Filk music

Originally "filk music" was a typo for folk music in a never-published essay on the influence of Science Fiction and Fantasy on folk music.

Fandom being what it was (and is), the term was adopted for the songs, and musical parodies enjoyed by SF conventioneers. Practitioners are known as filkers.

The phrase 'science fiction themed parody folk music' fails to capture the full enormity of filk, not least because it stretches all the way from writing "funny" (or very deep) words to established or original melodies, through writing new (and witty) words to a tune another filker has created, to all-out Filk Opera - Gilbert and Sullivan have been filked a few times, so has Cats.

Filk can even tell an original story such as the "Before the Dawn" song cycle.

Filk is still sung in late night filk circles at Science Fiction conventions but there are also dedicated Filk conventions each year in the US, Canada, UK and Germany.

External links

• http://www.filker.org
• http://www.filk.co.uk
• http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/filkfaq.htm
• http://www.interfilk.org/filk.htm
• news:rec.music.filk newsgroup
• Open Directory Category: Filk (http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Styles/Filk/)