The Ballads From 1798 To Today's Modern Rebel Songs. A
brief history of ballads in Ireland and why they were
written to explain events taking place around the
country.
What Is A Ballad And Where Do They Come From ?
The etymological sence of the word Ballad is ''Dancing
Song''. But this description is not entirely acceptable
for there are many more songs in use today which we
could not call Ballads, perhaps most ballads were not
composed to accompany a dance. Another definition
curr...(+)
The Ballads From 1798 To Today's Modern Rebel Songs. A
brief history of ballads in Ireland and why they were
written to explain events taking place around the
country.
What Is A Ballad And Where Do They Come From ?
The etymological sence of the word Ballad is ''Dancing
Song''. But this description is not entirely acceptable
for there are many more songs in use today which we
could not call Ballads, perhaps most ballads were not
composed to accompany a dance. Another definition
currently popular is
''A Ballad Is A Relatively Short Song With A Short
Story Line'' divided into verses and sung to a story
like melody. Even this definition, close as it may be
is still completely accurate. Some ballads extend to
only a few lines, while others run into hundreds. The
Oxford Dictionary says that a ballad is a simple
spirited poem stanzas narrating some popular story.
This is much nearer to the ballad as we know
it, but still not completely accurate, as the demand
for stanzaic structure is fulfilled only in the ballads
of certain countries. Three of the four principle types
of European ballads are not stanzaic at all. I am not
churning out all this to confuse, but to illustrate
just how how difficult it is to classify the
''Ballad''. Bearing the above in mind we have, I feel
no option but to use the term
ballad in it's widest sense as meaning any short
traditional narrative poem sung with or without
accompaniment or dance. I am sure there are still many
who will not agree with this definition.
The ballad evolved from the more ancient kind of song
narrative, the epic or hero song. Heroic epics were
once spread all over The Balkans. They are long songs,
some of them taken seven or eight hours for just one
song. There are likely to be hundred, even thousands of
lines long, telling of Godlike heroes in a whole chain
of complex adventures. They move in a supernatural
world of magic monsteres. In contrast the ballad is
more like a romantic short story, anything from fifty
to one hundred lines long telling of a single exploit,
involving lifesized figures in a realistic world, true
lovers and false ones, fearless soldiers and
treacherous neighbours. Nowadays the epic is found
mainly in Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. But all over
western and central Europe the old epics have faded
away and being replaced with the ballad.
Source: Irish Folk Songs
(https://www.irish-folk-songs.com/a-history-of-irish-ba
llads.html).
Although originally created for traditional Irish
instruments, I created this Interpretation of the Irish
Ballad "Twas Pretty To Be In Ballinderry" for Flute,
Oboe & Celtic or Concert (Pedal) Harp.