Well, perhaps not all that recent.

Digging into the sources of some of what we now think of as traditional songs and ballads, there is one theory (at least one) that at least some of the older ones sprang from the writings of the early trouvères, troubadours, and minstrels. Some time ago, I thoroughly researched this and wrote a two-part article on it for "Victory Review."

The "wandering minstrel" thing was probably going on long before this, but beginning in the eighth century, there was a surge in the number of people, almost entirely young men, who turned to this trade. Without going into the reasons for the increase, which is pretty fascinating stuff in itself, those taking to the road with a headful of songs and poems were among the best educated (young monks who had decided to turn their backs on the Church and the monastic life). Their main aim was to see something of the world, and their means of support was to use their poetic and musical skills to entertain, be it in castles, manor houses, village squares, or wherever they could pick up a few coppers, a meal, or a bed for the night. Most of them carried portable instruments, such as small harps, psalteries, lutes, citterns, rebecs, et al, with which they accompanied their songs, and often, their poetry recitations as well (contemporary poet Robert Bly frequently recites his poems while strumming chords on what looks like a bouzouki). Indeed some Classical scholars maintain that epic poetry, including such as things as recitations from the Iliad and the Odyssey, were commonly chanted to the accompaniment of a lyre or similar instrument.

For various reasons, it is conceivable, indeed quite likely, that many songs and ballads, especially those with versions found all over Europe (English, French, German, and Scandinavian versions of "Lord Randal," or ballads telling the exact same story with the exact same dialogue structure, for example—and a number of others we are familiar with) had their origins in the fertile imaginations of some trouvères, troubadours, minstrels, skalds, bards, or minnesingers as far back as a millennium ago. It is an established fact that they were responsible for the early songs and poems dealing with Courtly Love and had a hand in making that a sort of "ideal" form of love. The residue of that has found its way into the folk songs and ballads we sing today (pining away for the unattainable "true love," dying for love, etc.).

So instrumental accompaniment is not all that recent.

But there was a lot of singing done that was not accompanied as well. There is a long-standing tradition of unaccompanied singing, as we well know. It is not an "either/or" thing, and probably never really was.

Unfortunately, with a lot of contemporary singer-songwriters especially, I don't hear too many songs that could actually stand alone, without the inevitable "whack-a whack-a whack-a" on a guitar.

Don Firth