Lists and Classifications of Folksongs
by Archer Taylor
Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung, 13. Jahrg. (1968), pp. 1-25
Lists and Classifications of Folksongs
By ARCHER TAYLOR (Berkeley/California)
To the memory of Erich Seemann
A report of the recent conference at Freiburg i. Br. that was called to study lists and classifications of folksongs is before me and I have read it with great interest. Much to my regret I could not attend the conference. I wish to discuss here in a very general fashion the subject of the conference (not its report), and to suggest some pertinent considerations. Although the conference began by disclaiming an intention to define folksong, the subject soon engaged its attention.
The conference did not, however, discuss the definitions of "list," "classification," or a similar term or review the history of efforts to bring order into the arrangement of folksongs. I shall use the term "list" in the following remarks to refer to a tabulation and arrangement that involves consideration of subject matter. A tabulation of titles or texts in a single genre such as ballads, spirituals, or the like may be a list or a classification according to circumstances. A few great collections serve as both classifications or lists and as sources of texts and will be mentioned in the former use. Examples are L. Erk and F. M. Bdhme, Deutscher Liederhort (3 vols. Leipzig, 1893, 1894) and F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 vols., Boston, 1885-1898). The former is a unique collection of songs of all kinds and the latter is a standard collection of narrative songs.
It is perhaps worth pointing out that the listing or classifying of folksongs has a history that is by no means comparable to the history of the listing or classifying of folktales. This conference has perhaps had a certain amount of encouragement from the success of similar efforts dealing with folktales. Various schemes for listing folktales were proposed during the nineteenth century, but none found general acceptance. In the first decade of the twentieth century and a little later Antti Aarne indexed the large collections of tales made in Finland and published a tentative classification (without references to individual texts) and then an index of the tales in the Finnish manuscript collections. In 1921 Reidar Th. Christiansen used this classification in cataloguing the Norwegian tales and made it fully usable by adding summaries of the tales. This extension of the classification to another country and the improvement of the classification were the decisive steps that led to its general adoption. In the next decade it was extended to a dozen bodies of traditions. Aarne published an Uebersicht (FF Communications, 10) in 1912
that indexed standard Danish, German, Russian, Sicilian, and Modern Greek as far as the tales were included in his original list but did not include those tales he had not found in the Finnish archives. No one has enlarged and completed his Uebersicht, although doing so would be a very useful addition to our scholarly resources.
A compilation of Aarne's original list and the new national lists made before 1927 made by Stith Thompson with the use of the summaries by Christiansen and others (FF Communications, 74, 1928) encouraged making more new lists. He compiled the results once more in 1961 (FF Communications, 184). This brief history is pertinent here because a similar effort to index ballads did not have an equally successful career (see No. 29). Much might be learned from it when the task of making an international type-list of ballads is undertaken again.
The great value of a generally accepted international list or classification, the necessity of making it both accurate and comprehensive, the nature of the indexes that should be attached to it, and the difficulties that arise in altering it when it has once been widely adopted are obvious general matters to be considered. The following critical survey of lists and classifications of folksongs aims at completeness only in regard to their varieties and makes no effort to include all the examples. The comment is intended to suggest comparisons and thinking about methods. The examples cited embrace these varieties of lists and classifications (the numbers refer to the discussion):
(i) brief literary historical and cultural historical surveys and guides for collectors (Part I, Nos. 1-4);
(ii) librarian's lists (Nos. 5-7);
(iii) general lists (Nos. 8-21);
(iv) comprehensive scholarly lists: (a) a scholarly list (No. 22), (b) national collections that serve as lists (Nos. 23-26), (c) accounts of folksongs shared by two genres or national traditions (Nos. 27, 28);
(Part II, v) lists (usually classifications) of narrative folksongs (Nos. 29-35);
(Part III, vi) lists employing a chronological arrangement (Nos. 36-38);
(Part IV, vii) thematic indexes (Nos. 14, 19, 23, 39, 40); and
(viii) a dictionary and collections of religious songs (Nos. 41-43).
The discussion of these categories proceeds roughly according to chronology and the relative completeness of the examples. With one exception (No. 40) which has achieved publication of a sort by having been copied for archival uses in two national collections of folksong lists or classifications in manuscript have not been included. Other unpublished lists, indexes, or classifications of archives or manuscript collections and current bibliographies of texts or tunes are not included.
PART I. COMPREHENSIVE LISTS AND COLLECTIONS
Comprehensive lists usually serve a particular reference purpose and are likely to be arranged in a fashion serving that end. They exist in several varieties determined by their purposes.
Guides for Collectors of Folksongs
Guides in English will be chiefly discussed here, but (No. 1) Sein 0 Suiilleabhiin's remarks in A Handbook of Irish Folklore (Dublin, 1942), pp. 657-658 concern both Irish and English texts. He recommends that both words and music
should be collected and makes a list of categories that a collector should look
out for:
(a) Religious songs.
(b) Songs about the Church and the Faith.
(c) Love songs and aislingi.
(d) Songs about marriage.
(e) Children's songs and lullabies.
(f) Songs of lamentation (on the death of somebody, or on the occasion of some other loss or tragedy).
(g) Historical songs, or verses composed about local events.
(h) Patriotic songs and ballads.
(i) Songs of praise (of people, places, brave deeds etc.).
(j) Songs of complaint (made by prisoners, people in distress etc.).
(k) Songs about animals (race-horses, bulls, cows, sheep, etc.).
(1) Songs of search and travel (mentioning places visited).
(m) Trade and occupation songs.
(n) Boat-songs (boats, boat-races, etc.).
(o) Drinking songs and toasts.
(p) Songs about tobacco etc.
(q) Humorous song.
(r) Hunting songs.
(s) Disputative songs (in which two or more people have a controversy).
(t) Satires and maledictive songs.
(u) Occasional songs (descriptive of some happening etc. of the moment).
