What is a ballad

1
What is a ballad?

• a song that tells a story, or - to take the other
  point of view -- a story told in song. More
  formally...a short poem, adapted for singing,
  simple in plot and metrical structure, divided
  into stanzas, and characterized by complete
  impersonality so far as the author or singer is
  concerned."

2
Are composed of

• often have verses of four lines
• usually have a rhyming pattern either  abac   or
  aabb or  acbc (usually the easiest to rhyme)
• repetition often found in ballads
• entire stanzas can be repeated like a song's
  chorus
• lines can be repeated but each time a certain
  word is changed
• a question and answer format can be built into a
  ballad one stanza asks a questions and the next
  stanza answers the question
• Ballads contain a lot of dialogue. 
• Action is often described in the first person
• Two characters in the ballad can speak to each
  other on alternating lines
• Sequences of "threes" often occur three kisses,
  three tasks, three events, for example

3
Simply Stated

• A ballad tells a story.
• (ii) The emphasis is on action and dialogue, not
  description or characterization.
• (iii) A ballad has a simple metrical structure
  and sentence structure.
• (iv) It is sung to a modal melody.
• (v) It derives from an oral tradition, and is of
  anonymous authorship.

4

• On Top of Spaghetti
• 1. On top of spaghetti,A2. All covered with
  cheese,B3. I lost my poor meatball, C4. When
  somebody sneezed. B
• 5. It rolled off the table,6. And on to the
  floor,7. And then my poor meatball,8. Rolled
  out of the door.
• 9.It rolled in the garden,10. And under a
  bush,11. And then my poor meatball,12. Was
  nothing but mush.
• 13.The mush was as tasty14.As tasty could
  be,15.And then the next summer,16.It grew into
  a tree.
• 17.The tree was all covered,18. All covered with
  moss,19.And on it grew meatballs,20.And tomato
  sauce.
• 21. So if you eat spaghetti,22.All covered with
  cheese,23.Hold on to your meatball,24 Whenever
  you sneeze.

5
How to Construct a ballad

• Start with a key phrase...
• ...that pops into your head,
• ...or strikes you when somebody says it,
• ...and is connected with something you feel
  strongly about.  
• It may be a line of melody or words, or both.
• Grab a tape recorder (or your computer mike)
• and save this rough fragment immediately.
• Build on this phrase.
• Images related to the phrase
• Similar phrases
• Rhyming words
• A tune that fits the phrase

6
Cont

• Ask yourself questions.
• Who is saying this phrase?
• ...Why? ...Where? ...To whom?
• What is the reply?
• How did they get into this situation?
• Consequences
• Keep going over the song with repeated singing,
  natural phrases will come...  
• What rhymes with the key phrase?
• Do these rhyming phrases trigger more images?  
• Construct verses.
• Most usual is 4 lines, with the 2nd line rhyming
  with the last.
• Arrange the verses into sequence.  .

7
Cont.

• Cobble together more verses to make a story.
• The initial fill-in verses may be Yuk! but they
  give your imagination a framework.
• Sing them over and over until, days (months?)
  later, better words come to you.  
• Keep going over the song.
• Evolve the tune by chanting the verses.
• Are any of those chord sequences in Lesson 1
  suitable?
• Rewrite the cobbled phrases with repeated
  singing, natural phrases will come.  
• Do some editing.
• Throw out unnecessary verses.
• Add a chorus.
• ...or a refrain, or instrumental break.
• Or turn the verse with that initial key phrase
  into a chorus.
• The chorus gives the audience time to absorb the
  storyline...
• ...and lets them release all the emotions you
  have aroused in their souls

8
Meter

• Meter is the rhythm of a ballad. It describes
  where the emphasis is placed--what words are
  emphasized, and what words aren't. Almost all
  ballads have verses consisting of four or six
  lines, and use one of two basic Meters 4-3-4-3
  or 4-4-4-4. Here's an example of the 4-3-4-3
  meter. Try speaking the verse out loud
• Haud your tongue, ye auld fac'd knight, Some ill
  death may ye dee! Father my bairn on whom I will,
  I'll father nane on thee.
• There are four emphasized words in the first and
  third lines, and three emphasized words in the
  second and fourth lines--in short, 4-3-4-3.
  Here's an example of the 4-4-4-4 meter, where all
  lines have four emphasized words
• I am a man upon the land I am a silkie on the sea
  and when I'm far and far frae land my home it is
  in Sule Skerry.

9
Meter Cont

• If you look back through the examples shown in
  the previous sections, you'll see that most of
  them fall into one of the above meters. If you
  can't figure out what meter a ballad is in, try
  speaking it out loud and listening to the rhythm
  of your speech. An important thing to note about
  ballads, however, is that few of them have
  absolutely perfect meter in all of the verses.
  Almost every ballad has a verse with one syllable
  more or less. In Kempowyne, which falls roughly
  under the 4-4-4-4 meter, a number of lines
  contain one or two syllables more or less than
  they should.
• Perfect meter  isn't essential what is important
  is that the meter work with the music. Many
  ballads which sound rather awkward when they're
  spoken sound beautiful when set to their proper
  tunes the rhythm of the words compliments the
  movement of the tune so that you don't notice any
  "imperfections" in the meter.
• Older ballads tend more towards the 4-4-4-4
  meter, while more of the later period ones have
  the 4-3-4-3 meter.

10
Rhyme

• Most ballads use one of three different types of
  rhyme abac, aabb, or abcb.  
• The first type of rhyme, abac, is found in
  ballads that include a chorus in the verse the
  first and third lines of each verse rhyme, while
  the second and fourth lines, the chorus, are the
  same in every verse. Here's an example
• She went down below the thorn Fine Flowers in the
  Valley And there has she her sweet babe born And
  the green leaves they grow rarely She's ta'en out
  her little penknife Fine flowers in the valley
  And there she's twinned her sweet babe of it's
  life And the green leaves they grow rarely

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Rhyme cont.

