Folk process

[1] The phrase was originally coined by musicologist Charles Seeger, father of the folk singer Pete Seeger,[2] but the underlying concept goes back to 1907, when Cecil Sharp[3] observed that the transmission of folk songs and the forms they took when they were collected and attested was the result of three factors: continuity, variation, and selection.

The traditional Irish lament "Siúil A Rúin", with its macaronic mixed language Irish and English lyrics: I wish I was on yonder hill 'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill And every tear would turn a mill Is go dté tú mo mhuirnín slán was reinterpreted in the nineteenth century United States and turned into the song "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" or "Buttermilk Hill", which has several variations, which preserve different parts of the original, as in a version collected by Walt Whitman: I'll trace these gardens o'er and o'er, Meditate on each sweet flower, Thinking of each happy hour, Oh, Johnny is gone for a soldier.

One famous example of the conflict between the desire of artists to assert copyright and the folk tradition is the case of the ballad "Scarborough Fair".

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional British folk song with many variations, which was reworked by Simon and Garfunkel for their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; however, unlike the artists of previous generations, Simon and Garfunkel asserted sole authorship of the song.

Professionally composed music, such as the parlor ballad "Lorena" by H. D. L. Webster, were transmitted by performance and became subject to the folk process.