Folk songs

Folk songs have their own features. First, they are created orally and exist in many variants: every performer may change them. Second, they contain a refrain (naqorat) — a part repeated after each stanza; it gives the song melody and unity. Third, the language is simple, lively and its imagery comes from the people’s life. Songs in written literature are made by a specific poet, the author is known and the text stays fixed (for example Turob To‘la’s poems that became songs). Folk songs are often built from stanzas of two or four lines. They preserve the people’s dreams, labour and customs and pass them on to young people.