traditional songs
Passed-down musical pieces
Traditional songs are music passed down through generations, typically by oral transmission rather than written composition.
Folk songs, spirituals, ballads, and nursery rhymes fall into this category.
The phrase often implies songs old enough that their original composers are unknown or that they belong to a community rather than an individual: We sang traditional songs around the campfire.
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- melodyPleasing sequence of notes
- balladNarrative poem or song
- ethnomusicologyMusic studied culturally
- field recordingsSounds recorded on-site
folklore · murder ballads · passing down · antiquity · archival recordings · regional styles · hymn · pentatonic · folk revival · old timey · front porch · celebration · oral history · sea shanties · drinking songs · broadside · indigenous music · chant
- African traditionsinitiation ceremonies, naming ceremony, ancestral worship, rites of passage, tribal chiefs
- old-timey musicretro tunes, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, barbershop
- Gugakcourt music, ritual music, ceremonial music, folk ballads, harvest songs
- folk musicfolk, folk music, folk songs, folk ballads, folk ballad
- vocal songslieder, folk ballads, love songs, ballads, chansons
- CherokeeCherokee Nation, Cherokee syllabary, Sequoyah, Trail of Tears, clan mothers