(v) Impromptu songs and verses (made on the spur of the moment); burdzein.
(w) Random verses or fragments of songs.
(x) Beggarmen's petitions (deilini).
(y) "Permits" (poetical) and "Warrants" (usually of a humourous or bombastic nature).
(z) Songs of other kinds. Verses and songs used by children or adults at play should be recorded.
Examples of these are given on pp. 674-683.
This very carefully made list with little room for duplication or doubt about the category to which a song should be assigned is a model. Since we are not concerned primarily with the results and success of inquiry, I shall not quote such American examples of the genre as (No. 2) H. G. Shearin and Josiah H. Combs, A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk Songs, Transylvania University Studies in English, 2 (Lexington, Kentucky, 1911. Pp. 43) because it is difficult to come by. (No. 3) Louise Pound, Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West, Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Publications, IX (1915-1916), 85-165 (the repaginated reprint includes an index of helpers and titles, pp. 82-89) is instructive in various ways and I print here its headings (I include the number of songs reported in each category:)
(1) 14 Child ballads;
(2) 19 English and Scottish pieces;
(3) 6 Irish or pseudo-Irish ballads and songs;
(4) 3 songs of lovers reunited;
(5) 5 songs of the tragic death of true lovers;
(6) 9 dying messages and confessions;
(7) 16 pioneer and western songs (these are printed in full but without tunes);
(8) 8 songs of criminals and outlaws;
(9) 28 elegies and complaints (divided into four sub-classes);
(10) 12 songs of dying soldiers and other war pieces;
(11) 6 songs of notable tragedies or disasters;
(12) 8 songs of the lost at sea;
(13) 11 songs in dialogue, or two-part songs;
(14) 21 sentimental lyrics;
(15) 14 popular lyrics of homesickness;
(16) 6 memories of objects familiar in childhood;
(17) 11 moralizing or reflective pieces;
(18) 11 religious pieces;
(19) 5 temperance songs;
(20) 4 railroad songs and narrations;
(21) 13 humorous narratives;
(22) 21 humorous songs (lyrical);
(23) 20 Negro or pseudo-Negro songs;
(24) 5 songs dealing with Indian material;
(25) 7 songs of familiar literary origin;
(26) 5 movement songs (occupational or dancing songs);
(27) 27 miscellaneous songs and fragments;
(28) 21 singing games;
(29) 2 marching songs;
(30) 4 sequence songs and rhymes;
(31) 13 nursery rhymes and fragments;
(32) 2 skipping rope songs or rhymes.
The compiler has obviously made the list from actually recorded texts (the duplication of the serial number and the number of texts recorded in No. 8 is not an error). The texts are summarized; the stanzas and occasionally references to printed sources or discussions are cited. The overlapping of categories is remedied by cross-references. This is, all in all, a very practical list and no doubt stimulated collecting. I cannot say whether the classification was adopted in the archive in which the songs were deposited.
It should be pointed out that there are also guides for collectors which do not clearly imply the maker's possession of the songs inquired for. Thus, a list issued by the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1910 (No. 4) contained a list of all the Child ballads, although many of them have never been found in oral tradition in the United States.
Guides for collectors aim at comprehensiveness in naming songs known to the collector as current in tradition or at least known by title. They may serve now and again to identify a song or to prove its existence in traditional use. But the user must be careful to discover the reliability of the list as a record of songs in existence. If guides for collectors are used with the necessary care, they are helpful in distributional studies. Only occasionally do they contain references to places where the song may be found in print. One can fairly say that the choice of categories leaves much to be desired and the arrangement within the categories is chaotic. These criticisms do not apply to O Suiilleabhaiin's carefully made
list (No. 1).
Librarian's Lists
This category of list embraces certain American reference works intended primarily for librarians and teachers who wish to identify a song or to find versions in print or an accompaniment to it. The songs indexed are folksongs (the traditional quality of the text is not particularly stressed), hymns, carols, airs in operas and other stage productions, verse of literary origin, translations of verse in foreign languages, and so on. The firm of H. W. Wilson Company (New York), which publishes these indexes, has a good name for bibliographies and obviously they serve well the purposes for which they have been compiled.
Songs in manuscript are ordinarily not included. These indexes have not been made for folklorists and I am not aware that folklorists have made much use of them. Perhaps the first of them is Margaret Closey Quigley, Index to Kindergarten Songs (Chicago, 1914. Pp. xii, 286), which was compiled for the American Library Association (No. 5). Some years after the edition was exhausted much of its contents was incorporated in (No. 6) Helen Grant Cushing, Children's Song Index. An index
to more than 22,000 songs in 189 collections comprising 222 volumes (New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1936. Pp. xiii, 795, 2 unnumbered pp. containing a Directory af Publishers). This lists titles and first lines with references to titles and cites musical texts. The material is also grouped in such categories as Cradle songs, Folowers, Mammals, Rounds and Canons, Singing Games, and so on.
An even larger work of similar nature is (No. 7) Minnie E. Sears, Song Index. An index to more than 12,000 songs in 177 collections, comprising 262 volumes (New York, 1926. Pp. xxxi, (2), 650). The Supplement (1934. Pp. xxxvi, (4) 366) with more than 7,000 songs from 104 collections contains some prefatory remarks (pp. v-xiii) that include much of what was said in the edition of 1926 and some additional material that amount to a better introduction to the purpose, use, and contents of the work than was offered originally. The book is specially useful for the identification of songs sung on public occasions. The Supplement identifies more folksongs than its predecessor, but neither work was intended to serve a folklorist's purposes. The texts listed are chiefly art songs.
These librarian's lists are alphabetical in an arrangement that includes both titles and first lines. They give an abundance of cross-references and headings that concern the names of authors as well as subject matter. There are no indexes of any kind at the end. The choice of this very simple arrangement by experienced librarians should be considered carefully. Reference works compiled by specialists in folksong employ many arrangements, but rarely an alphabetical one.
