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Popular Ballads

Popular Ballads. Why “popular”?. “Popular” vs. “Elite” or “High” Culture. http://www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com/contents.htm. Definition. Long narrative song The “Old Ballads”: Francis Child and other 18th- and 19thc collectors created the canon of traditional ballads.

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Popular Ballads

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  1. Popular Ballads

  2. Why “popular”? • “Popular” vs. “Elite” or “High” Culture http://www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com/contents.htm

  3. Definition • Long narrative song • The “Old Ballads”: Francis Child and other 18th- and 19thc collectors created the canon of traditional ballads http://www.l-armonia.com/

  4. Characteristics • Impersonal; third person narration; focus on events and dialogue • Recurrent tropes (eg. “Chesnut steed”; “maid in green”) • Supernatural elements • Interpersonal conflict • Violence http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/iconog.htm

  5. Form • Ballad stanza: four lines, alternating iambic tetrameter (four stresses) and iambic trimeter (3 stresses) • Rhyme: abab • Verses and refrain http://mh.cla.umn.edu/prosstre.html

  6. Authorship • The “dancing throng”? • Individuals, in accumulation • Versions vs. variants http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/LutePics/Hakkapeliitta.jpg

  7. Transmission • Sung in families, at gatherings • Sung in inns or pubs • Travelling singers • Sold on “slips” (single sheets) or in chapbooks (small, cheap books) by street sellers • Sold from stalls • Collected by middle class collectors and published in books http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/distribution.html

  8. A ballad “slip”, or broadside http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/lis/lib/guides_and_tutorials/guides_to_collections/collection_guide-flanders/broadsides_chapbooks/

  9. A longer ballad, still one sheet http://www.english.ucsb.edu/emc/ballad_project/uncropped.asp?id=20273

  10. Oral vs. Print • What characteristics would a text need to be passed down orally? • Either/or: a false division http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/distribution.html http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/illustrations.html

  11. Graphic stories: A collection of stories, each based on a ballad Contemporary Treatments

  12. The Folk revival: Steeleye Span; Frankie Armstrong; Joan Baez http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/armstrong.html http://www.pogues.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1228 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/13/multimedia/ipix/baez-dylan.jpg

  13. Mary Hamilton (Child 173) • variants http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=166

  14. “The Four Marys” and history http://www.crawlplanner.com/showphoto.php?photo=1137

  15. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots http://www.bitterwisdom.com/ladyjanegrey/execution/wood.jpg

  16. Execution of Lady Jane Grey http://www.bitterwisdom.com/ladyjanegrey/execution/postcard2.jpg

  17. youth and inexperience • separation from family • vulnerability to those in authority http://www.ladybrooke.com/costume/corpspique/images/Woman-at-Her-Toilet---1600-.jpg

  18. Joan Baez’s version http://img.verycd.com/posts/0608/post-449737-1156100720.jpg

  19. For discussion • What happens in this story? • What motivates the Queen? • Why does speak to the King in the way she does? • How are we to regard Mary Hamilton? http://images.npg.org.uk/OCimg/weblg/0/2/mw04202.jpg

  20. Tam Lin (Child 39) http://bestoflegends.org/art/nielsen.jpg

  21. Myths of faery lovers • Marie de France’s “Lanval” http://www.refracted-light.net/avalon.jpg

  22. Reworking the story

  23. Frankie Armstrong’s version http://www.volcanotheatre.co.uk/Images/frankiearmstrong2.gif

  24. Tam Lin by Kentucky artist Daniel Dutton http://www.dandutton.com/full_index/tam_lin_oc.html

  25. For discussion • How does this ballad combine uncanny elements with realistic concerns? http://store.dragoncon.net/images/Lith-1996.jpg

  26. http://www.elfland.it/TAMLIN_2_IMAGES.JPG

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