The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century. Arthur Rackham ( 19 September 1867 &ndash 6 September 1939) was a prolific English book illustrator “The Three Ravens” ( Roud 5 is a folk Ballad, printed in the song book Melismata compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in A ballad is a Poem usually set to Music; thus it often is a story told in a Song. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Francis James Child ( February 1, 1825 &ndash September 11, 1896) was an American scholar educationist and folklorist, The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The collection was published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads between 1882 and 1898 by Houghton Mifflin in 10 Volumes. Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational Publisher in the United States. The ballads vary in age; for instance, a version of "A Gest of Robyn Hode" was printed in the late 15th or early 16th century, and the manuscript of "Judas" dates to the 13th century. " A Gest of Robyn Hode " is Child Ballad 117 it is also called A Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode in one of the two oldest manuscripts of it "Judas", Child ballad 23 dates to at least the 13th century and is one of the oldest surviving English Ballads. The majority of the ballads, however, date to the 17th and 18th century; although some probably have very ancient influences, only a handful can be definitively traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words. While many of them had been individually printed, e. g. as broadsides, Child's collection was far more comprehensive than any previous collection of ballads in English. Printed lyrics of popular songs were extremely popular from the 16th century until the early 20th century English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States (However, there were comprehensive ballad collections in other languages, like the Danish collection Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, which Child referred to in his comments. This is a list of folk song collections including pioneer and notable work in collecting folk songs Danmarks gamle Folkeviser is a collection of (in principle all known texts and recordings of the old Danish popular ballads )
One Child number may cover several ballads, which Child considered variants of the same story, although they may differ in many ways (as in "James Hatley"). James Hatley is Child ballad 244 existing in several variants Conversely, ballads classified separately may contain turns of phrase, and even entire verses, that are identical.
The Child Ballads deal with subjects typical to many ballads: romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes. On one extreme, some recount identifiable historical people, in known events. On the other, some differ from fairy tales solely by their being songs and in verse; some have been recast in prose form as fairy tales. A fairy tale or fairy story is a fictional Story that may feature folkloric characters (such as fairies, enchantments]] often involving A large part of the collections is about Robin Hood; some are about King Arthur. Robin Hood is an archetypal figure in English folklore, whose story originates from medieval times but who remains significant in popular culture where King Arthur is a legendary British leader who according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders A few of the ballads are rather bawdy.
For a listing of all the Child ballad types, and links to more information on each individual type, see List of the Child Ballads. This list of the Child Ballads contains all the 305 ballad types in Francis James Child 's collection Popular English and Scottish Ballads, collected in the 19th
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Modern folk adaptations
Many Child Ballads remain a live part of contemporary post-folk culture. British Electric folk groups such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span drew heavily on the Child Ballads in their repertoires. Electric folk is a genre of music in which British and Celtic Traditional music is played in a Rock music style Steeleye Span is a British Electric folk band formed in 1969 and remaining active today Harry Smith included a number of them into his Anthology of American Folk Music; they figured prominently in the early recordings of Joan Baez, and they crop up even in the work of bands not usually associated with folk material, such as Ween's recording of "The Unquiet Grave" (Child 78) under the title "Cold Blows the Wind", or versions of "Barbara Allen" (Child 84) recorded by the Everly Brothers, Art Garfunkel, and (on the soundtrack of the 2004 film A Love Song for Bobby Long) John Travolta. Harry Everett Smith ( 29 May 1923, Portland Oregon &ndash 27 November 1991, New York City The Anthology of American Folk Music is a 1952 six-album compilation of eighty-four American folk recordings from 1927 to 1932 Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York) an American Folk singer and Songwriter known Ween is an Alternative rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class " The Unquiet Grave " is an English Folk song in which a young man mourns his dead love too hard and prevents her from obtaining peace " The Ballad of Barbara Allen " also known as "Barbara Ellen" "Barb'ry Allen" "Barbriallen" etc The Everly Brothers ( Don Everly, born Isaac Donald Everly February 1 1937 Brownie Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American Singer-songwriter and Actor of Romanian Jewish ancestry A Love Song for Bobby Long is a 2004 Independent film based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps
Besides the use of individual ballads, in Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Captain Cully, a robber chief, sets out to make himself another Robin Hood by immortalizing himself in ballads. Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20 1939) is an American fantasist and author of novels nonfiction and screenplays The Last Unicorn is a Fantasy Novel written by Peter S Beagle and published in 1968. He misidentifies another character as "Mr. Child" and tries to get him to collect the songs, and tells him that writing them himself is legitimate.
In 1960 John Jacob Niles published The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, in which he connects folk songs which he collected throughout the southern United States and Appalachia in the early 20th century to the Child Ballads. John Jacob Niles (b Louisville, Kentucky, April 28, 1892; d Lexington Kentucky, March 1, 1980) was an Appalachia is a term used to describe a region in the eastern United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama, Many of the songs he published were revived in the Folk music revival, for example "The Riddle Song" ("I gave my love a Cherry"), which he connects with Child No. "The Riddle Song" also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry" is an English Folk song, apparently a Lullaby, which was carried by settlers 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded". Riddles
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Barbara Allen
See also
Further reading
- Child, Francis James. This is a list of folk song collections including pioneer and notable work in collecting folk songs The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300000 references to over 21600 songs that have been collected from Oral tradition in the English language from all over The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 5 Volumes (Dover Publications, 2003)
- Bronson, Bertrand Harris. Dover Publications is an American book Publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife Blanche The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, with Their Texts, According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and North America, 4 volumes (Princeton and Berkeley: Princeton University and University of California Presses, 1959, ff. ).
- Bronson, Bertrand Harris. The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976).
External links
- Text of the collection
- Many ballads with commentary and background music.
- A short list of "early" Child ballads dating to before 1600
- An extended discussion of pre-1600 Child ballads
- "Recorded Sources of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" Includes alternative titles
- Child Ballads translated in Italian by Riccardo Venturi
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