms Confucius’ view about music’s effect on the state of a person.”[4] He goes on to explain how an individual’s emotions, on a molecular level, are directed and influenced by the music they are listening to. Therefore, Confucius’ belief that music inspires emotion in the listener is scientifically supported. Music objectively does influence the listener’s emotions, meaning that Confucius’ logic follows: one should curate what music one engages in, given that it has such an effect. Both aspects of Confucian music, unity and harmony, serve as core concepts within the school of thought, and as a result any music that can be deemed “Confucian” must necessarily uphold these key principles.
The perspectives on music that can be found within Confucian thought are, to some extent, reductionist, leading some to dismiss such views as conservative and lacking value. However, this perspective does not hold true when considering context and the necessity of a modern application. Confucius himself felt as if proper music and ritual were fundamental pillars of society, interwoven with the cosmos itself. However, he also dismissed many forms of music as improper or not good, particularly the newer compositions he encountered; it is for this reason that his characterization can be viewed as reductionist. These dismissals included folk music, with the Master considering such a form vulgar and lacking value. However, the reason for these dismissals must be considered prior to accepting their universality. In her essay titled “Confucius’ Opposition to the “New Music””, Philosopher Kathleen Higgins states “Confucius’ rejection of the music of the Zheng and the Wei does not represent musical conservatism for its own sake.”[5] Rather, he rejected such forms of music for their flawed ethical values, as they were created and propagated by warmongering states, and contained within them a representation of this turbulent nature. Therefore, it can be concluded that a dismissal of Confucius’ thoughts on music as overly conservative is inaccurate. Additionally, it is important to note that even if Confucius held these specific arguments against music of his time, the core tenets of the philosophy regarding music are unchanging. The specific, example-based arguments Confucius made simply do not apply within the modern context, meaning his thought is not reductionist. As a result, prioritizing these core tenets is the most important value when analyzing music from a Confucian perspective. This type of modern Confucianism is best described by Confucian scholar Stephen Angle, who argues that “Confucianism is an evolving tradition, and like earlier moments in the tradition, modern Confucianism both builds on and critiques what has come before.”[6] Confucius’ specific words are necessarily limited by historical context; however, the living tradition of the philosophy need not be. The proper way to analyze music from a Confucian perspective is to consider the everlasting pillars of the philosophy itself, being unity and harmony, rather than the specific examples given by Confucius himself.
To apply this definition of Confucian music to the American folk revival, it is necessary to first consider what the folk revival was and what type of music it inspired. The folk revival occurred in the United States between the 1940s and 1960s and is best defined by one of its participants, Alan Jabbour: “We in our revival sought out – and created – a music to express simultaneously our quest for cultural roots, our admiration of democratic ideas and values, our solidarity with the culturally neglected, and our compulsion to forge our own culture for ourselves.”[7] This definition not only beautifully combines the various goals of the artists who took part in the movement, but also demonstrates a consistent strain within it: unity in forging a shared cultural identity. Additionally, revivalist folk singers often attempted to learn and popularize old American instruments, such as Pete Seeger’s famous banjo. This further played into the idea of expressing one’s “cultural roots” and tied the revival to folk movements that predated it. Having defined the movement itself, the next question is what the music it inspired and produced actually was. For this, there can be no better source than the father of the movement himself, Woody Guthrie. Guthrie, when answering this very question, explains “A folk song is about what’s wrong and how to fix it, or it could be whose hungry and where their mouth is, and whose out of work and where the job is, or whose broke and where the money is, or whose carrying a gun and where the peace is – that’s folk lore.”[8] The theme of political protest Guthrie identifies as being inherent within a folk song explains why the most well-remembered and culturally impactful songs from the revival are inherently political and can therefore be considered protest songs. Such songs include Guthrie’s own “This Land is Your Land” (particularly the two censored verses), Pete Seeger’s “If I had a Hammer” and “We Shall Overcome,” Joan Baez’s rendition of “Where Have All The Flowers Gone,” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Every single one of these songs has overt political messaging aimed at supporting the marginalized and resisting corruption and flawed government. Lyrics such as “At the relief office, I saw my people”[9] in “This Land is Your Land” and “The order is rapidly fadin’”[10] in “The Times They Are A-Changin’” serve as evidence for such messages, and embody the very themes identified in Jabbour’s definition. The prevalence of these protest songs can largely be attributed to the political turmoil of the era in which the revival took place. As the Library of Congress puts it, when describing this time period, “The war in Vietnam, the counterculture, black power, and women’s liberation left the nation polarized.”[11] Protest songs developed naturally as a response to what singers identified as problems in society and served as a way to call out such problems. Additionally, they served as a method to rally those who wanted to fix, or protest, said problems. Therefore, the folk revival is best understood as a movement that reconnected individuals with their roots, represented the marginalized of society, critiqued the government, and popularized the folk song as a method of protest.
