Folia

(Port., It. [It. occasionally follia]; Sp. fola; Fr. folie).

A term for a musical framework used during the Baroque
period for songs, dances and sets of variations. In the late
17th century a related, alternative form gained popularity
and for some time co-existed with the original model.
1. Origins.
The history of the folia predates the earliest surviving
musical sources. A dance called folia was popular in late
15th-century Portugal; it probably originated as a folk
dance, but Portuguese sources of the period mention folias
sung and danced during both popular festivals and courtly
spectacles (Vasconcelos, 1904). Folia texts appear in
Portuguese in theatrical works by Gil Vicente (c1465
c1536) and in Spanish by Diego Snchez de Badajoz
(c1460c1536). Sung on stage by an ensemble properly
dressed for the folia (Vicente, Triunfo do Inverno), they
retain a popular tone and a metrical form characterized by a
refrain of two, three or four lines (Rey, 1978). The few
descriptions of the folia dance containing specific
references to its performance manner date from the
beginning of the 17th century. In 1611 Sebastin de
Covarrubias (Tesoro de la lengua castellana) described the
folia as a Portuguese dance, very noisy, performed with
tambourines and other instruments by disguised street-
porters carrying young men in womens clothing on their
shoulder. He also explained that the name, which means
mad or empty-headed, was appropriate because the
dance was so fast and noisy that the dancers seemed out
of their minds. Gonzalo Correa (Arte de la lengua
castellana, 1626) related the poetic form of the folia to that
of the seguidilla and added that the performance was
accompanied by guitar and sonajas and pandero (types of
tambourine).
Since no music for Vicentes and Badajozs plays survives,
the relationship between such traditions and the harmonic-
melodic formula known later as the folia remains somewhat
obscure. Some earlier scholars (Gombosi, Ward) located
the origins of folia music in the Spanish and Italian vocal
repertory of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Similarities between the harmonic structure of the 17th-
century folia and the chord progressions found in some
villancicos in the Cancionero de Palacio (E-Mp 1335; an
anthology compiled in Spain for the Reyes Catlicos
Ferdinand and Isabella in about 1500) as well as in some
frottolas printed by Petrucci and Antico have led to the
suggestion that the folia model was already at work in these
compositions. However, like other dance forms and ostinato
types, the folia did not consist merely of a chord
progression, but included a complex of other distinctive
musical elements such as metric patterns, rhythmic and
melodic figures, cadential formulae and so forth. The
isolated appearance of the chord progression, often
fragmented, in compositions whose structure and character
are altogether different may not have been associated with
the folia music. On the contrary, the use in early 16th-
century compositions of chord sequences similar to those
of the folia would simply seem to suggest a common
musical idiom gravitating toward certain standard
progressions.
2. The early folia.
The earliest extant composition to use the folia progression
in an ostinato fashion is the Fantasia que contrahaze la
harpa in Alonso Mudarras Tres libros de msica en cifras
para vihuela of 1546 (Griffiths, 1986). The title folia first
appeared in 1577, however, in Francisco de Salinass De
musica libri septem. The melody given by Salinas (on
p.309), and associated with the text No me digays madre
mal de padre fray Anton does not fit the folia scheme;
indeed, it is the tune of Veritate facta on the previous page
that appears in the next century as the folia melody (ex.1).
Some differencias de folas may be found in an anonymous
manuscript collection of music for vihuela dated 1593
(Ramillete de flores nuevas, E-Mn 6001). In Italian sources
the term makes its first appearance in 1604, in a set of
variations by G.G. Kapsberger (Libro primo di intavolatura
di chitarrone). There is no doubt that the folia was enjoying
great popularity in Italy by the early 17th century. The
chords to be strummed as the accompaniment to the folia
were included in more than 50 tablatures for the five-course
guitar, beginning with Girolamo Montesardos Nuova
inventione dintavolatura (1606).
Ex.2 shows the musical design of the early 17th-century
folia. The upper staff provides the melodic framework,
although the precise melody varies. The lower staff gives
the simplest type of guitar accompaniment, with the notes
representing chords and the stems showing the strumming
direction. Two four-bar ritornellos may occur between
renditions of the 16-bar structure; occasionally the latter
half is repeated. The opening two beats of anacrusis are
sometimes omitted, but in any case the first accent always
falls on the V chord. The stroke pattern continually
emphasizes 3/4 metre, whereas both the melody and the
harmonic changes often oscillate between 3/2 and 6/4.