A remarkable exception are (No. 7a) the four volumes of Wilhelm Bernhardi, Allgemeines deutsches Lieder-Lexikon oder vollstiindige Sammlung aller bekannten deutschen Lieder und Volksgesinge in alphabetischer Folge (Leipzig, 1847. 4 vls., Pp. xviii, 1277, reprinted Hildesheim 1968). This collection of 2479 poems, broadsides, folksongs etc. is aphabetically arranged and unlocked by an index with the following 28 thematical groupes:
1. Kinderlieder,
2. Freundschaft, Liebeslust und Liebesleid,
3. Volkslieder,
4. Trinklieder in Scherz und Ernst,
5. Studenten- und Kommerslieder,
6. Lieder aus Opern und Vaudevilles,
7. Religibse Lieder und Gedichte,
8. Bundeslieder,
9. Scherz- und Spottlieder,
10. Abschiedslieder,
11. Lieder bei Festgelegenheiten und Tanz,
12. Lebensbetrachtung in Scherz und Ernst,
13. Stand, Beruf und Handwerk,
14. Welt und Natur,
15. Kiinstlerlieder, Musik und Gesang,
16. Turnlieder,
17. Stadt und Land,
18. Tabak,
19. Romanzen,
20. Das Jahr und seine Zeitabschnitte,
21. Frauenwert und Ehe,
22. Tafellieder,
23. Armut und Gefangenschaft,
24. Jagd und Seelenleben,
25. Volk, Vaterland, Krieg,
26. Reise und Wandern,
27. Krieg und Soldatenleben,
28. Freiheitslieder.
Two small lists may be mentioned by way of introduction because they suggest ideas that appear only rarely in larger and more familiar examples. They actually name specific songs infrequently and can be regarded as closely akin to literary or social history, (No. 8) K. D. Upadhyahya, "An Introduction to Bhojpuri Folksongs and Ballads," Midwest Folklore VII (1957), 85-94 is a brief identification of the various genres of Bhojpuri song. He begins with the discussion of "cycles of Ballads" (pp. 85-86) or songs like the Robin Hood ballads that are attached to a popular hero. He then recognizes five classes of songs:
(1) those relating to various Hindu rites;
(2) those relating to various fasts and feasts;
(3) those sung at various seasons of the year;
(4) those relating to a particular community; and
(5) those relating to various actions and occupations.
He proceeds to characterize these classes and to point out their interesting features. He is successful in giving an adequate notion of Bhojpuri song. A second survey (No. 9)-Imre Katona, Historische Schichten der ungarischen Volksdichtung, FF Communications, 194 (Helsinki, 1964. Pp. 36)-is literaryhistorical in nature and altogether different from Upadhyahya's anthropological or sociological account. It his, as he says (p. 3 n.), not complete and is provisional rather than definitive in quality, but nevertheless amounts to a comprehensive survey that has been lacking until now. It is particularly valuable for bibliography of Hungarian scholarly writings (pp. 26-36) that are virtually unknown west of Budapest. Katona deals with folk-literature rather than folksong, especially in his discussion of the earliest periods such as nomadism and shamanism of which
recognizable elements survive in folksong. It is also remarkable for frequent references to the survival of very ancient musical elements. Kantona's brief account of folksong (pp. 20-25) defines and characterizes admirably various stages in its development since the thirteenth century. He comments on the communication of French ballads to Hungary by French immigrants in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (citing Hungarian texts but not their French parallels) and goes on to
characterize an older and a newer level (Balladenschicht) in Hungarian folksong (unfortunately without citing examples). Perhaps most interesting is his characterization of the latest period with the development of work songs. These he regards
(p. 25) as a transitional genre that is now disappearing.
Upadhyahya's and Katona's surveys have been mentioned for their value as surveys of the background of folksong. They are lists of categories and not lists of songs. They give us a better idea of the place and nature of folksong than the lists can give.
The surveys by Upadhyahya and Katona illustrate the variations in procedures and methods that reflect the purposes of the compilers and the nature of the materials under review. They are comparable to the brief descriptions of Scandinavian
folksong in a volume of a series devoted to Scandinavian cultural history.
1 This body of early French ballads has not, I believe, been recognized in western studies of ballads. For the sake of clarity I add references to the French texts. These I owe to the kindness of Dr. Katona.
These nine ballads are identified and discussed in Lajos Vargyas, Researches into the Mediaeval History of Folk Ballad (Budapest, 1967). The precise references, for which I thank Dr. Katona, are as follows:
(1) Die gefangenen Geschwister (The Two Captives), Vargyas, pp. 14-17;
(2) Die in den Tod geschleppte Braut (The Bride Dragged to Death), Vargyas, pp. 20-22;
(3) Das durch Tanzen zu Tode gejagte Midchen (The Girl Danced to Death), Vargyas, pp. 36-42;
(4, 5) Das entehrte Midchen und die Rabenmutter (The Unmarried Mother Who Killed Her Children), Vargyas, pp. 54-62;
(6) Die schlechte Ehefrau (The Bad Wife), Vargyas, pp. 93-96;
(7) Die drei Waisen (The Three Orphans), Vargyas, pp. 23-34;
(8) Der Scheintote (The Speaking Corpse), Vargyas, pp. 62-67;
(9) Der wundersam Verstorbene (The Marvelous Corpse), Vargyas, pp. 68-76.
For comment on Vargyas's book, which contains a list pertinent to this article, see No. 27a below. I am indebted to the author for this remarkable book. It reached me only in the last days before this article was completed.
