Ballad

A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. It is a rhythmic saga of a past affair, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, political (affected by the previous three types mentioned, refers to either glorifying the exploits or causes of a particular leader or group, and is typical of totalitarian political systems), almost inevitably catastrophic, which is related in the third person, usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines ('ballad meter') and simple repeating rhymes, and often with a refrain.

Broadsheet ballads

Broadsheet ballads (also known as street ballads), cheaply printed and often topical, humorous, even mildly subversive, were hawked in English streets from the 16th century; the legends of Robin Hood and the pranks of Puck were disseminated through broadsheet ballads.

Related Topics:
Robin Hood - Puck

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thomas Percy, Robert Harley, Francis James Child, Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg were early collectors and publishers of ballads from the oral tradition and broadsheets. Percy's publication of Reliques of Ancient Poetry and Harley's collections, such as The Bagford Ballads, were of great import in beginning the study of ballads. Some of the collectors also wrote new ballads. Many ballads are referenced in scholarly works by their number in Child's compilation (see the Child Ballads). The American poet Carl Sandburg was influenced by ballads, and published a collection he had assembled as The American Songbag (1927).

Related Topics:
Thomas Percy - Robert Harley - Francis James Child - Walter Scott - James Hogg - Reliques of Ancient Poetry - The Bagford Ballads - Child Ballads - Carl Sandburg

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The form of a ballad has been imitated in modern poetry— most notably by the Canadian ballads of Robert W. Service, in Kipling's 'Road to Mandalay' or in 'Casey at the Bat.' 'The Ballad of the Bread-man', is Charles Causley's re-telling of the story of the birth of Jesus. Many modern written musical ballads are in the repertory of American folk music.

Related Topics:
Robert W. Service - Kipling - Casey at the Bat - Charles Causley - Jesus - Folk music

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murder ballads

A specific subgenre of the broadsheet ballad is the murder ballad. Usually told from the point of view of the killer, murder ballads typically recount the details of the crime — who the victim is, why the murderer decides to kill her, how she is lured to the murder site and the act itself — followed by the escape and/or capture of the murderer. Often the ballad ends with the murderer in jail or on their way to the gallows, occasionally with a plea for the listener to learn from the evils committed by the speaker. Most of the murderers are male and the victims women. An exception to this general rule would be 'Henry Lee' (a duet with PJ Harvey) and 'The Curse of Milhaven' on the Murder Ballads album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Related Topics:
PJ Harvey - Murder Ballads

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Often the details and locales for the murder ballad change over time, reflecting the audience and the performer. For example, "The Wexford Girl"http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiWXFRDGRL.html is essentially the same ballad as "Knoxville Girl'http://www.bluegrassnet.com/tgbs/K/Knoxville_girl.html with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~