A Production of The Folk Life ( Inc. 1976)
John McLaughlin and Jamie Downs, Editors
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Book Reviews: The Digital Folk Life. Org
The Singing Tradition of Child’s Popular Ballads: An abridged edition of The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads in one volume, by Bertrand Harris Bronson. (Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press for CAMSCO Music, 2010).
Reviewed by John McLaughlin, PhD – Feb/March 2010 for www.thedigitalfolklife.org
This is the book which overturned the entire apparatus of literary study of Francis James Child’s English & Scottish Popular Ballads, the 19th century work of scholarly research which had established the important of these previously-largely disregarded scraps, flotsam and jetsam of what was perfunctorily acknowledged was an oral-traditional form, but which had not, until Prof Bronson’s study of the musical backgrounds and accompaniments to the texts themselves, been recognized for what they were, prompts for musical performance of the texts.
Once Bronson had made clear exactly how the ballads were completely intertwined with their tunes, the floodgates to popular musical treatment of the ballads were opened wide, by the developing folk-rock traditions best exemplified by Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, on one side of the Atlantic, and by The Byrds – working with Bob Dylan’s music also - on the other side.
In sum, no poet or musician working with the Child Ballads can ignore Bertrand Bronson’s work, and with this new (paperback) edition, he or she will have little excuse to do so. It is a very welcome addition to the library of works on the ballad which continue to throng our shelves, and every single one of them knows how much they owe to Bertrand Bronson.
Score: 10 out of 10.