Hi Doc John,

Thanks. Good to see you as well.


>There's a site dedicated to Cisco and they would dearly love to hear from you and >anyone else who knew him.

Thanks again. I'll check it out.

>Mary Q of Scots did indeed have 'Four Marys' and two were named Beaton and Seaton; >you'll be glad to know that there wasn't a Hamilton (nor a Carmichael) and no report of >infanticide. The Russian story was taken up enthusiastically by John Knox who gave >Mary a rough time.

Interesting. I guess these other old Celt names were added in transmission.

>Ballad does mean in the narrowest sense a narrative song but the word has been so >extended to 'Ballad of the Boll Weevil' - great song but hardly a narrative.

The version I know is in the first person and has an order of verses. I guess you could
say it wasn't a narrative but it is a story in a sense. It follows the progression of
the damage the weevil caused and wound up with the farmer's wife's dress.

The ballad in a 20's,30's or 40's is often called a "standard". These were principally show songs that were slow and romantic. They generally contain sophisticated harmonies and are found in the repertoire of jazz singers. In the context of a musical show, they were contrasted from rhythm numbers (dance routines), comedy numbers, or scene songs (between two or more people). There was a very famous "Ballad of Mack the Knife"
employed by Weill and Brecht in the Three Penny Opera but this was in a folk-style closer to the folk ballad. Sinatra, Bennett, Stafford, Fitzgerald, Crosby were its practitioners.
The themes were generally unrequited love, love, or just paeans in general such as "You'll Never Walk Alone" by R and H.

I think the clue to the use of the term lies in the fact that many of these "standards" fit into a theatrical context to enhance the "book" of a show. The "ballad" as we know it
tends to be slow and the love songs we call "standards" do tell a story at least in the mind of the singer/character. So the word "ballad" somewhere crossed over into the musical theater.

Frank Hamilton