Kathmandu- Folk Music can consist of Folk Songs (music with lyrics) or instrumental Folk Music (often played to accompany Folk Dancing). Although there are many contemporary artists writing new folk music in traditional styles, most people think of Folk Music as being the older Traditional Music itself. Folk Music often has a National flavour to it with different countries or cultural groups having their our distinctive styles, though there can often be an overlap in styles either between neighbouring countries or following the movement or emigration of large numbers of people. The origins of the oldest Folk Tunes can be obscure and they are frequently communicated by imitation, handed down from generation to generation often without the aid of music notation, or passed on by cultural interaction of folk musicians with other communities and perhaps adapted and changed over time. There is such a wide range of Folk Music that it includes a number of specialist categories e.g. Nursery Rhymes are Folk Songs sung to and by children, National Anthems and Patriotic Songs are frequently Folk Songs used to express national solidarity.

The topic of Folk Music is so wide-ranging (with many of the world’s countries having one or more groupings of musical traditions) that it is almost impossible to describe folk music in any depth in an article such as this. But with the mfiles website having a significant focus on Classical and Film music, it is natural for us to explore where folk music has influenced these styles of music, and even a brief examination reveals that Folk Music, Folk Songs and Folk Styles have often been used or adapted for these genres of music. Many Classical Composers have used Folk Melodies and/or Folk Styles in their works. In some cases composers have simply found the music of a particular country to be a source of inspiration