Though most often in G minor, the folia may be cast in
other keys or, rarely, in the major mode; sometimes both
major and minor modes alternate within a single statement
of the scheme. The structural chords of the folia formula
may be reached by way of intermediary chords. Examples
of this practice abound in guitar books of the first half of the
17th century. These usually present a series of folias, each
consisting of a single statement of the scheme, and each
adding different chords to the framework of ex.2; these
pieces were probably intended as pedagogical examples.
Some sources suggest that the folia was still sung in early
17th-century Spain; Luis de Brieo, in his Mtodo mui
facilissimo (Paris, 1626), provided texts as well as guitar
music. In Italy texts were not usually given with guitar folias,
but the musical framework is indicated for use in singing
poetry in I-Fr 2793, 2951, 2973 (III) and Fn XIX 143 and, in
keyboard notation, in I-Fn XIX 115. A monody based on
the aria della folia appears in Giovanni Stefanis Scherzi
amorosi of 1622.

Sets of instrumental variations on the folia were written for

guitar by A.M. Bartolotti (1640), Foscarini (c1640) and
Corbetta (1643, 1648, 1671 and 1674), for chitarrone by
Alessandro Piccinini (1623), for two violins and continuo by
Falconieri (1650) and for keyboard by Frescobaldi (1615),
Bernardo Storace (1664), Ximnez (d 1672) and Cabanilles
(1694). Early 18th-century examples also appear in
Portuguese and Spanish manuscripts (P-Pm 1577, Loc.B, 5
and E-Mn 153860).
In his Nova inventione dintavolatura Montesardo claimed
that the music that the Spanish called folia was known
among Italians as fedele (Folia chiamata cos dagli
Spagnuoli, che da Italiani si chiama Fedele). In reality,
folia was the term commonly adopted in Italian prints, but
some composers did prefer the name fedele, including
Trabaci (1603), Mayone (1603), Francesco Lambardi (GB-
Lbl Add.30491, c1617), P.A. Giramo (a set of three-
voice partite on the text Filli mia, Filli cara in Arie a pi
voci, c1650) and Cristoforo Caresana (1693). Two
variations on fedele for guitar with bass courses also
survive in I-Nc 1321. As Montesardo suggests, no
significant differences seem to distinguish the examples
of fedele from those of folia. Fedelesettings tend to use the
first inversion of IV in the third and 11th bars of ex.2. But the
same variant, which can be easily explained as a mere
variation in the part-writing, occasionally appears also in
pieces labelled folia. The reason why Italian composers
adopted such terminological distinction thus remains
ambiguous.
The name La gamba, transmitted exclusively in 16th-
century sources, seems to have designated a rather
different dance type. Although La gamba settings share the
same chord progression as the folia, they differ from the
folia music in other respects, specifically in their rhythmic
shape. Moreover, they usually terminate each statement of
the formula with a reiteration of the same chord sequence
in shorter note-values. Although not identified as such,
Diego Ortizs recercada quarta and recercada
ottava (Trattado de glosas, 1553) correspond to the La
gamba model. In the 16th century a musical framework
very close to La gamba circulated under the
name Caracossa (or Cara cos(s)a), especially in north
European prints and manuscripts. Numerous examples
appear in Phalses collections, often in the guise of
a gaillarde (see Apfel 19767).
3. The late folia.
In the course of the 1670s the folia scheme underwent
some decisive transformations. Lully, who composed the
earliest known example of the new folia model (an Air des
hautbois dated 1672 in F-V 168), no doubt played a vital
role in the late history of the genre. His folia settings seem
to have exerted a strong influence on French musicians,
contributing to the definition of a distinctive local idiom.
Francesco Corbetta, one of the most celebrated guitar
virtuosos of his time, who emigrated to France in about
1648, might have been in part responsible for this
transformation, as some of the characteristic traits of the
late folia are already discernible in his works. The new
structure developed by Lully and his French colleagues
remained popular in France and England until the end of
the Baroque period. In France it was often called folie(s)
dEspagne, in England Farinell(i)s Ground. Corbettas two
sets of variations (La guitarre royalle, Paris, 1671) began
with a statement of the scheme in ex.2 in which all second
beats were dotted. This threw a powerful secondary accent
on the opening chord, a significant detail that may have
acted as a transition to the new rhythmic structure
employed by the later folia (ex.3). A comparison of like-
numbered bars reveals that the chord progression of ex.3 is
similar to that of ex.2, especially when III is inserted in the
fifth bar. But in the later folia the first accent falls on I, with a
resulting shift in the rhythmic structure. The almost fixed
melody shown in ex.3 moves a 3rd lower than the melody
in ex.2, with second beats dotted, particularly in the odd-
numbered bars. The second-beat accentuation may be the
reason why Taubert (Rechtschaffener Tanzmeister, 1717);
and Mattheson (Der vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739,
p.230) related the folia to the saraband. The later folia has
no ritornellos, is almost always in D minor (transposed in
ex.3 to facilitate comparison), and is generally slow and
dignified. Some Spanish sources contain examples of both
types of folia (E-Mn 811 and 1360, dated 1705 and
1709; E-Bc 1453). In the Reglas y advertencias
generales of Pablo Minguet y Yrol (1754), the earlier type is
called folas espagolas and the later type folas italianas.
