~A MULTICULTURAL APPROACH~
A ballad is a folk poem which flourished in the late Middle Ages. It was originally meant to be sung and handed down orally from generation to generation. Ballads are narrative poems and they are music. Words and music are closely dependant on one another.
Listen to this version of a very popular ballad: Lord Randall. Focus on the music first. (Several versions of the song can be found surfing the net)
Where do you think the ballad comes from?
Are there some words which don’t sound “standard English” at all?
Now read the text while you listen to the ballad.
‘O WHERE ha you been, Lord Randal, my son?
And where ha you been, my handsome young man?’
‘I ha been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.’
‘An what met ye there, Lord Randal, my son?
An wha met you there, my handsome young man?’
‘O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, an fain wad lie down.’
‘And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?
And what did she give you, my handsome young man?’
‘Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, and fain wad lie down.’
‘And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal, my son?
And wha gat your leavins, my handsom young man?’
‘My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.’
and what becam of them, Lord Randal, my son?
And what becam of them, my handsome young man?’
‘They stretched their legs out an died; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, and fain wad lie down.’
‘O I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randal, my son!
I fear you are poisoned, my handsome young man!’
‘O yes, I am poisoned; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your mother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man?’
‘Four and twenty milk kye; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your sister, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your sister, my handsome young man?’
‘My gold and my silver; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, an I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your brother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your brother, my handsome young man?’
‘My houses and my lands; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your true-love, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your true-love, my handsome young man?’
‘I leave her hell and fire; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
Can you grasp the essence of the story from the rhythm and from some key-words?
Is it a sad or happy story?
Who are the people involved in the story?
Now read the text carefully with the help of your teacher. Ask him/her about any difficult or “strange” words (the teacher may decide to point out that the language of this ballad is Scots English so some words are spelled differently and some expressions are non-standard in British English. Students might be surprised to hear that soon rhymes with down!
With the help of the teacher – who should now feed in some information to clear some hazy parts of the text – students should be able to tell the story behind the song.
As the story doesn’t say anything about the reasons behind the cold-blood murder of the protagonist at the hand of his “true love”, students should be encouraged to provide their own explanations.
Imagine that the girl has been arrested and found guilty of her lover’s murder. Students write the letter in which she confesses the crime and explain why she killed her lover.
Features of the ballad
A ballad is a folk song that tells a story with stress on the crucial situation, tells it by letting the action unfold itself in event and speech, and tells it objectively with little comment or intrusion of personal bias.
The definition above points out the main characteristics of the ballad. A ballad is transmitted orally - It’s a narrative in verse - it is made to be sung. The story focuses on a single episode (the past is implied rather darkly or even ignored). In other words it tells the story in terms of its crucial incident. The action interprets itself with minimum of comment and descriptive setting. The story is a highly compressed and centralised episode. The story is told dramatically mostly through direct speech. Nothing matters except the action. It presents action and represents it. A ballad lets the facts, dramatically presented, speak for themselves. Moreover a traditional ballad is characterised by dramatic impersonality. The ballad maker treats the subject (often universal themes like love, death, revenge, sometimes historical episodes) with objectivity no matter how personally involved he might have been (as in the case of the so-called borders ballads, dealing with the tragic consequences of the conflicts between English and Scots). As a rule, the events furnish their own commentary.
As to its artistic value we can state that traditional ballads are a form of art developed among people whose training was oral and not visual. The people who made ballads and sang them did not commit their art to the written page and relied on their memory to transmit it to the following generations and so did the people who enjoyed them for centuries.
The narration proceeds mainly through co-ordination, which is more characteristic of speech than of writing. Repetition is used to increase the memorability of the text. in Lord Randall incremental repetition is extensively used, that is the repetition of a previous line or lines with a slight variation which advances the story by small additions.
The obvious implication of the process: oral transmission shaped the ballads and altered it so that we have so many different versions.
British and European ballads: Ballads have been circulated over wide areas. Their origins cannot be accurately determined. Versions of Lord Randall, for instance, have been found as far east as Hungary, as far north as Scotland and Sweden and as far south as Calabria in Italy. In the Scottish version the mother questions the son who has come back to her mortally ill after having eaten what he thought were eels but were more probably snakes. As the dialogue progresses we discover the horrid truth. In the European versions the actors of the story may vary but the events are basically the same.
