Burlesquing the Ballad

Subject: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Oct 19 - 05:07 PM

Hi,
Enthused by all the help I got with the Derry Down thread for which I am very grateful, my next paper to be published probably next year sometime will be under the above title.

I already have studied a longish list of burlesqued ballads but would welcome any further suggestions, but first just a brief reminder of what a burlesque is in this case: a composition that ridicules or satirises a serious piece of work. It can also satirise a whole genre rather than just a single other work. It can also be done without altering a single word of the original, in which case it is the actual performance that does the satirising. Not quite the same thing as a 'parody' as most parodies are just using the original as a vehicle and not necessarily taking a rise out of it.

Lord Lovell, Roud 48, Child 75.
George Collins, Roud 147, Child 85
Ah, my Love's Dead, Roud 466, Laws K17 burlesquing 'The Lover's Lament for her Sailor'
Villikins and Dinah, Roud 271, Laws M31, burlesquing Wm & D
Molly the Betrayed, Roud 15, Laws L36, burl. Cruel Ship's Carpenter
All Around my hat, Roud 22518, partly burl. Nobleman's Wedding, Roud 567
Green & Yella, Roud 10, Child 12, burl. Lord Randall
George Barnwell Roud 546
Billy Taylor, Roud 158, Laws N11, burl Wm Taylor.
Sam Hall, Roud 369, Laws L5, burl. Jack Hall
Lord Bateman, Roud 40, Child 53
Barbara Allen, Roud 54, Child 84.
Weelya Wolya, Roud 9, Child 20, burl The Cruel Mother.
Botany Bay II, Roud 300, burl. Farewell to Judges and Juries

The above are roughly in chronological order according to when the burlesquing probably occurred.

Subject: RE: Burlesq
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Oct 19 - 05:09 PM

Don't know how the title got curtailed. it should say 'Burlesquing the Ballad' which is at the top of what I sent still.

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Fixed.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 02 Oct 19 - 05:50 PM

https://academic.oup.com/mq/article-abstract/XXXVI/4/551/1122728?redirectedFrom=PDF

I do not have access to the complete paper, but it may be of some use to you if you can access it.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 01:12 PM

Hi Starship
Thanks for the heads up.
Yes at £28 for 10 pages I think I'll give this a miss.

Despite the title 'Ballad Burlesques' it seems to be coming at it from the ballad operas which in themselves were burlesques, but I'm looking specifically at individual ballads that were burlesqued. The writer may cover that in later pages but seems to be heading more towards the theatrical burlesques of which there were many. I'm looking at it from a lower artistic level such as what was sung in the coal cellars and embryonic music halls and indeed eventually on the streets. The last song on my list above however was definitely produced as part of a burlesque drama, 'Little Jack Sheppard' of 1885 as it was a burlesque of an earlier broadside ballad which entered oral tradition.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 02:05 PM

Thanks, Steve.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 02:21 PM

Steve, do you count modern instances such as those of The Kipper Family?

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 02:29 PM

Hi Richard
Not especially, but if I could pull out a good example I would use it. Kipper stuff, all the ones I remember would really be called parodies rather than burlesques, and a lot is based on punning (Wild Mounting time). If there was a really good example that was definitely satirising the original I could use it. Certainly will give it some thought. had you a specific song in mind?

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 03:10 PM

Matt McGinn's "Willie Macnamara"?

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 04:32 PM

Wm has sent me a full copy of the paper flagged up by Starship. Grateful thanks to both.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 04:44 PM

I've just been looking at references to a burlesque version of The Two Sisters, called The Three Sisters, but don't seem to have a copy. Anyone come across it? It might be American.

Will check out the Matt McGinn song, thanks, Jack.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 05:29 PM

Hi Jack
Had a look at Willie MacNamara. What exactly is being burlesqued there?

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 05:48 PM

The verbal patterns of the original (crude stretches to make things rhyme).

Another one which is a bit harder to pin down is the spoof "Twa Corbies" I posted here, "The Corbie and the Crow", where they prefer to eat English corpses because they're fatter. It's attributed to Alexander Carlyle, and if that's the famous one, the minister of Inveresk, it predates Scott's version and is burlesquing whatever Scott used as source material - or did Scott do the burlesquing, making Carlyle's song into something much more serious? If it's by someone else and postdates Scott, it isn't a direct parody because its metre is quite different.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Oct 19 - 07:27 PM

...and the original of "Willie Macnamara" is "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" - Janette McGinn describes how Matt first performed it on pp.10-12 of "McGinn of the Calton".

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 04 Oct 19 - 02:45 AM

Steve: you asked "had you a specific (Kippers) song in mind?"

No, because I haven't heard their songs very often or very recently (from them or from other singers) so have only generic memories. But you did mention "... satirise a whole genre ..." and I seem to recall that some of theirs include references to typical folk song themes rather than being based exclusively on single prototypes.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Oct 19 - 01:36 PM

Burlesque essentially is satirising the original song or genre. I need to look at these examples more closely. I've not seen Scott's 'Twa Corbies' described as burlesque before. Scott was far too serious for burlesque anyway. Scottifying English songs and ballads seems to have been a hobby north of the border from about 1750 to about 1830. Some of Motherwell's contributors were certainly accused of this. McQueen? I think 'Douglas Tragedy' is a perfect example but that's just a hunch. Not a lot of proof around for such matters any more. 'The Corbie and the Crow' certainly looks worth following up.

Not sure if Henry and Sid were satirising the originals. More like parodying I'd say, but I'll give it further thought.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Oct 19 - 02:18 PM

I think you yourself described "The Cruel Mother" as a spoof that got taken seriously, which is what I'm suggesting Scott might have done here (deflationary satire was not his thing). But really we're missing too much data. Fixing the origin of "The Corbie and the Crow" might be the most solvable bit of the puzzle.

Subject: RE: Burlesquing the Ballad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Oct 19 - 03:48 PM

Agreed with that, Jack. I don't think I ever presented Cruel Mother as a spoof that got taken seriously; Barbara Allen, or George Collins or Lord Lovell or Ah my Love's dead perhaps, but not a great ballad like TCM.

We need to get our sleuths, Mick, Jon, Wm working on TCatC.