Among the earliest examples of the later folia type are
some lute variations in the Pices de luth composes sur
diffrens modes of Jacques Gallot, which date from around
the same times as Lullys Air des hautbois (1672). The new
folia first appeared in Spain in Gaspar Sanzs Instruccin
de msica sobre la guitarra espaola (1674) and in
England in 1682 as the music for The Kings Health, a
political text by Thomas DUrfey, followed by variations for
recorder in 1683 (in Humphrey Salters The Genteel
Companion) and violin in 1685 (John Playfords The
Division-Violin). Like the earlier folia, this type was used as
a scheme for songs and dances, as well as the subject of
variation sets. It appeared as a song in Die grossmchtige
Thalestris of J.P. Frtsch (1690), as A Royall Ode for the
coronation of Queen Anne in 1702 (contained in A
Collection of the Choicest Songs, GB-Lbl G.304), in The
Beggars Opera (1728) and in Le thtre de la foire of Le
Sage and DOrneval (172437); and it is presented as a
dance in the books of Feuillet (1700), Gregorio Lambranzi
(1716; see illustration) and Taubert (1717). The numerous
sets of variations include those by Corelli (1700) and
Albicastro (c1700) for violin, Marais (1701) for viol,
DAnglebert (1689), Alessandro Scarlatti and C.P.E. Bach
(1778) for keyboard, and Vivaldi (1705) for chamber
ensemble. The scheme is quoted in Keisers Der
lcherliche Printz Jodelet (1726), Bachs Peasant Cantata,
Grtrys Les fausses apparences, ou Lamant jaloux (1778)
and the overture to Htellerie portugaise (1798) by
Cherubini. Later works using the folia are Liszts Rhapsodie
espagnole (1863), Carl Nielsens Maskarade (1906) and
Rachmaninoffs Variations on a Theme by Corelli op.42
(1932).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MGG1(O. Gombosi)
MGG2(J. Griffiths)
C.M. de Vasconcelos, ed.: Cancioneiro da
Ajuda (Halle, 1904)
J.M. Ward: The Folia, IMSCR, V: Utrecht 1952, 41527
M.J. Ward: The Vihuela de mano and its Music (1536
76) (diss., New York U., 1953)
D. Kamper: La Gamba: Folia-Bearbeitungen fr
Instrumentalensemble um die Mitte des 16.
Jahrhunderts in Italien, GfMKB: Leipzig 1966, 19095
C.M. Simpson: The British Broadside Ballad and its
Music (New Brunswick, NJ, 1966), 21618
J.M. Ward: Apropos The British Broadside Ballad and its
Music, JAMS, xx (1967), 2886, esp.37
R. Hudson: The Folia Dance and the Folia Formula in
17th-Century Guitar Music, MD, xxv (1971), 199221
R. Hudson: The Folia, Fedele and Falsobordone, MQ, lviii
(1972), 398411
R. Hudson: The Folia Melodies, AcM, xlv (1973), 98119
E. Apfel: Grundlagen einer Geschichte der Satztechnik,
iii: Untersuchungen zur Entstehung und Frhgeschichte
des Ostinato in der komponierten
Mehrstimmigkeit (Saarbrcken, 19767)
J.J. Rey: Danzas cantadas en el Renacimiento
espaol (Madrid, 1978)
C. Cunningham: Ensemble Dances in Early 16th-Century
Italy: Relationships with Villote and Franco-Flemish
Danceries, MD, xxxiv (1980), 159204
A. Silbiger: Italian Manuscript Sources of 17th Century
Keyboard Music (Ann Arbor, 1980), 3944
R. Hudson: The Folia, the Saraband, the Passacaglia and
the Chaconne, MSD, xxxv (1982)
J. Griffiths: La Fantasa que contrahaze la harpa de
Alonso Mudarra: estudio histrico-analtico, RdMc, ix
(1986), 2940
B.B. Mather: Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: a
Handbook for Performance (Bloomington, IN, 1987)