These descriptions have a more pronounced folkloristic aspect than their Indian and Hungarian counterparts. A section entitled (No. 10) Folkvisor edited by Knut Liestol in Nordisk Kultur, IX (Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, 1931) is by several hands: H. Griiner Nielsen, Sverker Ek, Otto Andersson, and Knut Liestol. It deals with Danish, Swedish, Finnish Swedish, and Norwegian, Faeroic, and Icelandic song, respectively. These accounts, which are selective rather than complete, ordinarily cite only a single reference to the text and are literaryhistorical and folkloristic in qualitiy. They begin with surveys of the history of collections and then review the texts in a roughly chronological order that concludes with historical and humorous songs and broadsides. They are excellent introductions to the study of folksong and do not aim to be more than that. The limitations of the series preclude their being anything more ambitious.
Let us turn from these brief interpretative accounts of folksong to lists made
for reference use. Such lists are few and naturally closely associated with the
collection and archivization of folksongs and are naturally perhaps rarely published.
An early example and perhaps the first was made more than a century ago
by Svend Grundtvig as a guide for his studies. Although it has not been published
formally as a classification, its importance and influence justify offering an
account of it. It may be noticed in passing that Grundtvig also classified folktales
in a system that is still used in the Dansk Folkmindesamling and was used Axel
Olrik in correspondence with Antti Aarne about the making of the Verzeichnis
of 1910 (FF Communications 3). Information about Grundtvig's list of folksongs
must be gathered from several sources.
Grundtvig divided Danish folksongs into (1) ballads (gamle folkeviser), (2)
jocular songs (skxmteviser), (3) post-medieval songs (efterklang, i.e., echoes). He
published the first group (No. 11) in Danmarks gamle folkeviser (10 vols., Copenhagen,
1853 -. Vol. XI containing tunes remains to be completed), which was
continued after his death by Axel Olrik, Erik Dal, and Nils Schiorring. The
second group of jocular songs was published in various small collections with subclassifications
based on contents. The third group of texts has been only partly
published and its sub-classes can be most easily surveyed in (No. 12) Nils Schiorring,
Det 16. og 17. arhundredes verdslige danske visesang; en efter forskning
efter det anvendte melodistofs kar og veje, 2 vols., Copenhagen, 1950).
Grundtvig divided ballads in a tentative chronological order (No. 11) into (1)
texts containing Old Norse materials, (2) nature-mythical texts grouped according
to the kind of magic involved, with an appendix of legendary ballads, (3) historical
texts in a chronological order according to the events narrated, and (4) texts
dealing with chivalric stories. The last category was published in Danmaks gamle
folkeviser without indications of a sub-classification, but such a sub-classification
existed and has since been published; see H. Griiner-Nielsen in Nordisk kultur,
IX (Copenhagen, 1931), 24-25. It has been reprinted by Erik Dal in the preface
to the reprint of Danmaks gamle folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1966-1967), IV, with
the addition of titles appropriate to each volume. The classification here adopted
is roughly as follows: a female character and a happy ending; a female character
8 Archer Taylor
and an ending in grief and tragedy; a male character with subdivision into various
sub-groups determined by the action, and some "romanviser" and late lyrical
ballads.
Svend Grundtvig and Nils Schiorring classified the post-medieval ballads
according to contents using criteria that varied somewhat from group to group,
as follows: (1) Biblical, Christian, and moral songs, including festival songs, subdivided
into (a) spiritual songs (with subdivisions), (b) festival songs connected
with the seasons; (2) secular songs subdivided into (a) "romanviser" (long narratives
not in ballad metres), (b) epic love songs (subdivided), (c) lyrico-epic
songs often in the first person and with scanty plot, (c) love lyrics, happy or
unhappy, (d) didactic or moralizing secular songs, (e) songs associated various
groups in the community (the German "stindische Lieder"); (3) historical songs,
subdivided into (a) political songs about current events, (b) songs about Danish
and foreign historical figures. H. Griiner-Nielsen, Danske Viser 1530-1630
(7 vols., Copenhagen, 1912-1931) overlaps Grundtvig's category of "efterklang"
or echoes (No. 13).
While much of this labor of classification has been a useful survey of the texts,
it has not, with the exception of the first portion dealing with the ballads, yielded
a list or classification readily used for reference. With considerable modification
Grundtvig's classification of ballads has been the basis of the arrangement adopted
in (No. 14) F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 vols., Cambridge,
Mass., 1885-1898). This collection deserves special mention here because it has
served, especially in the United States, as a means of indexing ballads. Child
did not however indicate divisions or groups in the materials and did not therefore
make fully clear the service that his collection was to render to later collectors and
editors. Tristram Coffin, as we shall see, used the collection as a basis for a
reference list (No. 32). It should be stressed that Child added various indexes that
substantially increased the usefulness of the collection as a reference work, notably
the index of incidents and the index of non-English texts according to languages.
There are a few parallels to the first of these (see below, Nos. 38-39), but I
cannot cite anything like the second index in any list or classification.
The largest and most generously conceived general list of folksong is Conrad
Laforte, Le Catalogue de la chanson folklorique franqaise, Publications des Archives
de folklore, Universit6 Laval (Quebec, 1958. Pp. xxix, 397. 125 copies).
This account (No. 15) of French Canadian folksongs begins with introductory
remarks by the author and Luc Lacourciere about the problems that they encountered
in their work. The former is director of the archives, a collector, and
a professor of folklore; the latter is a trained librarian and also a collector. The
Catalogue is an alphabetical list of titles of songs with citations of first lines and
cross-references to a main entry, quotations of the first stanza, references to tunes
when they are available, and some references to printed sources. A considerable
number of titles have been excerpted from continental French sources, although
Laforte does not attempt to give a complete account of them. The Catalogue
includes French songs current in Louisiana and embraces narrative songs, lyric
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 9
songs, children's songs, and obscenities. He does not attempt to list the actual
manuscript and printed texts known to him because they can be obtained from
the archive in Quebec. The description of the French song is complete, for it includes
citation of the refrain and identification of the tune. He does not, however, endeavor
to cite parallels, when they exist, in languages other than French. The
discussion of methods of indexing songs and the argument for choosing an arrangement
by titels rather than subject matter must be studied.