The question that remains, having defined both necessary terms, is quite simple: does the American folk revival embody the ideal form of music through unity and harmony as defined in Confucianism? The second layer of questioning behind this overarching inquiry then becomes clear. Did the folk revival bring society together, producing unity, and did the folk revival inspire beneficial emotions, creating harmony?
Revivalist protest songs unquestionably generated some form of unity. However, the concept of unity itself must first be investigated and challenged, as it can take many different forms. Unlike Confucius’ China, America during the folk revival was incredibly diverse. This diversity was evidenced in ethnic, class, and regional divides; each separate subsection possessed its own identity and history. As a result, one inevitably wonders what it means to “unite” in such a society. How can a singular song, or type of song, bring together such drastically different groups? Gillian Mitchell, in an article analyzing the revival, posits an answer to this question: “The very apparatus of the folk revival […] worked to ensure that diversity and universality remained fundamental features of the movement.”[12] Singers emphasized a reduction in class divisions and promoted a sense of togetherness. To see an example of this, one need not look further than the most famous song from the period, “This Land is Your Land”. The entire song has become an anthem for togetherness in America, founded upon its first line. “This land is your land, this land is my land” Woody Guthrie sings, speaking to the entire country.[13] Such lyrics are not only inherently collective, but especially so in a country plagued by division. It is telling that, even today, Guthrie’s declaration remains sung. Pete Seeger, known as the “grandfather” of American folk music, creates a similar message with the song “We Shall Overcome”, which became omnipresent at political rallies and protests at the time. The song emphasized people coming together and combatting divisions, such as segregation, that existed during the revival. Furthermore, Bob Dylan performed his new folk songs at the “March on Washington”, just before Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Such songs were, yet again, protests sung for the marginalized in America. These explanations and lyrics essentially solve the problem presented in claiming to unify a country as diverse as the United States. They promote both peace and collective empowerment. Therefore, by accepting and celebrating diversity while simultaneously promoting togetherness, the folk revival successfully embodied this spirit of unity identified in the Confucian ideal of music.
The folk revival, on an individual scale, also managed to bring about the harmony Confucius emphasizes. This is particularly evident when comparing the music Confucius disliked with protest songs. The music from the Zheng and the Wei that the philosopher disliked so much was warlike, emphasizing might and conflict rather than unity and harmony. It was for that reason that it didn’t benefit the individual. However, protest songs do the opposite; the aforementioned songs and lyrics actively promote peace. Furthermore, folk songs help to represent the marginalized, as Jabbour and Guthrie iterate. This extension of the message further allows folk songs to impact more individuals on a broader scale, resulting in more beneficial emotional growth. It could be claimed that because protest songs are naturally anti-establishment, they immediately go against Confucius’ ideal of musical harmony. However, this concept of harmony is dismissed by Stephen Angle once again, who states “The Confucian ideal of harmony means finding ways that differences complement each other, contributing to a greater whole.”[14] Because Confucianism is a living tradition, every criticism Confucius himself may have had does not apply in a different context. Rather, the principles he laid out are what must be applied to these ideals. Folk songs necessarily take differences between various cultural diasporas and weave them together, meaning such songs are definitionally harmonious. This accessibility and wide scope of the Folk Revival in turn allows more individuals to experience the songs. As Confucius believes, music is deemed pure when it conjures positive and helpful emotions within the listener. This is done when, applying to their broad audience, Folk songs promote themes of peace and solidarity. This effect of positive emotion is also evident when such songs inspire huge groups of people, such as those at the many protest rallies that occurred during the movement’s peak. The movement intentionally increased the emotional accessibility of its songs for listeners and participants. Given both the characteristics of the Folk Revival and the positive impact it had on those listening to it, it can be determined that is embodies harmony for the individual, both with themselves and each other.
