In the first part of this paper, three New Zealand Maori scales and a possible fourth were derived from interval associations, using strict criteria of melodic usage. An unexplained fact is the coincidence of these three scales with the plagal forms of the medieval phrygian, ionian, and aeolian modes. Historical connection with ancient Greece seems too unlikely a hypothesis to be entertained, and exposure of the Maoris to the medieval modes through early missionary activity can also be ruled out. An alternative explanation is that the ancient Greeks and the New Zealand Maoris shared common principles in their music which led to the evolution of similar scales, but such principles seem impossible to demonstrate. The conclusion must be that there is, as yet, no acceptable explanation for the parallels observed in this paper between Maori scales and those of medieval Europe and ancient Greece.

I would like to begin, if I may be allowed, upon a personal note. It has been my privilege to be a member of the International Folk Music Council since its inception in 1947 – a founder member in fact. In those twenty-two years, fellow members have become dear friends. To meet them, in the various capitals of the world over the years, has added a savour and an extra dimension to life which I would have been very sorry to miss. I would like to say what a delight it is to me personally to welcome you now to my native city of Edinburgh.

Most of the many different ethnic groups living within Uganda have some use for flutes of one kind or another. With very few exceptions, however, the flutes are all endblown instruments either with a straight-cut sharp rim (blown across the rim obliquely) or of the notched variety. Wachsmann (1953) gives informative descriptions of most of these together with the few exceptions; the globular (ocarina type) instruments and a long transverse flute (Vern. Ludaya or Lusweje) played among the upland Gisu in Eastern Uganda. Elsewhere in East Africa transverse flutes — presumably of Arab origin — are played among coastal tribes in Kenya and possibly among the Pogoro of East Central Tanzania. Culwick's illustration of a three-stop flute played by the latter people shows two of the stops at one end and the third at the other – thus suggesting that it is a side blown flute. What he means, however, when he writes that “it is played in the normal manner” is not clear, since apart from the instances cited, indigenous transverse flutes can be found nowhere else in East Africa.

To this day Liszt's Des Bohémiens et de leur Musique en Hongrie first published in 1859 remains the only attempt to deal with the music of the Hungarian gypsies in a comprehensive manner. Despite its factual errors and romantic exaggeration, this enthusiastically and powerfully written study created a tradition that continues to exert a strong influence both in Hungary and abroad, often obscuring the results of a century of research in Hungarian music generally and that of the gypsies in particular. Only a few of the many papers written since Liszt's are thorough in their treatment of details. Hungarian musicohistorical works and publications on peasant music, especially those of Bartók, Kodály, Ervin Major, and B. Szabolcsi, however, provide some additional information. The modern point of view has been stated most clearly and categorically by Bartók, who in 1931 examined the question: Gypsy Music? Hungarian Music?

That folk song found its way into Mahler's music is often stated but never demonstrated. The term 'folk song' must only be taken to cover the kind of song absorbed by him during his youth; later in life he did not concern himself with folk tunes. The songs of his homeland, on the border between Bohemia and Moravia, include (a) Moravian songs with archaic features, (b) Czech and German-Bohemian folk songs with clearly defined stylistic elements from the eighteenth century, and (c) songs of the bordering German lands of Bavaria and Silesia. Analysis has shown that Mahler used formulae from Moravian folk song, including the lydian fourth, and that there is a basic relationship between his music and the folk songs of his homeland. His melodies tend to be rhythmically free and to use repeated notes. Rhythmic features, such as short notes on strong beats, syncopation, and feminine endings, point to Czech folk song. Repetition of short formulae, and chain- or open forms occur, as in Czech and Moravian folk song. His writing for strings aims at producing the characteristic tone of folk fiddles in Iglau, and displays the heterophony between voice and accompaniment characteristic of that region.

The earliest musical documentary sources of Bohemian folk music date from the fourteenth century; but up to the end of the eighteenth century the volume of such sources is small. Despite insufficient historical evidence, however, it has been possible to determine the main developmental trends of earlier times from studies of literary and iconographic evidence and, in particular, from the wealth of church hymns for congregational use.

From the beginning, folk music did not pursue a course separate from that of professional performance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in particular, the inter-relationship between these two was highly beneficial to both. The range of folk-musical instruments was roughly the same as that required for professional performance. Only a few instruments—bagpipes and other rural types—were not used by both cultures. The gradual switch from the bagpipes and whistle-flutes, so popular in the Middle Ages, to the stringed instruments of subsequent centuries, affected folk and professional performance equally. Only the wind instruments of the gothic and renaissance periods failed to find their way into Bohemian folk music on a large scale.