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George Malcolm Laws
George Malcolm Laws (January 4, 1919 – August 1, 1994) was a scholar of traditional British and American folk song. He was best known for his collection of traditional ballads "American Balladry from British Broadsides", published in 1957 by the American Folklore Society. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the English Department Faculty there in 1942. He gives his name to a system of coding ballads; one letter of the alphabet, followed by 2 numbers. For example, "Laws A01" is "Brave Wolfe" also known as "Bold Wolfe" or "The Battle of Quebec". There is no immediately obvious logic, but a broad pattern appears: the letter A is for military songs, the letter D is for nautical songs, the letter F is for murder, and so on. The system is limited to 26 x 99 = 2576 distinct labels, and so tends to bring together similar songs. It is a useful adjunct to Child numbers. He includes many songs that Child excluded, and of course, new ones that were found after Child ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver Dagger (song)
"Silver Dagger", with variants such as "Katy Dear", "Molly Dear", "The Green Fields and Meadows", "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" and others (Laws M4 & G21, Roud 2260 & 2261), is an American folk ballad, whose origins lie possibly in Britain. These songs of different titles are closely related, and two strands in particular became popular in commercial Country music and Folk music recordings of the twentieth century: the "Silver Dagger" version popularised by Joan Baez, and the "Katy Dear" versions popularised by close harmony brother duets such as The Callahan Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys and The Louvin Brothers. In "Silver Dagger", the female narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. The 1960 recording by Joan Baez features only a fragment of the full ballad. "Katy Dear" uses the same melody but different lyrics, telling a similar story fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretty Polly (ballad)
"Pretty Polly", "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" () is a traditional English-language folk song found in the British Isles, Canada, and the Appalachian region of North America, among other places. The song is a murder ballad, telling of a young woman lured into the forest where she is killed and buried in a shallow grave. Many variants of the story have the villain as a ship's carpenter who promises to marry Polly but murders her when she becomes pregnant. When he goes back to sea, either he is haunted by her ghost, confesses to the murder, goes mad and dies, or the ship will not sail. He denies the murder and is ripped to pieces by her ghost. "The Gosport Tragedy" evolved into "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" and "Pretty Polly", losing many of the specifics of the original. "The Gosport Tragedy" There are a number of extant broadside copies of "The Gosport Tragedy", the earliest known version. It is a lengthy ballad composed of rhymed couplets, sixteen verses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Around My Hat (song)
The song "All Around my Hat" (Roud Folk Song Index, Roud 567 and 22518, George Malcolm Laws, Laws P31) is of nineteenth-century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancée, who had been sentenced to seven years' Penal transportation, transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss of her by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day", the willow being a traditional symbol of mourning. The song was made famous by Steeleye Span in 1975, whose rendition may have been based on a more traditional version sung by John Langstaff. Synopsis A young man is forced to leave his lover, usually to go to sea. On his return he finds her on the point of being married to another man. In some versions he goes into mourning, with the green willow as a symbol of his unhappiness (willow is considered to be a weeping tree). In other versions he reminds her of her broken promise, and she dies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Brisk Young Sailor Courted Me
"A Brisk Young Sailor (Courted Me)" (variously known as "Bold Young Farmer", "The Alehouse", "Died For Love" and "I Wish My Baby Was Born" amongst other titles) is a traditional folk ballad (Roud Folk Song Index, Roud # 60, George Malcolm Laws, Laws P25), which has been collected from all over Britain, Ireland and North America. The song originates in England in the early 1600s. Synopsis A young sailor courts a young girl and wins her heart. But now he visits an alehouse in another town and entertains another. He is false and this other girl has more gold than she but that will waste along with her beauty. But our heroine still loves him dearly and besides she's carrying his child. Oh, what a foolish girl she was to have given her heart to a sailor. In some versions she dies of a broken heart and in others he is not a sailor but a farmer or other unspecified young man. Commentary The Traditional Ballad Index states that one 1891 source claims the song was written by an F. J. Ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Butcher's Boy (folk Song)
"The Butcher’s Boy" or "The Butcher Boy" (Laws P24, Roudbr>409 is an American folk song derived from traditional English ballads. Folklorists of the early 20th century considered it to be a conglomeration of several English broadside ballads, tracing its stanzas to "Sheffield Park", "The Squire's Daughter", "A Brisk Young Soldier", "A Brisk Young Sailor" and " Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)" and " Died for Love". Steve Roud describes it as, "One of the most widely-known 'forsaken girl' songs in the American tradition, which is often particularly moving in its stark telling of an age-old story." In the song, a butcher’s apprentice abandons his lover, or is unfaithful toward her. The lover hangs herself and is discovered by her father. She leaves a suicide note, which prescribes that she be buried with a turtle dove placed upon her breast, to show the world she died for love. This narrative use of the turtle dove is derived from Old World symbolism; it is analogous to the folk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Bushes
