South Carolina ballads : with a study of the traditional ballad to-day

HIS little book is the result of almost a score of years of browsing in the fascinating field of traditional balladry. On the side of theory, it starts with the popular ballad as we have it exhibited in Child's great collection, and works forward in time to modern instances and contemporary analogies, with all possible stress on music as an essential part of ballads. What is said of communal composition makes for itself only one claim: it is written with malice toward none, and is at least goodnatured.The second part contains a small sheaf of surviving South Carolina ballads and two traditional songs. The ballads number fourteen in all, with forty-three variants and twelve tunes. They were collected at odd times by the writer and by other interested persons. To these helpers specific acknowledgment is made in the head-notes to the ballads. Special thanks are due to Margaret Dick Smith, who transcribed and edited nearly all of the tunes.In addition to the ballads printed below, at least four others are authentically reported for South Carolina, but owing to the accidents and disappointments of ballad-collecting they could not be recorded. They are "The Three Crows" (Child, No. 26), "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (Child, No. 54), "The Lass of Roch Royal" (Child, No. 76), and "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (Child, No. 278).Much of the material of the following pages has been printed in the columns of the Columbia State and as a bulletin of the University of South Carolina. It is gathered together and reshaped here as another small addition to the growing total of American balladry. REED SMITH UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Based upon many years of browsing in the fascinating field of traditional balladry, this little book starts with the popular ballad as we have it exhibited in Child’s great collection and works forward in time to modern instances and contemporary analogies, with all possible stress on music as an essential part of ballads. The general discussion is followed by a small sheaf of surviving South Carolina ballads, fourteen in all, with thirty-seven variants and eleven tunes. It will be found a charming addition to our many collections of folk-songs. PREFACE CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS I. BALLAD AND FOLK-SONG II. DRAMATIC, LYRIC, AND NARRATIVE TRAITS III. COMMUNAL COMPOSITION IV. COMMUNAL TRANSMISSION V. THE ROAD DOWNHILL VI. THE BALLAD IN LITERATURE VII. THE BALLAD IN AMERICA VIII. FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF "THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS" SOUTH CAROLINA BALLADS BALLADS SONGS APPENDIX