Regarding Bronson: I've been browsing the intro to an Atkinson book on Amazon. He says Bronson had an adage that a ballad isn't a ballad without a tune, which supports something I have been trying to say. Atkinson says you can study the words as opposed to the words and music together and that at present we don't really have a vocabulary to discuss the two together, but that even though some ballads are sung to many different tunes, each time it is a mixture of words and tune and the two really ultimately work together. I have seen some books which try to use 'semiotics' to analyse words and music together, so maybe this is something for the future as regards folklore.

Regarding commonplaces, Atkinson seems to suggest that this phrase refers to bits of the narrative and in particular to actions rather than to the 'noun phrases' I picked out, which are basically adjectives plus noun as in 'lily-white steed'. He refers to the work of one Flemming Andersen. Atkinson says that the term 'commonplace' is dismissive, interestingly in view of previous comments here.

Atkinson defines commonplaces as 'pieces of ballad text that describe common narrative ideas' and the examples are examples of things that people do eg 'He's ta'en her by the lily white hand'. Another example he gives is 'she kilted her kirtle/she took her mantle her about'. Atkinson says these standard linguistic units have connotations as a result of their appearance in more than one ballad. I won't attempt to summarise any more of what he says.


These examples are not exactly what I was discussing when I raised the 'lily-white steed' example, as that was not strictly a part of 'narrative' , but, before anybody gets hot and bothered, I am glad to have been pointed in the direction of this concept of the 'commonplace' and have added Atkinson to my 'do order from inter-library loan'.

The general preface to the book goes on to make some comments which support the thinking behind my suggestion that folk music might not be 'great art', though I doubt that this is the sort of forum to explore these ideas ie discussions about what is 'great art'.

Thanks again for mentioning the commonplace and for the suggested further reading.