Green Bushes is an English folk song (Roud #1040, Laws P2) which is featured in the second movement of Vaughan Williams's '' English Folk Song Suite'', in Percy Grainger's ''Green Bushes (Passacaglia on an English Folksong)'', and in George Butterworth's ''The Banks of Green Willow''. The melody is very similar to that of the " Lost Lady Found" movement of Percy Grainger's ''Lincolnshire Posy'', and to "Cutty Wren". According to Roud and Bishop This was an immensely popular song, collected many times across England, although not so often elsewhere. It was also very popular with nineteenth-century broadside printers. The song first appears in broadsides of the 1820s or 1830s. Its popularity was hugely increased by a popular melodrama ''The Green Bushes, or A Hundred Years Ago'' by William Buckstone, first performed in 1845. The heroine of the play made repeated reference to the song and sang a few verses, with the result that the sheet music was published soon after.Roud & Bishop ib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polly Vaughn
"Polly Vaughn" is an Irish folk-song (Roud 166, Laws O36). Synopsis A man, sometimes called Johnny Randle, goes out hunting for birds. Usually this is described as being in the evening or by moonlight in the rain. He sees something white in the bushes. Thinking this is a swan, he shoots. To his horror he discovers he has killed his true love, Polly Vaughn, sheltering from the rain. Returning home, he reports his mistake to his uncle and is advised not to run away. He should stay and tell the court that it was an honest mistake. The night before Polly's funeral, her ghost appears to confirm his version of the events. The narrator imagines all the women of the county standing in a line, with Polly shining out among them as a "fountain of snow". Since the fairest girl in the county has died the girls are said to be glad of her death. In some versions there is no scene of guilty confession and no ghost. Commentary We are not told of the outcome of the trial. Is he found guilty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Trees They Grow So High (folk Song)
"The Trees They Grow So High" is a British folk song (Roud 31, Laws O35). The song is known by many titles, including "The Trees They Do Grow High", "Daily Growing", "Long A-Growing" and "Lady Mary Ann". A two-verse fragment of the song is found in the Scottish manuscript collection of the 1770s of David Herd. This was used by Robert Burns as the basis for his poem "Lady Mary Ann" (published 1792).Roud, Steve & Julia Bishop (2012). ''The New Penguin Book of Folk Songs''. Penguin. . p.424. The subject of the song is an arranged marriage of a young woman by her father to a boy who is much younger than she. There are numerous versions of both the tune and lyrics. In one set of lyrics the groom is twelve when he marries and a father at 13. According to Roud and Bishop: "Judging by the number of versions gathered in the major manuscript collections and later sound recordings, this song has been a firm favourite with singers in Britain, Ireland and North America for a long time, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foggy Dew (Irish Ballad)
"Foggy Dew" is the name of several Irish ballads, and of an Irish lament. The song chronicles the Easter Rising of 1916, and encourages Irishmen to fight for the cause of Ireland, rather than for the British Empire, as so many young men were doing in World War I. Early title "The Foggy Dew" as the name of an Irish traditional song first appears in Edward Bunting's ''The Ancient Music of Ireland'' (1840), where the tune is different from that mostly sung today (also different from the lament and the rebel song below). Bunting's source for the tune was a "J. Mc Knight, Belfast, 1839", but the same melody already appears in ''O'Farrell's Collection of National Irish Music for the Union Pipes'' (London, 1804), where it is called "Corraga Bawn". Easter Rising Another song called "Foggy Dew" was written by Fr (later Canon) Charles O’Neill from Portglenone, County Antrim (1887–1963), a priest of the Diocese of Down and Connor who was then a curate at St. Peter's Cathedral, Belfas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Riley (song)
"John Riley" is a traditional English folk song (Roud #264, Laws N42). It is also known as "Johnny Riley", "The Broken Token" and "A Fair Young Maid All in Her Garden", among other titles. Background The song is derived from Homer's ''Odyssey'', interpreted through the 17th century English folk ballad tradition, and tells the story of a prospective suitor who asks a woman if she will marry him. She replies that she cannot because she is betrothed to John Riley, who has gone away over the seas. The man persists, asking her whether Riley is worth waiting for and suggesting that he may have drowned, been killed in war, or married another woman. She steadfastly maintains that she will continue to wait for Riley, regardless of his possible fate. In the last stanza, the suitor reveals that he is in fact John Riley, returned from the seas, and has been testing his beloved. The song's theme, that of the "disguised true lover", has long been a theme in traditional folk ballads and sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blind Beggar
The Blind Beggar is a pub on Whitechapel Road in the East End of London, England. Due to its location close to Whitechapel Station, the pub is generally described as being in Whitechapel; it is however located just on the Bethnal Green side of the historic boundary between Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. The pub takes its name from the ballad and legend ''The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green''. In some versions of the ballad, the beggar was an impoverished noble Henry de Montfort. It is where Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell in front of witnesses. It is also the location of William Booth's first sermon, which led to the creation of the Salvation Army. It was the nearest outlet (or brewery tap) for the Manns Albion brewery, where the first modern Brown Ale was brewed. The pub was built in 1894 on the site of an inn which had been established before 1654. History The pub was built in 1894 on the site of an inn which had been established before 1654, and named after the legend of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