Laforte was employing a pattern that more or less dictated itself and upon which
he made considerable improvements in such matters as the abundant use of crossreference
from variant titles to the main entry, the quoting of the first stanza, the
references to tunes, and so on. We find the same pattern almost twenty years
earlier in the (No. 16) Check-List of Recorded Songs in the English language in
the Archive of American Folk Song to July, 1940. Alphabetical list with geographical
index (3 vols., stencilled, Washington, D.C., 1942. Pp. 456, 138 [index]).
The geographical index is an addition that can be useful on occasion. It is a rare
example of such an index. This list of identifications of folksongs by titles or,
when it is lacking, by first lines is intended for commercial rather than scholarly
users. The entry consists of the singer's and the collector's name, the date and
place of the recording, and the manufacturer's number. Probably more than 9,000
songs are indexed in this fashion.
There is a considerable difference between this account of recordings and
(No. 17) Edwin C. Kirkland, "A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs,"
Journal of American Folklore, LIX (1946), 423-476, althoguh both compilations
are called "check list" to indicate their brevity in citations. Kirkland is very
generous in his plan of including all songs taken down in the state wherever and
however they have been preserved. He lists songs published in books and journal
articles, manuscript master's theses, the previously mentioned Library of Congress
list of records, and even a book published in England. The songs are identified
by titles, the tune is noted if it has been published, the collector's name and the
place where the song was collected are given,-and all this in a single line.
There are not quotations of texts or parts of texts. We could have spared the
last score of entries that are in this form: "No title (text). Crabtree 210. Overton
County," from which it is impossible to learn anything more than that an unidentified
song has been taken down in Overton Co. Kirkland's brief checklist should
have stimulated the compilation of similar lists for other states.
A somewhat similar list which contains more information about the texts cited
and at the same time exhibits certain limitations that a call for study is (No. 18)
Margaret Dean-Smith, A Guide to English Folk-Song Collections 1822-1952
with an index to their contents, historical annotations and an introduction (The
University Press of Liverpool in association with the English Folk Dance and
Song Society, 1954. Pp. 120). The contents of the Guide are discussed on pp. 22-
24. Notable exclusions are manuscript materials (p. 23) and sound recordings
(p. 23), although some of the latter are included. I am not altogether clear about
the policy regarding nursery rhymes. In any case the Guide is strictly limited to
10 ArcherT aylor
"English" texts, that is to say, texts taken down in England. One cannot but
join the compiler in the following remarks (p. 23):
Thatt he agreedt ermso f referenche avem eante xcludingC ecilS harp'sA ppalachian
collection is a matter of deepest regret. English Folk Songs from the Southern
Appalachiannso t only surpasseas ny Englishc ollectiony et made,a nd, in editorial
presentatioinn troducetsh e studentt o the meansa nd methodso f comparativset udy,
it displayss ongst hat weref oundi n Englandim perfectm, utilatedi,n completei,f not
in their" originalf"o rmsa t leasti n formsi ndicativeo f theirf ull conceptionA. lthough
it couldn ot have beeni ncludedi n the Guidei t has beenu sedt imesw ithoutn umber
as a meanso f identificationa nd in the choiceo f titles.F or thosew ho wisht o pursue
a song beyond the confines of the Guide, English Folk Songs from the Southern
Appalachianiss t he nexta ndi nevitablest ep.
A compilation so carefully planned as this is a model to be studied. The bibliography
of books excerpted with critical comments is one of the most instructive
pieces of work of its kind that I can cite.
I deal only briefly and not very successfully with one example of a national
checklist that is hard to come by and difficult to use for various reasons. It is a
bibliography of Bulgarian folksong compiled under the editorship of S. Romanski
and is entitled. (No. 19) Pregled na o'garskite narodni piesni, Izvestiia na seminara
po slavianska filologiia pri universiteta v Sofiia, Nos. 5 (Sofia, 1925. Pp. xvi,
631) and 6 (1929. Pp. 471. Not seen). My knowledge of Bulgarian is scanty, the
book makes very few references to non-Bulgarian materials, and the classified
arrangement requires at least a minimum of acquaintance with the texts and
related ideas. I see only one western title in the bibliography (pp. xi-xvi):
Auguste Dozon, Chansons populaires bulgares inedites (Paris, 1875). The Pregled
surveys songs of all kinds beginning with seasonal and religious songs and concluding
with narratives. As far as I can see, no texts are cited from manuscripts, but
the great Bulgarian folklore journal seems to have been carefully excerpted. Each
entry consists of a title, a summary of contents, and at least one bibliographical
reference. The entries may on occasion (for example, pp. 604-605, No. 632)
include as many as a dozen references to texts (in this case they are divided into
two classes). I see very little mention of the discussion of individual songs and
nothing in languages other than Bulgarian except a few citations of Russian collections.
Konservator Brednich, who has examined Seemann's copy of Part 2, tells
me that it is an exhaustive thematic index. It would be very interesting to know
more about it, for thematic indexes other than those to Child's Ballads and the
Liederhort are few. I lay the book aside with the impression that it is a very
diligent piece of work from which much can be learned.
The largest account in print-unpublished lists made for use in archives cannot
be studied without visiting the archives and are therefore omitted in this discussion-
is (No. 20) Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Folk-Songs of Virginia. A descriptive
index and classification of material collected under the auspices of the Virginia
Folklore Society. (Durham, N. C., 1949. Pp. xxxv, 389). It lists more than three
thousand texts in a classified arrangement that the compiler explains at length
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 11
in his Introduction. It is provided with an "Alphabetical Index of Titles and
First Lines" (pp. 351-389) that the compiler describes as follows (p. 351):
It has not been thought necessary to include here every minor variant of either
title or first line, but all major titles and first lines have been included, as well as
a sufficient number of the variants to enable the reader to find and identify the
song he is seeking.
