The Rise of a Native American Balladry Essay -- Music Ballads Native A

The Rise of a native-born American Balladry First, it will be necessary to review some essential points. In theearly days (1600-1770s), importation/adaptation was the dominant process. British songs and ballads were adapted to the frontier experience, Victorian cleanity and Puritan ethics. Songs which contained subject social function which was completely irrelevant to the frontier or unacceptable tomoral and honourable standards were either discarded altogether, new lyricswere added to old melodies, or lyrical changes were made. (Remember, at that placewere no copyright laws at that time). However, even from the beginning,original folk creations began to pull back their place alongside the traditionalisticballads. While some strong similarities to the traditional patterns my beobserved, some important differences emerge. Compared with British ballads,American ballads placed much emphasis on vocal ha rmony and instrumentation(except in the mess regions where women seldom played instruments). The American ballads were more journalistic (Wolfe, in Carr, 19794),that is, they pay much more attention to names (Tom Dula, Sally Goodin,Omie Wise, Floyd Collins), dates (of train wrecks, floods, wars, excavationdisasters) and place. They were certainly more moralistic - in keeping withthe Puritan moral code. Art for arts sake was considered frivolous, e.g.,fiddling around. The idle mind is the devils workshop, therefore clowning is also probably sinful. These attitudes were very pervasive and were instilled in generations of American spring chicken through McGuffeysReader, Poor Richards Almanac and popular literature such as HawthornesScarlet... ...r is an instrument of Spanish origin and wouldlikely have been transported to the new beingness by Spanish colonists. However, the guitar was in the American colonies during the colonialperiod. Malone is probably catch up with in his assertion that the guitar wasrather late in coming into the gray musical tradition however, onceintroduced it soon became the dominant instrument. Again, theSears-Roebuck mail baffle catalog was one of the major sources for theguitar.Works CitedCarr, Patrick (ed). The Illustrated History of unsophisticated Music. garden City Doubleday, 1979.Lomax, Alan. syndicate Song Style, The American Anthropologist 61926-955.Malone, Bill C. Country Music USA Fifty Year History. Austin University of Texas Press, 1985.Nettl, Bruno. An Introduction to Folk Music in the United States, l960).