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A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America.
"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.
"The Unquiet Grave" is an English folk song in which a young man's grief over the death of his true love is so deep that it disturbs her eternal sleep. It was collected in 1868 by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 78. One of the more common tunes used for the ballad is the same as that used for the English ballad "Dives and Lazarus" and the Irish pub favorite "Star of the County Down".
"The Wild Rover" is a very popular and well-travelled folk song. Many territories have laid claim to having the original version.
"Geordie" is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child ballad 209 and Number 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. In recent times, popular versions have been performed and recorded by numerous artists and groups in different languages, mostly inspired by Joan Baez's 1962 recording based on a traditional version from Somerset, England.
"Hughie Graham" or "Hughie Graeme" is Child ballad number 191, Roud 84, existing in several variants. It was collected by Robert Burns. There is a printed version in the Bodleian Library under the title "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh The Grime". It is dated between 1672 and 1696. The Burns version was printed by James Johnson (engraver) in the Scots Musical Museum 1803. It is in volume 4 song no 303, pages 312 and 313. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library lists several other versions in printed collections, including "Scottish Ballads" (1829) by Robert Chambers.
"The Twa Magicians", "The Two Magicians", "The Lady and the Blacksmith", or "The Coal Black Smith" is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson's Noctes Ambrosianae #40. It was later published as number 44 of Francis James Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. During the 20th century, versions of it have been recorded by a number of folk and popular musicians.
"Lady Franklin's Lament" is a traditional folk ballad indexed by George Malcolm Laws and Steve Roud. The song recounts the story of a sailor who dreams about Lady Franklin speaking of the loss of her husband, Sir John Franklin, who disappeared in Baffin Bay during his 1845 expedition through the Arctic Ocean in search of the Northwest Passage sea route to the Pacific Ocean. The song first appeared as a Broadside ballad around 1850 and has since been recorded with the melody of the Irish traditional air "Cailín Óg a Stór" by numerous artists. It has been found in Ireland, in Scotland, and in some regions of Canada.
Glasgerion is Child ballad 67,, existing in several variants.
"Robin Hood and the Beggar" is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is a pair out of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form part of the Child ballad collection, which is one of the most comprehensive collections of traditional English ballads. These two ballads share the same basic plot device in which the English folk hero Robin Hood meets a beggar.
A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. First staged in 1641 or 1642 and first published in 1652, it is generally ranked as one of Brome's best plays, and one of the best comedies of the Caroline period; in one critic's view, Brome's The Antipodes and A Jovial Crew "outrank all but the best of Jonson."
"King John and the Bishop" is an English folk-song dating back at least to the 16th century. It is catalogued in Child Ballads as number 45 and Roud Folk Song Index 302.
"A Sailor’s Life" is an English language folk song which describes the attempt of a young woman to find her lover, a sailor. Eventually she hears that he has drowned and mourns him.
"A Ballad upon the Popish Plot" is an early modern English broadside ballad about a fabricated conspiracy known as "The Popish Plot" that occurred between 1678 and 1681 in the kingdoms of England and Scotland, during a period of widespread social and cultural prejudice against Catholicism. The song records an indictment of the Plot—a crucial consequence of national religious conflict that arguably began with the English Reformation—in the form of the ballad, one of the most time-honored and influential styles of popular music.
Amintor's Lamentation for Celia's Unkindness is an English broadside ballad from the 17th century that tells the story of a young man who falls in love the coy Celia who does not love him back, and leaves the country to avoid him. The ballad begins with Amintor lamenting her refusal to return his love, and concludes with Celia's response, in which she accuses Amintor of using charm and arts to try to steal her purity. Sung to the tune of "Since Celia's My Foe." Copies of the broadside can be found in the British Library and the National Library of Scotland. On-line transcriptions of the ballad are also available for public consumption.
The Wandering Virgin is an English broadside ballad from the late 17th century. The narrator warns fellow virgins not to be too coy unless they also want to wander the world round looking for the lover who has given up on their courtship. She tells the story of how she dresses like a man and travels over sea, land, desert, and forest to find her love. Sung to the tune of Over Hills and High Mountains, or Ah! Chloris Awake, depending on the broadside. Copies of the broadside are available in National Library of Scotland, the University of Glasgow Library, the British Library, and Magdalene College, Cambridge.
"The Banks of Sweet Primroses", "The Banks of the Sweet Primroses", "Sweet Primroses", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning", "As I Rode Out" or "Stand off, Stand Off" is an English folk song. It was very popular with traditional singers in the south of England, and has been recorded by many singers and groups influenced by the folk revival that began in the 1950s.
Van Diemen's Land or Henry the Poacher, Young Henry's Downfall, Beware Young Men. is an English transportation ballad. It was widely published in broadsides during the 19th century, and was collected from traditional singers in England during the twentieth century. It has been recorded by many singers influenced by the British folk revival.
"When Jones' Ale Was New" is an English folk song about men of various trades drinking at an ale-house or tavern. Other titles include "Joan's Ale is New" and "When Johnson's Ale Was New". Originating in the 16th century CE it has been collected frequently from traditional singers in England, and has been found occasionally in Scotland and the USA. It has evolved over the years, and is popular as a chorus song in folk clubs in England.
The Lark in the Morning is an English folk song. It was moderately popular with traditional singers in England, less so in Scotland, Ireland and the United States. It starts as a hymn to the ploughboy's life, and often goes on to recount a sexual encounter between a ploughboy and a maiden resulting in pregnancy.
References
- ↑ Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts, Part 1. Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons, 1878 (pg. 209-15).
- ↑ William Chappell, The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time. Toronto, Ontario: Dover, 1965 (pg. 345-7)
- ↑ Paul-Gabriel Bucé, Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1982 (pg. 250)
- ↑ Robert Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland. Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1904 (pg. 267-270).
- ↑ Ebsworth, 210
- ↑ Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, Life and Limb, Topic Records, 1990.
- ↑ Magpie Lane, Six For Gold. Beautiful Jo Records, 2002