Ballads are to be viewed as manifestations of a culture common to European folk as a whole.
Ballads feature intensity of passion, justice of feeling and they show no subtlety of emotions, no delicacy of perceptions. The emphasis is usually on the adventures of one or more individuals. In Lord Randall unfaithfulness and treachery lurk in the background. The mistress poisons her lover for some reason we do non learn.
Form of the ballad: simple and regular. Each stanza has four lines which rhyme abcb or abcc. The stress pattern tends to vary.
Now read the following ballad that comes from the area around Reggio Emilia and Parma. Students are invited to find the similarities between the Italian and the Scottish ballad.
Loosely translated into English:
WHAT IS A BALLAD?
A ballad is a folk poem which flourished in the late Middle Ages. It was originally meant to be sung and handed down orally from generation to generation. Ballads are narrative poems and they are music. Words and music are closely dependant on one another.
Listen to this version of a very popular ballad: Lord Randall. Focus on the music first. (Several versions of the song can be found surfing the net)
Where do you think the ballad comes from?
Are there some words which don’t sound “standard English” at all?
Now read the text while you listen to the ballad.
‘O WHERE ha you been, Lord Randal, my son?
And where ha you been, my handsome young man?’
‘I ha been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.’
‘An what met ye there, Lord Randal, my son?
An wha met you there, my handsome young man?’
‘O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, an fain wad lie down.’
‘And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?
And what did she give you, my handsome young man?’
‘Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, and fain wad lie down.’
‘And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal, my son?
And wha gat your leavins, my handsom young man?’
‘My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.’
and what becam of them, Lord Randal, my son?
And what becam of them, my handsome young man?’
‘They stretched their legs out an died; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi huntin, and fain wad lie down.’
‘O I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randal, my son!
I fear you are poisoned, my handsome young man!’
‘O yes, I am poisoned; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your mother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man?’
‘Four and twenty milk kye; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your sister, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your sister, my handsome young man?’
‘My gold and my silver; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, an I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your brother, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your brother, my handsome young man?’
‘My houses and my lands; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
‘What d’ye leave to your true-love, Lord Randal, my son?
What d’ye leave to your true-love, my handsome young man?’
‘I leave her hell and fire; mother, mak my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wad lie down.’
Can you grasp the essence of the story from the rhythm and from some key-words?
Is it a sad or happy story?
Who are the people involved in the story?
Now read the text carefully with the help of your teacher. Ask him/her about any difficult or “strange” words (the teacher may decide to point out that the language of this ballad is Scots English so some words are spelled differently and some expressions are non-standard in British English. Students might be surprised to hear that soon rhymes with down!
With the help of the teacher – who should now feed in some information to clear some hazy parts of the text – students should be able to tell the story behind the song.
CREATIVE WRITING
As the story doesn’t say anything about the reasons behind the cold-blood murder of the protagonist at the hand of his “true love”, students should be encouraged to provide their own explanations.
Imagine that the girl has been arrested and found guilty of her lover’s murder. Students write the letter in which she confesses the crime and explain why she killed her lover.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
Features of the ballad
A ballad is a folk song that tells a story with stress on the crucial situation, tells it by letting the action unfold itself in event and speech, and tells it objectively with little comment or intrusion of personal bias.
The definition above points out the main characteristics of the ballad. A ballad is transmitted orally - It’s a narrative in verse - it is made to be sung. The story focuses on a single episode (the past is implied rather darkly or even ignored). In other words it tells the story in terms of its crucial incident. The action interprets itself with minimum of comment and descriptive setting. The story is a highly compressed and centralised episode. The story is told dramatically mostly through direct speech. Nothing matters except the action. It presents action and represents it. A ballad lets the facts, dramatically presented, speak for themselves. Moreover a traditional ballad is characterised by dramatic impersonality. The ballad maker treats the subject (often universal themes like love, death, revenge, sometimes historical episodes) with objectivity no matter how personally involved he might have been (as in the case of the so-called borders ballads, dealing with the tragic consequences of the conflicts between English and Scots). As a rule, the events furnish their own commentary.