The contents of the songs are identified by the categories to which they are
assigned, but are not summarized. Nor does the book include, except for the
Child ballads (pp. 3-36), references to previous publications of the songs. The
special utility of the book consists in the alphabetical index of titles and first
lines. The Introduction deals with previous arrangements of English songs and
discussions of them and should be studied by those interested in classified arrangements.
The last example that I shall cite of a general list of folksongs is a very instructive
article by James Ross entitled (No. 21) "A Classification of Gaelic Folk-
Song," Scottish Studies, I (1957), 95-151. This might have been mentioned along
with O Suiilleabhaiin's categories of Irish folksongs (No. 1). Ross wishes to give
an adequate account of a body of traditional materials that he finds to be very
different from any other body of such materials. At the time when he wrote the
School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh had more than two thousand songs that
need classification. He explains the names given to the various categories at
length, but for the sake of simplicity I adopt the English equivalents of certain
names, although he finds them to be less accurate. His classification, which should
be compared to the classification of Irish songs, is as follows:
1. Theme
1. 1 Songs with an inter-sexual aspect
1. 1. 1 Love songs (general)
1. 1. 2 Matchmaking Songs
1. 1. 3 Night visit songs
1. 1. 4 Pregnancy songs
1. 1. 5 Rejection songs
1. 1. 6 Complaints (tamailt)
1. 2 Songs relating to the physical environment
1. 2. 1 Hunting songs
1. 2. 2 Homeland songs
1. 2. 3 Topographical songs
1. 3 Panegyric
1. 3. 1 Eulogy
1. 3. 2 Elegy
1. 3. 3 Lament
1. 4 Satire
1. 4. 1 Diatribe (aoir)
1. 4. 2 Flyting
12 Archer Taylor
1. 5 Songs of miscellaneous themes
1. 5. 1 Religious songs
1. 5. 2 Bacchanalia
1. 5. 3 Jacobite songs
1. 5. 4 Merry songs
2. Structure
2. 1 Ballads
2. 1. 1 Heroic ballads
2. 1. 2 Sailors' ballads (placename songs)
2. 1. 3 Soldiers' ballads
2. 2 Macaronics
2. 3 Pibroch (bagpipe) songs
2. 4 Puirt-a-beul (mouth-music)
3. Folk aetiology
3. 1 Fairy songs
4. Song function
4. 1 Songs associated with ritual
4. 1. 1 Hogmanay songs
4. 1. 2 Charms and incantations
4. 2 Occupational songs
4. 2. 1 Cradle songs
4. 2. 2 Milking songs
4. 2. 3 Palming or clapping songs
4. 2. 4 Rowing songs
4. 2. 5 Spinning songs
This classification has been most carefully made and my ignorance of Gaelic
folksong prevents me from commenting on it in anything but the most general
fashion. Ross gives few examples of individual songs and does not suggest how
he has arranged them in the various subdivisions. Nor has he added an index of
any sort. His criticism of the various categories is instructive and even more so,
his historical remarks. Many of these categories may have no general relevance
to the classification of folksongs in languages other than Gaelic, but that fact
is not particularly important here. His work is an excellent piece of exposition in
a strange and difficult field.
Three Varieties of Comprehensive Scholarly Surveys of Folksongs
There remain three types of comprehensive scholarly surveys of folksongs that
have not been exemplified in the preceding review: (1) the elaborate scholarly list.
This differs in purpose, details, and manner of execution from the previously
mentioned lists. (2) the collection that aims to include the texts and tunes of all the
folksongs in a national tradition; (3) the comparative account of the songs in
two genres or national traditions.
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 13
The elaborate scholarly list
More than fifty years ago Gustav Jungbauer compiled a very learned account
of German songs in Bohemia (now Czechoslovakia): (No.22) Bibliographie des
deutschen Volksliedes in Bdhmen, Beitrdige zur deutsch-bbhmischen Volkskunde, 2
(Prague, 1913. Pp. xlvii, 576). He intends to list and classify all the narrative,
religious, historical, and other songs individually and when that is not possible,
to identify groups. He cites all the versions of each song, even those published
in journals, with references to German parallels and discussions. Lyric quatrains
and children's songs are dealt with usually in groups. The arrangement in the
categories is not readily perceived except in the case of historical songs which
are arranged chronologically according to the events they narrate. The carefully
made indexes will prove useful. A list of the chapters or categories (but not their
many subdivisions) with the number of songs in each will characterize this bibliography:
(1) General Collections and Treatises Nos. 1-47c; (2) Narrative Songs,
Nos. 48-161; (3) Love and Marriage, Nos. 162-567; (4) Religious Songs (and)
the Year in Songs, Games, and Didactic Verse (Spruch), Nos. 568-1150; (5) Songs
Associated with Trades and Historical Songs, Nos. 1151-1442; (6) Verse of
Local Origin (Bodenstiindige Dichtungen), Nos. 1443-1526; (7) Songs of Literary
Origin, Nos. 1527-1983; (8) Songs of the Joy in Life, Nos. 1984-2178b, (9)
Quatrains, Nos. 2179-2282 (with an appendix, Nos. 2283-2295, Songs without
Words); Appendix I, Children's Verses, Nos. 2296-2249a; Appendix II, Didactic
Verse (superstitions, epitaphs and inscriptions, weather rhymes, riddles, etc.), Nos.
2250-2711). Indexes that list authors of books and articles about folksongs,
versifiers and composers, places where individual songs have been taken down,
subjects, and first lines make it possible to find one's way in this storehouse
of information.
It is not surprising that Jungbauer fills a thick closely printed volume with
this bibliography. Unfortunately his labor has not found the appreciation and
use that it deserved. The first world war came too soon after its publication for it
to be widely circulated. Scholars have been concerned chiefly with narrative
songs that are not particularly well represented in Bohemian-German tradition.
With the passing of more than half a century Jungbauer's bibliography is a record
of a vanished tradition.
