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The songs in this section are my selections from various sources.
American traditional songs come from a variety of sources.
The earliest traditonal songs were, of course, those of the native Americans,
followed by those of the Spanish and French explorers and finally by those of the English colonists.
As I have explained in the
Introduction,
this collection is based on my own experience and heritage. I have no knowledge of
any native American language, my experience of Spanish is very slight and my French
(learned in high school) grows dimmer by the year. My collection therefore consists mainly
of songs derived from the Anglo-American tradition as well as some songs learned from
Afro-American traditions.
Traditional songs in the Anglo-American tradition are usually divided into two general categories: narrative ballads and lyric songs. These categories represent the extremes of content: ballads stress action and lyric songs feature emotions. There are, however, instances where the content is a combination of both ballad and lyric elements. The narrative ballads are, as you would expect, story songs that are often very similar in content and presentation to the folk tales sometimes called "fairy tales". They have originated primarily in Germanic areas of Europe: Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles from where they migrated to this country. Ideally these stories would be told by a third (or sometimes a first) person narrator detailing one action after another. Collectors working in the southern Appalachians found that, due to the remoteness and isolation of many areas there, many ballads known in England were till alive and well. Many of these ballads were collected by Cecil Sharp on his trips through the mountains in 1816 and were subsequently published in his book English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1917). It should be noted that Sharp had a strong English bias and, in at leat one case, appropriated the very American ballad " Wild Bill Jones" into his collection although he listed it as a song and not a ballad. The lyric songs are more expressive of emotions and feelings. These include everything from love songs (successful and unrequited) like "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" to work songs connected with various forms of labor (free, prison or slave) such as "Ain't No Cane on the Brazos" and everything in between, including songs usually sung for, or by, children like " Clementine". Ideally these songs would stress private emotion with very little physical action. Between these two extremes is a spectrum of styles with most songs containing various combinations of emotional dialog and narrative. Some scholars include a third category of "dialog songs" midway between the ballad and the lyric song. A good example of this type of song is " The Wagoner's Lad" which is often called a ballad by some but is considered a lyric song by many others. Some of these songs are very old, particularly the narrative ballads. These were documented in William Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time as well as in Francis J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, published in five volumes in the late 19th century. Child's numbering system is a standard reference for the ballads that are often refered to as Child #xx. In modern times, ballads and lyric songs were collected by Cecil Sharp both in England and America and published in One Hundred English Folksongs (1916), English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1917) and other publications. Another good source is Bertrand Harris Bronson's The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads (1959-1972). Specialized categories of songs are not included in this section. Hymns and Spirituals, Christmas Songs, Contemporary Singer/Songwriter's Songs, Legacy Songs (songs based on traditional models by Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family, etc.) and Sea Chanties have been placed in their own sections. Bawdy Songs are, of course, also a very specialized subject and so are placed in another separate section. Some songs I learned from recordings and performances by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, the New Lost City Ramblers, the Beers Family, Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger and other modern singers and the older (mostly 78 rpm) recordings of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, Buell Kazee, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, The Carolina Tar Heels, The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Dock Boggs, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Uncle Dave Macon and others. Other songs were learned from print. |