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Subject: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Jon Bartlett Date: 10 Jan 99 - 02:03 AM I've just spent the better part of an hour trying to find out how to find a used set of Bronson (Bertrand Bronson, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. Princeton UP, 1959+)on the web, but it's all beyond me. I'd really appreciate some help from mudcatters - maybe someone has a set they'd like to sell (I'm Archivist of the Vancouver Folk Song Society, which is who it's for) or knows a good source for out-of-print folk books I could try. Thank you all. Jon |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Jan 99 - 03:19 AM Hi, Jon - here are a couple of sites to check: Old Songbooks for Sale Bookfinder Bibliofind Those last two are the largest databases of used books I've been able to find on the Web. don't know if any of them have Bronson, but keep checking them. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Sandy Paton Date: 10 Jan 99 - 03:21 AM That's a pretty tough order. I checked Bookfinder and see only the second volume of the four volume set for sale by Black Oak Books in Berkeley, CA - and for that one volume they are asking $150! Bookfinder, by the way, scans a number of used book sites, including Powell's in Portland, ABE, and more. Bibliofind, which is not included in the Bookfinder searches, is temporarily off-line, so I couldn't look there tonight. It's a good site, however. Try clicking on this sometime tomorrow Bibliofind. I see these prices and realize how fortunate I am that Bronson sent me copies of each of the last three volumes (I had purchased the first one) in return for my sending to him tapes of all of the Child ballads I had recorded in the field (North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, the Ozarks, Canadian Maritimes, etc.) I could never afford to replace those books now. Good luck to you in your search. I hope the Vancouver Folksong society is richer than most similar societies! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Sandy Paton Date: 10 Jan 99 - 03:36 AM OOPS! Joe's Bibliofind address turns out to be more up-to-date than mine. I used to use my Bibliofind bookmark almost every night (before I started spending so much time with Mudcatters), but have neglected it lately. Joe's works fine, I see, and I'm going to have to replace mine with the one he provides. It works! There are a number of good alternatives, if neither of these works out for you. For instance, KBC will lead you to a slew of good links, including Advanced Book Exchange, Bibliofind, and many individual bookstores that maintain internet addresses. You'll find yourself hooked, I promise you! Have fun. Sandy again. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Liam's Brother Date: 10 Jan 99 - 09:49 AM Hi Jon! Just thought I'd mention that in 1976 Princeton University Press put out an abridged 1-volume edition entitled, The Singing Tradition of Child's Ballads. I feel fairly sure that you know that already.
All the best, |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bill D Date: 10 Jan 99 - 01:31 PM A friend of mine finally got a set after several years of looking...don't give up.... |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bruce O. Date: 10 Jan 99 - 02:17 PM When I first looked for Bronson's 'Traditional Tunes' on the bookfinder site, about 6 months ago (it had a different URL then), there were the first 2 volumes offered, but they didn't stay listed long (and weren't cheap). The single copy of volume 2 for $150 has been there for a long time, but the abridged version has never appeared there. [I've been checking there on an average of about every two days for several months. I did get a copy of Bronson's 'The Ballad as Song' there, and other copies are still listed.] |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Sandy Paton Date: 10 Jan 99 - 04:03 PM Bruce (and others): You will be amused, I think, by this brief story. When Bronson was planning his The Singing Tradition..., he wrote asking what criteria I thought he should use in making the selections. I replied, "Choose the most singable versions!" His response was "Oh, goodness! I don't want to produce a popular songbook!" It was an honor to know him. He was a classic example of the true gentleman, in the best sense of the term. Sandy |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Jon Bartlett Date: 11 Jan 99 - 12:57 AM Bless you all! I've tried the sites mentioned, only found the one that Sandy reported at $150. I've bookmarked the sites for later trolling. In thinking about it, $150 ius not a great deal of money, when you consider how obviously arre the book is. What's a generator for your car, re/re, installed? $200? A water punmp for God's sake? Maybe we're spoiled! The food reviews in the Globe & Mail seem to think a meal for two is a bargain under $100. Thanks, Liam's bro, for the Singing TRad (which we have in the archives). I've wanted to dig a little further since I'm writing a little piece on Lamkin (yer favourite mason), and I wanted to see whether Child, Bronson and MacColl are right on the money when they talk about two versions, Scottish (which tells us that he's a mason) and Northumberland (which doesn't). I'm not sure he was a mason at all - I think the song's about something darker. Thanks again, friends - and I sure envy Sandy his memories of one of the greats. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Sandy Paton Date: 11 Jan 99 - 01:31 AM Jon: You're right, of course, about the price. Those volumes were $70 each when they first came out. Understandable, too, considering what they must have cost to produce. I recall being absolutely astounded by the fact that they elected to include all of the texts, as well as the music! My problem is that I have yet to adjust to the fact that a decent automobile now costs three times what I paid for my first house, and twice what I paid for the second one. Sandy |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Liam's Brother Date: 11 Jan 99 - 10:16 AM Nothing to do with finding copies of Bronson (by the way, if you find 2 sets, I'll take the other) but you might find this amusing as a comment on the cost of production: I was standing in the art gallery at Mystic Seaport one day admiring a scale model of a ship. Two guys came up behind me. The first said, "Wow, $2,500 for that!" The other, very tongue-in-cheekishly, said, "Yes, considering that he only gets half the money and that it took him about 500 hours to build, $2.50 an hour is pretty expensive."
All the best, |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bruce O. Date: 02 Feb 99 - 06:00 PM The first two volumes appeared on the list at www.bibliofind.com this morning, but I didn't see it until about 1:30 PM. I tried to order by e-mail at that time, but they had already been sold. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bruce O. Date: 08 Mar 99 - 01:10 PM A set of all four volumes of Bronson appeared on www.bookfinder.com the Sunday before yesterday. I got delivery of them today, in like new condition. You have to persevere if you really want to get them. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Liam's Brother Date: 08 Mar 99 - 02:38 PM Congratulations, Bruce. I know you have a keen interest so it's clear that they couldn't have come into better hands.
All the best, |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bruce O. Date: 08 Mar 99 - 03:07 PM Thanks, Dan. It only took about 9 months of looking. I've already found from it that Hector MacNeill's "My Boy Tammy" (Scots Musical Museum, #502, 1803) is the earliest version of "My Boy Billy" with music. Whether it's the original version of "Billy Boy" or not, I don't know.
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Liam's Brother Date: 08 Mar 99 - 03:25 PM ...and you may never. That's part of the joy of it, as you well know. All the best. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Bruce O. Date: 08 Mar 99 - 03:49 PM I've known for a long time that there a lot of things I'm never going to know, but the thrill is probably as much in the chase, as in the capture. I forgot about a titleless "Billy Boy" of two verses printed by Hans Hecht in 'Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts (c 1776)'. [See the Opie's 'The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'. Where they note that MacNeill's song was in the Edinburgh 'Bee' Magazine, 1791.]
