Child Ballads Research Articles

Patterns of Structure and Role Relationships in the Child Ballad in the United States

THE STUDY of the folklore of any group involves three interrelated steps: collection, comparison, and interpretation. Collection is more than the amassing of a body of materials. It also includes any other field data which point out how the lore reveals or integrates the life of the group: folk typology (what categories of expression the group itself uses); context and condition (when certain pieces occur, to whom they are addressed, and what response or range of responses they call forth); functions and rhetoric (how specific pieces or types work), and so on. Through field data of this sort materials collected may provide means by which comparison may begin and interrelationships may be established. Only through comparative analysis can the expressive styles or habits of the group be determined. Here one may compare various pieces of lore from the group in terms of content or subject, linguistic form, dramatic structure, role relationships, and so on. Or one may look at those pieces which have a provenience wider than the group to compare the collected pieces with reportings from other areas in order to notice similarities or differences (borrowing a term from Von Sydow, I have elsewhere described this process as oikotyping1). This comparative process reveals and clarifies the expression patterns of the group on the levels of linguistic and motor behavior, dramatic action, and valuational (especially aesthetic) concepts. The manifestation of these patterns involves rejection of certain forms or subjects, as well as acceptance and elaboration of others. Such reactions function more covertly than overtly. Inasmuch as the reactions are conditioned by internal state (of the group and its culture) confronted by external stimuli, the metaphor of the biological organisms seems most appropriate. Consequently, I have termed these positive or negative reactions The patterns revealed on the comparative level are the manifestations of one or more tropisms. Tropisms are active forces; collected materials are the results of the configuration of tropisms on materials created or transmitted in the past but observed in the present. The purpose of this comparative scheme is to point out as far as possible all of the tropisms of the group. These patterns or tropisms when articulated and superimposed by the folklorist will be termed the tropotype of the group.2

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. II. Bertrand Harris Bronson. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey; Oxford University Press, London, 1962.) xx + 565 pp. $25.00. £10.

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. II. Bertrand Harris Bronson. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey; Oxford University Press, London, 1962.) xx + 565 pp. $25.00. £10.

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with Their Texts, According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America: Vol. II. Ballads 54 to 113

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with Their Texts, According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America: Vol. II. Ballads 54 to 113

The Folk Songs of Britain. Vols. IV, V (The Child Ballads)

The Folk Songs of Britain. Vols. IV, V (The Child Ballads)

The Library

The Library Get access ANCIENT BALLADS , Vol. II: Child Ballads 53–93, compiled and edited by Helen Hartness Flanders . Pennsylvania University Press ; London : Oxford University Press , 1962 ; pp. xii, 314 ; 80s. CHALMERS BURNS CHALMERS BURNS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 10, Issue 4, April 1963, Pages 159-b–160, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/10-4-159b Published: 01 April 1963

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

Folk Songs of Britain—The Child Ballads. Vols. IV and V. Collected and edited by Peter Kennedy and Alan Lomax. (Caedmon Records, 461 Eighth Avenue, New York, 1961.) Two discs. TC 1145/1146. 12 in. LP.

Folk Songs of Britain—The Child Ballads. Vols. IV and V. Collected and edited by Peter Kennedy and Alan Lomax. (Caedmon Records, 461 Eighth Avenue, New York, 1961.) Two discs. TC 1145/1146. 12 in. LP.

Lucy Stewart, Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire. Vol. I, Child Ballads. Collected, edited and annotated by Kenneth S. Goldstein. (Folkways Records, 121 West 47th Street, New York, 1961.) FG 3519. 12 in. LP.

Lucy Stewart, Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire. Vol. I, Child Ballads. Collected, edited and annotated by Kenneth S. Goldstein. (Folkways Records, 121 West 47th Street, New York, 1961.) FG 3519. 12 in. LP.

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads)

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads)

The Library

The Library Get access ANCIENT BALLADS Traditionally Sung in New England, compiled and edited by H. H. Flanders : Vol. I, Child Ballads 1–51. Pennsylvania University Press , 1960 ; pp. 344 ; 80s. CHALMERS BURNS CHALMERS BURNS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 8, Issue 5, May 1961, Pages 199-a–199, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/8-5-199a Published: 01 May 1961

Commonplace and Memorization in the Oral Tradition of the English and Scottish Popular Ballads

BALLAD scholarship has paid insufficient attention to the fact that there are basically two ballad forms' represented by the Child ballads, the couplet form and the quatrain form, which constitute two different ways of telling a story. Ballad scholarship has also failed to recognize the significance of, and the evidence for, the apparent development of the quatrain form out of the couplet form. This essay is based upon a study of the style of all the Child ballads except the Robin Hood and Border raid ballads. I have tried to account for the manner in which the two ballad forms developed and have proposed a new theory of ballad tradition based upon the conclusions drawn by Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord from their study of the oral-epic tradition of Yugoslavia. Although I have unfortunately not had time to relate my study to studies of text-tune relationship and of continental ballad tradition, I believe that the continental ballads could be studied profitably in light of the account of oral tradition offered here. The couplet ballad's preponderant dialogue, incremental repetition and refrain suggest an origin in dramatic improvisation. Gradually, as the ballad detached itself from improvised dramatic performance and the singer ceased to have the aid of actors and chorus, the couplet form developed into a quatrain form characterized by a complex system of commonplaces that became so pervasive that the singer could and did improvise ballads by their aid knowing only a story outline.

Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. 1. Bertrand Harris Bronson. (Princeton University Press, Princetown, New Jersey; Oxford University Press, London, 1959.) xxxvii + 465 pp. $25.00; £10.

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. 1. Bertrand Harris Bronson. (Princeton University Press, Princetown, New Jersey; Oxford University Press, London, 1959.) xxxvii + 465 pp. $25.00; £10. - Volume 12

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

Bertrand Harris Bronson. The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with Their Texts, According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. I, Ballads 1 to 53. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. xxxvii+465 pp. $25.

Bertrand Harris Bronson. The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with Their Texts, According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Vol. I, Ballads 1 to 53. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959. xxxvii+465 pp. $25. - Volume 13 Issue 1-Part1

FOLKSONG

FOLKSONG Get access The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, with their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America, ed. by Bertrand Harris Bronson. Vol. I, Ballads 1–53. ( Princeton University Press, N.J.; Oxford University Press, 1959, £10.) M. D.-S. M. D.-S. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 41, Issue 2, April 1960, Pages 195–198, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/41.2.195 Published: 01 April 1960

Review: The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

Review: The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads