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15 Sep 00 - 07:06 PM (#298283) Subject: Ballad or Song? From: GUEST,Yum Yum What is the difference? I remember singing a traditional ballad at the All Ireland Fleadh and was told by the adjudicator that it wasn't a ballad but a song. The ballad/song was 'The Plains of Waterloo'. Mind you some adjudicators at Fleadhs seemed only to like to hear themselves speak. Their remarks on singers and songs did nothing to encourage or promote traditional singing. Anyone out there in Mudcat world any suggestions...Yum YUM. |
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15 Sep 00 - 07:26 PM (#298304) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: dick greenhaus When you get down to it, a ballad is a song that tells a story. Period. Malcolm Laws thought it was a ballad, and he probably had more academic clout than the unnamed adjudicator.
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15 Sep 00 - 07:51 PM (#298328) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: McGrath of Harlow I remember at a Fleadh Ceoil song contest a few years ago (and I wasn't a competitor) there was this loud and large adjudicator with a lot of loud and large opinions about things like that as he sprawled there in his chair with his legs akimbo.
But what he hadn't noticed, which took the edge off his opinions, was that he'd left his flies undone and gaping wide open.
Noone told him. Well, they may have afterwards I suppose...
There's some justice in this world.
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16 Sep 00 - 10:19 AM (#298631) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: GUEST,YUm |
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16 Sep 00 - 06:43 PM (#298874) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: GUEST,Yum Yum Sorry about the above, my one fingered typing seems to be slipping up. Re: adjudicators, In 1980, in Buncrana, I was the first competitor to mount the stage(all Ireland Fleadh) I gave my choice of ballads, waited for the adjudicator to select his, clambered onto the stage, took a deep breath. ... The adjudicator jumped up, hands in the air and shouted! this competitor is represting Ulster, why, I do not know, as Ulster does not have a style of singing. All Ulster singers should be confined to the back room of bars and private houses, as far as I am concerned, all ulster singing should be eradicated!!!!.... The adjudicator...Sea--s Duf-y (to show respect to the ass hole) gave first place to his nephew, (who could not sing a note) by the why, his Uncle was the County adjudicator as well. Kevin Mitchell was competing in the same competition, he was recalled twice, to make an exibition of him, and we all know how good Kevin is!! To cut a LONG story short, Joe Mulhern from 'Derry composed a song/BALLAD about the incident, called 'The Free-State Adjudicator', ...... How did I veer off on this trend? anyway.. adjudicators.. who needs them? Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Yum Yum. PS. Seamus Duffy (oops) was banned for a few years (now reinstated) but I must add, he was attacked that day by a number of noted people. say no more ! |
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16 Sep 00 - 09:06 PM (#298963) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: Malcolm Douglas Ulster has as many styles of singing as does any other part of Ireland. I do take the point about adjudicators, though; to my mind, all competitions do is impose a completely arbitrary norm which is inevitably destructive. The Mods in Scotland, for example, have a great deal to answer for, and I've met some very poor singers who won competitions in the north-east of England for reasons which remain a mystery to everybody but the judges... Competition, in the end, is ok in a small sense -just for practice- but a disaster when people start to believe that "winning" is important. Malcolm |
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22 Jul 10 - 12:22 PM (#2949885) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: GUEST Anybody have the lyrics for the Freestate Adjudicator? |
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22 Jul 10 - 01:32 PM (#2949948) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? From: Q (Frank Staplin) Don't know about the competition set-ups, but to mis-quote Virginia Wolfe, a song is a song is a song. Quality of presentation should be the major criterion, not some arbitrary classification. |
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23 Jul 10 - 09:01 AM (#2950592) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? / Freestate Adjudicator From: GUEST,Paul Slade "In technical prosodic parlance we could say that most ballads present in quatrains of alternate cross-rhymed iambic tetrameter and trimeter. However, since the ballad is a swinging, popular form derived from song and folk traditions, it is much better described as a form that comes in four-line verses, usually alternating between four and three beats to a line. The word comes from ballare, the Italian for 'to dance' (same root as ballet, ballerina and ball)." - Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled. Fry's example is: "There's nothing like a ballad song, For lightening the load, I'll chant the buggers all day long, Until my tits explode." |
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23 Jul 10 - 12:22 PM (#2950727) Subject: RE: Help: Ballad or Song? / Freestate Adjudicator From: Young Buchan "but to mis-quote Virginia Wolfe, a song is a song is a song" You're misquoting a very long way, given that the original is actually by Gertrude Stein. |