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Ferrara Date: 09 Mar 99 - 08:46 AM We have a friend whose mom-in-law had the abridged 1-volume version reprinted for her as a Christmas present. A brand-new book. A pleasure to use. Not cheap, naturally. Don't know if they reduce the price for multiple copies. :-) |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: GUEST,magjam Date: 28 Oct 07 - 08:19 AM Does anyone have a copy of the Heritage CD-rom? |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Susan of DT Date: 28 Oct 07 - 01:08 PM Magjam Heritage Muse has produced a CD Rom set of Child and is working on Bronson, which is proposed to be cross clickable with the Child. I would not want to guess what year it will actually be ready. |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Ross Campbell Date: 11 Jan 08 - 09:57 PM The Heritage Muse CD-rom and Audio CD appear to have come out in 2002 - cost $125 for individual use - seems like a lot of money for a couple of bits of plastic, but when you think of the work that went into the project, and compare with the current price of the original volumes, it's got to be a bargasin. I got my Child Ballad set in the early seventies - Dover edition @ £2.50/volume - though when I was in New York in 1979, the Dover reject shop had them at half that!. The Bronsons took longer. A bookseller in Blackpool found me the first two volumes for about £20 each, volume 4 appeared somewhere years later and my friend Debby McClatchy found volume three on offer at a festival in the States. She had to fight for it, and has my eternal gratitude for doing so! Heritage Muse home page The website suggests that downloadable versions would be available by 2004, but this link may not yet be live. Ross |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: Joe Offer Date: 12 Jan 08 - 03:55 AM Oh, Ross, you're the one Debby broke the set for. I understand Judy Cook bought the other three volumes. I wonder if Judy ever completed the set. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: GUEST,Peter Shepheard Date: 12 Dec 09 - 10:15 AM The Loomis House reprint of Bronson's The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads is available through Springthyme both in UK and for Worldwide distribution - priced at £22 per volume (paperback) and £28 (hardback): We have also been distributing the Loomis House reprint of Child's: The English and Scottish Ballads for several years - since the first volume was published in 2001. Bronson: Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads - Special Bargain: POST FREE (to UK and Ireland) : BUY ALL FOUR VOLUMES TOGETHER and be offered a FREE CD with fully searchable files for the complete collection: 2,200 pages of tunes and texts with notation for 4,120 tunes. The bargain of the century! The Singing Tradition - that is, Bertrand H Bronson's The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads, is a single-volume, abridged edition of Bronson's four volume The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. To create this edition, Bronson selected those tunes and texts which had the strongest representation in the oral tradition, excluding those from the original collection which only existed in print. The volume has an excellent new introduction where Bronson analyses the essential unity of a ballad text and tune and he shows how ballad tunes have evolved to produce tune families. His introduction to the modal structure of tunes in the Anglo-American tradition is essential reading for singers and students of the ballad tradition. Dick Greenhaus of Camsco Music was the driving force behind the Bronson reprint - obtaining permission from the original publishers Princeton University Press and then working with Loomis House Press to arrange the republishing. Loomis in the United States had already set about republishing Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads and we at Springthyme in Scotland arranged to distribute the Loomis Child volumes through our website. The four volume set of Bronson's Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads became available earlier this year and now the condensed Singing Tradition in November 2009 is an alternative for those without the funds or the bookshelf space for the full set. All these are available from Springthyme - including a special bargain price on the four volume set of Bronson: BUY ALL FOUR VOLUMES TOGETHER and be offered a FREE CD with fully searchable files for the complete collection: 2,200 pages of tunes and texts with notation for 4,120 tunes. The bargain of the century! Have a look at: Bronson: Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads More about Bronson's 'Traditional Tunes' & 'Singing Tradition' For years it has been almost impossible to get the full set of Bronson (and the cost could be well over £1000) and the condensed edition has been near £100 (paperback) and up to £400 for the hardback. Congratulations to Dick at Camsco! Peter Shepheard Springthyme |
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Subject: RE: I'm Looking for a Set of Bronson From: dick greenhaus Date: 12 Dec 09 - 06:20 PM One addition: The Loomis House Child is not just a simple reprint..it's an entirely new edition, with some important features: a) Child's original volumes were published over a period of years. After publication of the first volume, corrections and additions to that volume were added to subsequent volumes; so that each subsequent volume had appendices referring to previous volumes. Loomis House has reorganized all this, placing the notes, additions and appendices with the ballad they refer to, making it much easier to find things. b)Child had very little interest in tunes, and only provided a few, which were all in the final volume. The Loomis House edition moves to tunes back where they belong, accompanying the appropriate version of each ballad that had a tune. c) Loomis House added all the tunes that were available to Child through his sources, but that were not included in Child's collection. |
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