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

The Rise of a Native American Balladry First, it will be necessary to review some important points. In theearly days (1600-1770s), import/adaptation was the dominant process. British songs and ballads were adapted to the frontier experience, Victorian morality and Puritan ethics. Songs which contained subjectmatter which was completely irrelevant to the frontier or insufferable tomoral and ethical standards were either discarded altogether, new lyricswere added to old melodies, or lyrical changes were made. (Remember, therewere no copyright laws at that time). However, even from the beginning,original household creations began to take their place alongside the traditionalballads. While some strong similarities to the traditional patterns my beobserved, some important differences emerge. Compared with British ballads,American ballads placed more(prenominal) emphasis on vocal harmony and instrumentation(exc ept in the mountain regions where women seldom played instruments). The American ballads were more journalistic (Wolfe, in Carr, 19794),that is, they paid oftentimes more attention to names (Tom Dula, Sally Goodin,Omie Wise, Floyd Collins), dates (of train wrecks, floods, wars, miningdisasters) and place. They were certainly more moralistic - in keeping withthe Puritan moral code. Art for arts interestingness was considered frivolous, e.g.,fiddling around. The idle mind is the devils workshop, thereforefrivolity is also probably sinful. These attitudes were very pervasive and were instilled in generations of American youth through McGuffeysReader, Poor Richards farmers calendar and popular literature such as HawthornesScarlet... ...r is an instrument of Spanish origin and wouldlikely have been transported to the new world by Spanish colonists. However, the guitar was in the American colonies during the colonialperiod. Malone is probably correct in his assertion that the gu itar wasrather late in coming into the southern musical tradition however, onceintroduced it soon became the dominant instrument. Again, theSears-Roebuck mail order catalog was one of the major sources for theguitar.Works CitedCarr, Patrick (ed). The Illustrated History of Country Music. Garden City Doubleday, 1979.Lomax, Alan. Folk Song Style, The American Anthropologist 61926-955.Malone, scorecard 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).