Ebook: The Ballad of Tradition

Oxford Univeristy Press, 1957. — 329 p.One could not well begin to write a book about ballads without a certain boldness, for the difficulties in the way of studying the subject are apparent to all who have approached it; and one must inevitably finish such a book in a humble state of mind. The difficulties do not vanish when one has coped with them. 'Ballad' has been used as a name for a number of different forms in music and poetry, each of which has as much right as any other to be so called! It is not easy to establish a definition of what we call nowadays the popular or traditional ballad; it is still harder to find how it came into being; and it is quite impossible to make a satisfactory canon of specimens. Yet no one denies the existence of such ballads, and few lovers of music and poetry can resist their charm.Preface
The Nature of Ballads
British Ballads and Their Continental Relations
Ballad Stories
Ballad Tunes
Ballad Characteristic
Ballads as a Record of the Past
The Nature of Ballad Variation
The Origin and Development of the Ballad as a Musical and Poetical Form
Ballads and Broadsides
Some Phenomena of American Balladry
Appendix. Specimen Ballads of American Origin
Selected Bibliography
Index of Ballad Titles
General Index