folketone
Norwegian composer
Definition
Literally 'folk tone' — Grieg's term for the distinctive modal, pentatonic, and rhythmic quality borrowed from Norwegian folk music and woven into his composed works.
Interpretive Guidance
The folketone is not imitation but absorption. In the Lyric Pieces, it appears as unexpected modal inflections — a flattened seventh, a raised fourth — that colour an otherwise tonal phrase. Do not over-accent these as 'special' notes; they should arrive naturally, as if the phrase could not have gone any other way. The folk element should feel inevitable, not exotic.