Tune-family

In folk music a tune-family is "a seeming multiplicity of melodies" reducible "to a small number of 'models' or sets". One can think of the models or sets as deep structures. Often "different tunes are the same" and "the same tune is different" (Burke 1978, p.124-5).

Idiolectical (individual) or dialectical (based on context or on locale) variations may exist. Different families may also arise from the use of stock structures or of formulae such as stock phrases and motifs.

See also modal frame (music) and matrix (music).

Sources

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
  • Van der Merwe, P. (1989). Origins of Popular Style. Oxford.
  • Burke (1978).
  • Hatch and Millward (1987).