Question: What’s the No. 1 ear-worm in the history of Western music?
Answer: “Folia.”
Never heard of it? You’ve probably heard it, or at least some echo of it.
Early music mavens will recognize the name from its use in, and resulting nickname for, Arcangelo Corelli’s Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12, published in 1700. Ultra-mavens will point to Jean-Baptiste Lully’s “Les folies d’Espagne” from 1672.
The tune – more a chord progression, really – is by that most prolific of composers, “anon.” It dates from the late 1400s, first played in Portugal or a neighboring region of Spain. It first circulated as a written score in Spain, titled “La Folía.”
In a literal English translation, its name would be “Follies,” but in most treatments it doesn’t sound frivolous. Originally an upbeat peasant dance tune, it slowed and often took on a moody cast as composers adopted and adapted it over the centuries.
Which composers? To Lully and Corelli, add Marin Marais, Francesco Geminiani, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Salieri, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff and, according to an online list I once perused, some 600 others. And they’re just the ones who’ve quoted “Folia” more or less directly. Some sonic sleuths hear intimations of the tune in a lot more music, classical and otherwise.
Andrea Valentino, writing for the BBC, explores the long and winding history of “Folia:”
(via https://www.artsjournal.com)
My favorite “Folia” recording is “Teatro Lirico,” an album by guitarist-lutenist Stephen Stubbs and friends. The set ranges from Corelli and his Italian contemporaries to a suite from Slovakia by an unknown composer/arranger to Stubbs’ improvisations on the tune.
Here’s a taste:
And here’s the friskier 15th-century version, as recorded by an ensemble led by Jordi Savall:
Letter V 