Comprehensive National Collections of Folksongs
A comprehensive national collection of folksongs, expecially one that gives titles
by which the songs can be easily identified and includes some critical and comparative
annotation, is likely to become a reference work. It becomes a place to which
notes of all kinds are attached. Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
and before it Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry served such uses
to some extent in the history of the study of English songs. Des Knaben Wunderhorn
by Arnim and Brentano played a similar part in Germany. But these collections
did not become permanent centers about which the cataloguing of folksongs
14 Archer Taylor
organized itself. The reasons why this did not happen are various. The collections
did not fit the temper of a later age sufficiently well to be accepted as bases of
future study. The new editors usually wished to restrict themselves to a portion of
the field, usually to narrative songs, and they wished to work in their own ways.
Whatever the reasons may be-and they varied from country to country and
editor to editor-collectors of folksongs did not accept generally the leadership of
a single collection in the way that the rhymes of Mother Goose became in English
a canonical collection of children's songs,-and even this had no true reality as a
scholarly center.
Ludwig Erk, who was a notable collector and editor of German folksongs, conceived
the notion of a single national collection that should embrace them all. He
left it unfinished when he died and Franz Magnus Bbhme completed it. Although
later scholars have found much to criticize in the book that finally appeared, it
was the joint work of two men with complementary interests and abilities. Erk
was a collector and editor of folksongs. Bbhme, a professional musician, had
already published a book of somewhat similar scope and nature (Altdeutsches Liederbuch.
Leipzig, 1877. Pp. lxxii, 832. 660 songs) and was working on Volksthiimliche
Lieder der Deutschen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1895. Pp. xxi,
628. 780 texts), which was a work that supplemented a collection of folksongs in
much the same way that a collection of quotations supplements a collection of
proverbs. The result of the joint labors of Erk and B6hme was (No. 23) Deutscher
Liederhort (3 vols.; Leipzig, 1893, 1894.). This large book was published at a price
that ensured its wide distribution. It contained a bibliography, indexes, rich and
instructive annotation, and musical texts. It was indeed a Treasure of German
Songs (Deutscher Liederhort). Reference to this collection is still convenient for
identifying a text. For example, Erich Seemann made a comparison of German and
Lithuanian song-traditions which is next to be discussed and identified the German
texts by references to the Liederhort. It has become after a fashion a classified list
of German songs as well as a collection. The faults of the Liederhort are many and
grievous and have frightened later scholars away from the notion of a revision.
Nevertheless, I can conceive that an index, list, or classification that was based on
the Liederhort and retained its widely used numbers would be an aid to scholars.
Even now two generations and more after its publication and with all its faults it
is just such a work. This is no unreasonable or impossible suggestion for we shall
see that Coffin's list of English ballads has been made in a similar fashion and has
proved to be acceptable to scholars.
I shall not describe the Liederhort and its methods or try to name works of the
same sort in other countries with three exceptions. The little known Slovene collection
by Karel Strekelj entitled (No. 24) Slovenske narodne pesmi (4 vols.,
Ljubljana, 1895-1923. Pp. xxiv, 820; xxviii, 900; xxiv, 851, *'66, 819) containing
8686 texts (variants of a song are numbered separately), is comparable to the
Liederhort, but the songs often lack titles, the annotation does not go far beyond
naming the collector and explaining difficult words, and tunes are few in number.
The tables of contents in the several volumes are generous, but there are no indexes.
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 15
Admirable as the collection is, it does not lend itself easily to becoming the foundation
of a list.
While circumstances have not made it possible for me to explore the listing and
classification of Slavic folksong, and consequently my report is unsatisfactory in
this regard. Nor can I offer a much better report of lists and classifications of
folksong in the Romance languages. I mention here a standard collection that serves
in the lack of anything better as a list and leave a chronological list for later
mention. This standard collection is (No. 25) Augustin Durain, Romancero general,
6 Colecci6n de romances castellanos anterior al siglo XVIII, recogidos, ordenados,
clasificados y anotados (2 vols., Biblioteca de autores espafioles, 10, 16; Madrid,
1849, 1851). This is sufficiently described by its title and the words "ordenados,
clasificados." There are no indexes. The dates of publication are a commentary that
spares me further remarks. There are various good regional and national collections
in Romance languages other than Spanish, but I do not see that they have established
themselves as lists. The only one that might be named is (No. 26) Theophilo
Braga, Romanceiro geral portuguez (2d ed., 3 vols., Lisbon, 1906-1909). Although
its importance is obvious, it has no striking details of method that call for notice.
Lists of the Songs Shared by Two Genres or
National Traditions
A comprehensive list that embraces all genres of folksong in more than one
national tradition is seen in (No. 27) Erich Seemann, "Deutsch-litauische Volksliedbeziehungen,"
Jahrbuch ftir Volksliedforschung, VIII (1951), 142-211. This list
is not to be confused with the lists of songs in a single genre that are found in two
or more countries. These will be discussed below. Seemann's list is divided into
fifteen categories or genres selected in a manner that appears to be Seemann's
invention. It is somewhat confused by his decision to put "Group I. Narrative
Songs" last because it is the most important and interesting and requires the fullest
discussion. His comparisons concern only German and Lithuanian folksongs but the
discussion is enlarged by citations of texts from almost every European language.
The Slavic languages are generously represented, the Romance languages less
generously, and Basque is cited at least once. The usefulness of this amazingly
learned list is obvious and no student of folksong can read it without finding
something useful. For example, Seemann's discussion of songs akin to "The Maid
Freed from the Gallows" (Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 95)
reaches into the traditions of almost every country; see pp. 195-199. He raises
the question whether it can be called a ballad at all and points out the many songs
based on the sequence father, mother, brother, sister, lover. His discussion goes
far beyond German-Lithuanian relationships and introduces a new concept that
deserves study for its own sake. I do not linger over this but point out that his task
has led him to an entirely new idea of fundamental importance. No student of
"The Twa Sisters" (Child, No. 10) can safely overlook Seemann's remarks on pp.
