'Cultivated' folk music: More invention than discovery? Appropriation and mediation of songs in East Bavaria

Folk music cultivation was long excluded as a field of study for music and song research because, as "simply folklorism," it did not seem worthy of sp ecial attention. In this article, I examine Volksmusikpfelge in its working procedures and self-understanding, using a concrete case from East Bavaria . In doing so, it becomes clear that both written sources and the Bavarian Broadcasting Station have played an important role in Oberpfalz (East Bavar ia) folk music cultivation since the end of Second World War. The concept o f "folk song" that underlies this movement can be traced to Josef Pommer. T hose active in folk music cultivation place singing and music-making agains t a larger social-critical background. In spite of all their emphasis on tr adition, changes in stylistic elements and forms of interactions can also b e recognized from about 1970 in the cultivation movement.