Description
La Folia (literally “madness”) was a Portuguese dance from the renaissance,
and it has been used by many composers in the ensuing centuries.
This a-cappella 4-voice version uses three altos and one bass.
It explores a couple of alternative modes for the theme: Octatonic and Dorian.
Singing of folia this old tune repeats all day
and even in the new Octatonic mode
we can sing folia all the day long in this five time
and we sing it in Octatonic mode
madness all is madness while we’re singing of la folia
and in five time and Octatonic mode
can’t leave off la folia it will drive me round the bend soon
and I’ll shortly change to some other mode
Sing it in the Dorian sing it in the Dorian
oh I love the Dorian it makes me dream on
The sound sample (on the Musica Neo page) and the video version below
is performed by the composer (multitracking)