The weighing metric of Confucianism for music has stood the test of time as effective in determining the quality of music through its properties of unity and harmony, as both such properties are timeless and comprehensive. The American folk revival, following careful analysis, embodies the ideal form of music defined within Confucianism. Protest songs written during this period both unite people across ethnic, regional, and class divides, as well as proving internal harmony for the individual listening. They have entered the very consciousness of the United States, uniting and inspiring an entire nation to do better.
Bibliography:
Angle, Stephen C. Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Cook, “Yue Ji—Record of Music: Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Commentary,” 42.
Dylan, Bob. “The Times They Are A-Changin’: The Official Bob Dylan Site.” The Times They Are A-Changin’ | The Official Bob Dylan Site. Accessed November 22, 2022. https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times-they-are-changin/.
Eyerman, Ron, and Scott Barretta. “From the 30s to the 60s: The Folk Music Revival in the United States.” Theory and Society 25, no. 4 (1996): 501–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/657909.
Freedman, Jean R. “What Is a Folk Revival?” In Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics, 294–304. University of Illinois Press, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt1m32159.28.
Higgins, Kathleen. “Confucius’ Opposition to the ‘New Music’ – Dao.” SpringerLink. Springer Netherlands, July 10, 2017. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11712-017-9558-6.
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Kirkendall, Jensen Armstrong. “The Well-Ordered Heart: Confucius on Harmony, Music, and Ritual.” Azusa Pacific University, December 14, 2017. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/998/2018/11/JensenKirkendall-TheWellOrderedHeart.pdf.
Lu, Deming, Approximately 550-630 Annotator, and Xuan Zheng. Annotated Edition of “The Book of Rites”. [Jian’an, Fujian, China: publisher not identified, to 1194, 1190] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666359/.
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[1] Confucius, James Legge, Chʻu Chai, and Winberg Chai. 1967. Li Chi : Book of Rites : An Encyclopedia of Ancient Ceremonial Usages Religious Creeds and Social Institutions. New Hyde Park N.Y: University Books.
[2] Cook, “Yue Ji—Record of Music: Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Commentary,” 42
[3] Li Zehou, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, Translated by Maija Bell Samei, (Honolulu, HI; University of Hawai’i Press, 2010), 12.
[4] Jensen Armstrong Kirkendall, “The Well-Ordered Heart: Confucius on Harmony, Music, and Ritual” (Azusa Pacific University, December 14, 2017), 4
[5] Kathleen Higgins, “Confucius’ Opposition to the ‘New Music’ – Dao,” SpringerLink (Springer Netherlands, July 10, 2017), 321
[6] Stephen C. Angle, Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022), 190-191
[7] Freedman, Jean R. “What Is a Folk Revival?” In Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics, 294-304, (University of Illinois Press,2017), 294
[8] Eyerman, Ron, and Scott Barretta. “From the 30s to the 60s: The Folk Music Revival in the United States.” (Theory and Society 25, no. 4 (1966)), 502
[9] Guthrie, Woody. “This Land is Your Land”. (Ludlow Music, Inc., 1956)
[10] Dylan, Bob. “The Times They Are A-Changin’: The Official Bob Dylan Site,” The Times They Are A-Changin’
[11] Bob Hope et al., “Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture Polarization in the 1960s,” Library of Congress, July 11, 2010
[12] Mitchell, Gillian A. M. “Visions of Diversity: Cultural Pluralism and the Nation in the Folk Music Revival Movement of the United States and Canada, 1958-65”. Journal of American Studies 40, no 3 (2006), 598
[13] Guthrie, Woody. “This Land is Your Land”. (Ludlow Music, Inc., 1956)
[14] Stephen C. Angle, Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022), 195
