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Sample songs below.
In performing 16th and 17th century broadside ballads, we have carefully considered a number of factors that impact the interpretation of the ballad as song. It is impossible for us to know exactly how the ballads were sung during that time. What we do know about the vocal timbre and inflection of British ballad singing, as it has survived in contemporary tradition, comes from field recordings made in the mid 20th century. While these recordings inform our vocal production, we wanted to avoid imitation, especially in regards to accent, making pronunciation choices sometimes difficult. While we did not attempt to imitate English accents, we found that certain rhyme schemes and scansions worked better when we adopted archaic speech patterns. We chose to use a comfortable, “natural” speaking tone, tending towards clear articulation, with minimal ornamentation and vibrato, so as to not obscure the basic melody or text. In some cases we used conventional ornaments when we felt it would enhance the effect of the lyrics.
We also decided to record most of the ballads a cappella, for several reasons. Our primary purpose is to help people connect the ballad with the tune. A solo voice gives the most unadorned version of the melody possible, so as to clearly illustrate the connection between words and
music. While instrumental accompaniment was appropriate in many contexts, particularly in the theatrical ballads and jigs, the ballad tradition is a singer’s tradition, and we wanted to highlight the art of unaccompanied balladry. We have provided several examples of theatrical ballads, with tunes written or adapted by Henry Purcell, upon which we are accompanied on a virginal (a small harpsichord), to demonstrate a style of period accompaniment. By keeping our presentations simple and unadorned we sought to make the ballads as intelligible as possible.
There are only a handful of works on the tunes of the broadsides, starting with William Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Times, which laid the foundation upon which subsequent collections were built. Today, however, the most comprehensive and well-researched work is still Claude Simpson's The British Broadside Ballad and its Music (1966), which provides transcriptions of unadorned melodies, painstakingly researched and reconstructed, combined with detailed references to the historical sources of the tunes. We chose the tunes we did for a variety of reasons. In some cases, as in the Purcell tunes, we wanted to illustrate the theatrical style of broadside music.In other cases we chose tunes that were very common, such as “Fortune my Foe” or “Jasper Cunningham,” to show how different ballad texts bring out different aspects of the melody. In other cases we chose particular ballads with interesting subject matter, such as “Battle of the Birds,” which also happened to have a unique and beautiful tune. The eventual goal of this project is to provide sound recordings of every ballad for which there is a known tune, but since this is somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand ballads, for now we will provide a sampling that we hope will be interesting and useful to students and researchers.
Pepys 1.74-75 A wonder beyond mans expectation,/ In the preseruation of eight men in Greenland from one season to another,/ the like neuer knowne or heard of before, which eight men are come all safely from/ thence in this last Fleet, 1631. whose names are these, William Fakely Gunner, Edward Peliham Gun-/ ners Mate, Iohn Wise Robert Goodfellow Seamen, Thomas Ayers Whalecutter, Henry Rett Cooper,/ Iohn Dawes, Richard Kellet Land men.
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Pepys 2.33v A Letter for a Christian Family. / Directed to all true Christians to Read. / Which being sealed up in heart and mind, / Nothing but truth in it you'l find. / Both old and young, both Rich and Poor, / Bear it in mind, keep it in store: / And think upon the time to come, / For time doth pass, the Glass doth run, / Therefore whilst thou hast time and space, / Call to the Lord above for Grace, / Then he will surely thee defend, / And thou shalt make a happy end.
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Pepys 2.38 The Lamenting Ladies last Farewel to the / WORLD. / Who being in a strange Exile, bewails her own misery, complains / upon fortune and destiny, describeth the manner of her breeding, / deplores the loss of her parents, wishing peace and happines to / England, which was her native Country, and withal resolving for / death, chearfully commended her Soul to Heaven, and her bo-/dy to the earth, and quietly departed this Life, Anno 1650.
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Pepys 2.75 The Bedford-shire VVidow; / OR, / The Poor in Distress Reliev'd, / Being a full and true Relation, of a poor Widow, whose Hus-/band was dead, and she turn'd out of doors by her Creditors, and forced with / her three Children to lye in the street, and Beg for Bread; and how that Queen Mary, walking in her / Garden, and hearing her Beg, came to her, and caused her children to be cloathed and put to Nurse, / and gave the poor widow a weekly pension, to maintain her as long as she liv'd.
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