The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128012 Message #2862197
Posted By: Jim Carroll
11-Mar-10 - 07:02 PM
Thread Name: What defines a traditional song?
Subject: RE: What defines a traditional song?
Traditional song = song that has passed through the oral tradition - i.e. by word of mouth,, but print has had some effect, origin usually author unknown, but this isn't a defining factor. Passage from area to area/community to community brings about changes which re-identify the song with wherever it is taken up - accents, dialects, geographical references. Takes on new tunes. The various communities take it up and adopt it as their own so it becomes a Norfolk - Suffolk - Yorkshire - wherever song, taking on different personnel, geographical locations, trades, (weaver, farmer, spinner, soldier, ploughboy.....etc). Same songs even turn up in different English-speaking countries, England, Ireland, Scotland, America, Canada - most prominent in Britain are the Scots songs that have made their way into the Northern Irish tradition. They even cross language barriers, Danish, Spanish, German, Russian. Example of probably the most widely travelled song is The Unfortunate Rake which became Soldier, Sailor, Cowboy, Young Girl, Young Man, Trooper Cut Down in His/Her Prime, Streets of Laredo, House of the Rising Sun, St James Infirmary, The Whore's Lament... dozens and dozens of different areas and identities. It even broke into two different genres - one about a woman, the other about a man. Barbara Allen, describes as "The old Scotch song" in the mid-1600s by Samuel Pepys, has been documented in over 200 distinct versions. Style is irrelevant, some are found in jazz and blues versions and others ended up (or even originated) in the music halls. Start there. Jim Carroll