As to its artistic value we can state that traditional ballads are a form of art developed among people whose training was oral and not visual. The people who made ballads and sang them did not commit their art to the written page and relied on their memory to transmit it to the following generations and so did the people who enjoyed them for centuries.
The narration proceeds mainly through co-ordination, which is more characteristic of speech than of writing. Repetition is used to increase the memorability of the text. in Lord Randall incremental repetition is extensively used, that is the repetition of a previous line or lines with a slight variation which advances the story by small additions.
The obvious implication of the process: oral transmission shaped the ballads and altered it so that we have so many different versions.
British and European ballads: Ballads have been circulated over wide areas. Their origins cannot be accurately determined. Versions of Lord Randall, for instance, have been found as far east as Hungary, as far north as Scotland and Sweden and as far south as Calabria in Italy. In the Scottish version the mother questions the son who has come back to her mortally ill after having eaten what he thought were eels but were more probably snakes. As the dialogue progresses we discover the horrid truth. In the European versions the actors of the story may vary but the events are basically the same.
Ballads are to be viewed as manifestations of a culture common to European folk as a whole.
Ballads feature intensity of passion, justice of feeling and they show no subtlety of emotions, no delicacy of perceptions. The emphasis is usually on the adventures of one or more individuals. In Lord Randall unfaithfulness and treachery lurk in the background. The mistress poisons her lover for some reason we do non learn.
Form of the ballad: simple and regular. Each stanza has four lines which rhyme abcb or abcc. The stress pattern tends to vary.
Now read the following ballad that comes from the area around Reggio Emilia and Parma. Students are invited to find the similarities between the Italian and the Scottish ballad.
Il testamento dell’avvelenato
Dove t’è sté ier sira, figliol mio Rico?
Dove t’è sté ier sira cavaliere gentile?
Sun sté da me sorela, mama la mia mama.
Sun sté da me sorela che il mio cuore sta male.
Che t’ha dato da cena , figliol mio Rico?
Un’anguillina arrosto mama la mia mama.
Che perta è sté la tua, figliol mio Rico?
La testa e non la coda, mama la mia mama.
Dove te l’ha condita, figliol mio Rico?
In un piattino d’oro, mama la mia mama.
Andèe a ciamer al prete, mama la mia mama.
Sin vot mai fèr dal prete, figliol mio Rico?
Mi devo confessare, mama la mia mama.
M’avete avvelenato e il mio cuore sta male.
Dove t’è sté ier sira cavaliere gentile?
Sun sté da me sorela, mama la mia mama.
Sun sté da me sorela che il mio cuore sta male.
Che t’ha dato da cena , figliol mio Rico?
Un’anguillina arrosto mama la mia mama.
Che perta è sté la tua, figliol mio Rico?
La testa e non la coda, mama la mia mama.
Dove te l’ha condita, figliol mio Rico?
In un piattino d’oro, mama la mia mama.
Andèe a ciamer al prete, mama la mia mama.
Sin vot mai fèr dal prete, figliol mio Rico?
Mi devo confessare, mama la mia mama.
M’avete avvelenato e il mio cuore sta male.
Loosely translated into English:
The Will of the Poisoned Man
Where were you yesterday evening, my son Rico?
Where were you yesterday evening, my noble knight?
I went to see my sister, mother my mother
I went to see my sister because my heart is sick
What did she serve you for dinner, my son Rico'?
A tiny roast eel mother my mother
Which part did you have, my son Rico?
The head and not the tail, mother my mother
How did she serve it, my son Rico?
On a golden plate, mother my mother
Go and call the priest, mother my mother
Whatever do you need o priest for, noble knight?
I must make my confession, mother my mother
You have poisoned me, and my heart is sick.
Where were you yesterday evening, my noble knight?
I went to see my sister, mother my mother
I went to see my sister because my heart is sick
What did she serve you for dinner, my son Rico'?
A tiny roast eel mother my mother
Which part did you have, my son Rico?
The head and not the tail, mother my mother
How did she serve it, my son Rico?
On a golden plate, mother my mother
Go and call the priest, mother my mother
Whatever do you need o priest for, noble knight?
I must make my confession, mother my mother
You have poisoned me, and my heart is sick.
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