• In the second type, aabb, the first and second
  lines rhyme with eachother, as do the third and
  the fourth lines. For example
• As I was walking al alane I saw twa corbies
  makin' mane the tane untae the tither did say
  where shall we gang and dine the day?
• It's possible that this type of ballad evolved
  from the first the burden was dropped, and two
  verses compressed into one. Hind Horn is another
  example of this type of rhyme structure.

12
Rhyme

• The third type of rhyme, abcb, is the most common
  type of rhyme found in Child's ballads. In this
  rhyme scheme, only the second and fourth lines
  rhyme
• Her breath was strang, her hair was lang And
  twisted twice about the tree And with a swing she
  came about "Come to Craigy's sea and kiss with
  me" (example http//www.studyguide.org/ballads.ht
  mrhyme)
• This type of rhyme is the easiest there's only
  one pair of matching words to worry about per
  verse rather than two, which gives you more
  freedom in writing the verse content.

13
Repetition

• The oldest type of repetition is the repetition
  of entire verses, with only slight changes made
  to each one. Many of the earliest extant ballads
  use this type of repetition, lending weight to
  Hodgart's theory that ballads evolved from choral
  dance songs (check out The Ballads by MJC Hodgart
  for more on this theory.) The Maid on the Gallows
  is the most mind-numbingly repetitious one to be
  found Babylon and Lord Randal also use this type
  of repetition (to much better effect). Even in
  later ballads that aren't composed entirely of
  repeated verses, one can often find examples of
  this in miniature
• O still my bairn, nourice, O still him wi' the
  pap! He winna still, lady, for this nor for that.
  O still my bairn, nourice, Oh still him wi' the
  bell! He winna stil, lady, till ye come down
  yoursel.
• This type of repetition is a good way of building
  tension within a ballad as you build toward a
  climax, although it can become tiresome if
  overused.

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Rep. cont

• Another common type of repetition used in ballads
  is "question/answer" repetition. The two verses
  cited above are a good example of this. This type
  of repetition is found in a great number of
  ballads indeed, some, like "The Maid on the
  Gallows", consist of nothing else. The ballad
  Edward uses this question and answer routine to
  great effect, and their are a great many ballads
  that contain at least one example of this.  
• Burdens, or choruses used in each verse, are a
  third common type of repetition used in ballads.
  With burdens, the first and third lines of a
  verse rhyme, while the second and fourth line are
  the same for all verses
• There were twa sisters sat in a bow'r Binnorie, O
  Binnorie There cam a knight to be their wooer. By
  the bonnie mill-dams of Binnorie. He courted the
  eldest wi' glove and ring Binnorie, O Binnorie
  But he lo'ed the youngest aboon a'thing. By the
  bonnie mill-dams of Binnorie.
• As a rule, of thumb, the older the ballad, the
  more repetition is involved. Many ballads use
  more than one type of repetition.

15
Structure

• Most of the ballads that have survived to the
  present day can be divided into verses of four
  lines. This number can vary--sometimes a 6 or 8
  line verse is inserted into the ballad (Tam Lin).
  As mentioned above, the science of ballad writing
  was not an exact one. One old scottish woman
  interviewed around the turn of the 20th century
  said that as long as the content remained the
  same, small words and phrases could be changed
  with impunity.
• As balladry was originally an oral tradition, the
  use of traditional motifs and phrases was heavily
  relied upon to "flesh out" a ballad story. In a
  process that has often been compared to Homer's
  poetic technique and that of other classical
  poets, the singer had a number of stock
  phrases--"grassy green", "milk-white steed",
  "massy gold", "maiden fair", "and an angry man
  was he," "silk so fine", to name but a few--to
  use when singing a ballad. If he or she forgot
  the exact wording of a certain line and it didn't
  include any action important to the ballad, a
  stock phrase could easily be slipped in. This
  process was seen at work by collectors of ballads
  in Scotland at the end of the last century two
  people might give them the same ballad with
  slight differences the gist and content were
  roughly the same, and much of the different
  material consisted of stock phrases.

16
Structure cont

• A curious thing to note about some
  ballads--especially the later ones-- is that much
  of the essential action occurs in the non-rhyming
  lines, which makes on the spot improvisation
  easier. Though this is by no means a universal
  occurrence, it happens often enough to be
  noticeable if you look.
• Ballads contain a lot of dialogue. Action is
  often described in the first person "As I was
  walking all alane..." "Oh where have ye been, my
  dearest dear" "Quhy dois your brand sae drip wi'
  bluid", etc. Even in ballads told from a more
  impersonal third person point of view, dialogue
  is always included, usually between the two main
  characters. As mentioned above in the section on
  Repetition, one character and the other can speak
  in alternate verses, or one character will say
  something in the first two lines of a verse and
  the other reply in the second two lines. This
  standard alternation can also be a mnemonic aid

17
Structure

• Another mnemonic aid is the pervasive use of
  threes in ballads. In Kempowyne, the main
  character has to win three kisses from Dove
  Isabel. In Edward, the mother asks her son three
  times why his sword is so bloody, and after
  Edward states his intention to go into exile, she
  asks him what he intends to (1.) Do with his
  property, (2.) Leave to his children and wife,
  and (3.) Leave to his mother. In Babylon, three
  sisters are given a life or death choice, and
  their fate is described in 3 verses apiece. Lord
  Wearie is gone three months in Lamkin, and The
  Wife of Usher's Well is visited by her three
  sons. Little Sir Hugh's mother calls three times
  before her son replies. Such examples are endless.