Walloon Folk Music

Walloon folk music is the traditional music of Wallonia, the francophone south of Belgium: the songs, dances and instrumental repertory of its villages, carnivals, miners and festival societies, sung in Walloon and French. Fiddle, diatonic accordion, bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy carry dance tunes documented in manuscripts back to the eighteenth century, while a strong choral tradition preserves narrative and occupational songs. The Walloon revival was quieter than the Flemish one, but performers such as *Coïncidence*, *Remy Dubois*, *Luc Pilartz*, *Rue du Village* and *Claude Flagel* kept the repertory in circulation, and the balfolk dance revival has since given it a new young audience.