174-176. My comments have gone somewhat afield, but it will characterize
16 ArcherT aylor
Seemann's work. Thirty very important ballads are its core. His masterly investigation
is all the more remarkable because Seemann wrote it without the help of the
DeutschesV olksliedarchiva nd its library that had been storedi n a safe place during
the war. I cannot cite a comparable study of all the genres of two national traditions.
A list (No. 27a) of extraordinary importance comes to my attention after the
completion of this article. It will be found in Lajos Vargyas, Researchesi nto the
Mediaeval History of Folk Ballad (Budapest, 1967), pp. 244-253 and is entitled
Table VIII. Types of Ballads Grouped According to Themes. It is a logical classification
of ballads in Hungarian, French, English, Dutch, and German that Vargyas
has compiled to make clear the true nature of the genre. This is neither the place nor
the time to discuss it adequately. It is enough to say that it involves an entirely
new conception of the genre in which the supernatural and mythological play no
part. It rests upon his belief in the primacy of French tradition in the genre and
cannot be properly interpreted without study of the argument in which it is
embedded. Students of the ballad will have to come to grips with his argument.
I mention here the one example that I know of a list of comparisons of songs in
two genres. Obviously such a list is an unusual sort of compilation because crossinfluences
between genres of songs are naturally rare. The list to which I refer is
(No. 28) Kurt Hennig, Die geistliche Kontrafaktur im Jahrhundert der Reformation.
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichted es deutschenV olks- und Kirchenliedesi m XVI.
Jahrhundert (Halle, 1909. Pp. xi, 322). Kontrafakta are hymns based on secular
songs. They may be incomplete, employing only the tune or they may be complete
and use words and themes of the original secular song. In the century of the Reformationw
hen the Protestantc hurchesn eededm any new hymns for their religious
services many Kontrafakta were written. Hennig lists hundreds of examples and
gives some incidental discussion of the texts. For our purpose it is enough to say that
his index (pp. 316-322) does not identify the secular originals. It would be difficult
to cite a more striking illustration of a failure to make a list fully useful to its
users.
PART II. CLASSIFICATIONS OF BALLADS
We begin with a modest list whose authors hoped that it might become more than
a national list. The authors, Leiv Heggstad and H. Griiner Nielsen, thought of
it in terms of a "type-list" of northern balladry and spoke (p. 3) of it in terms
suggested by Antti Aarne's list of tales that had only two years before begun its
career. (No. 24) This Utsyn yver gamall norsk folkevisedikting (Kristiania, 1912.
Pp. 103) indexes 195 Norwegian ballads that have roots in medieval tradition.
The authors summarize a type briefly, give references to Norwegian printed sources
(occasionally to manuscripts), and add references to other northern ballad traditions.
I choose for translation the type that corresponds to Child, No. 95, "The
Maid Freed from the Gallows":
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 17
93. Ransomed Maiden
Pirates are about to carry off a maiden to a heathen country. Se asks father,
mother, sister, and brother to ransom her, but none of them will do so. Finally
her lover comes and ransoms her.
Icelandic, Fxroic (FK 129), Swedish, Danish, German, English, Finnish,
Estonian, southern and eastern European. DgF 487 (unpublished); Afzelius 14;
Child 95; Pineau II p. 454'.
While the Utsyn summarizes conveniently a certain number of medieval ballads
and many at times help one to identify a text, it did not find much scholarly use.
This is not surprising, but needs a brief explanation. The Utsyn was written in
landsmaal, a variety of Norwegian that not every student of balladry reads readily.
The classification of texts is not particularly useful because it adds few new references
to parallels and cites these in such general terms that they are not quickly
found. It has no indexes of any kind and more than one is needed. And neither
the publisher nor the authors obtained reviews in folklore journals. Since Heggstad
and Griiner Nielsen assigned new numbers of their own to the types and cited the
numbers of ballads in Danmarks gamle folkeviser only in the discussion, the need
for an index according to the Danish collection is obvious. Anyone who uses the
Utsyn often will find it necessary to make it for his own use.
A remarkable list of Swedish ballads or ballad types has just been made and will
be found in (No. 30) Bengt R. Jonsson, Svensk balladtradition, I (Stockholm,
[1966]. Pp. xix, 912) on pp. 713-775. It contains references to the Swedish types
that are found in the Utsyn and a supplementary list of 34 Swedish types (pp.
768-775). Jonsson explains (p. 715) that he intends to show the currency of the
types in Scandinavian tradition generally and in Swedish tradition according to
regions. Such descriptive details about distribution are unusual. For example, neither
Child's Ballads nor lists based on it give this information. Since Josson's book is an
exhaustive study of collections of Swedish balladry, he finds it easy to cite the
dates when the individual ballads were mentioned or recorded. His attention to this
detail is especially commendable. For various reasons his list is not as complete in
details as a list made for its own sake would be. He does not give summaries of the
ballads but expects his reader to get this information from the Utsyn. His book is
very large and inclusion of the summaries would have meant making it still larger.
Nevertheless, summaries of the additional Swedish ballads which are not in the
Utsyn would have been welcome. This admirable list deserves careful study.
Jonas Balys has compiled a somewhat similar work entitled (No. 31) Lithuanian
Narrative Folksongs: a description of types and a bibliography, A Treasury of
Lithuanian Folklore, 4 (Washington, D. C., 1954. Pp. 144). This contains a very
generous body of introductory materials: I. Introduction (pp. 5-25), including
"Folksong and Ballad" (pp. 5-6), "Creators and Bearers (of the traditions) (pp.
2 It seems unnecessary to interpret the abbreviated titles except to say that references to
"Bihme" concern Erk and Bihme, Deutscher Liederhort (No. 23) and not F. M. Bbhme,
Altdeutsches Liederbuch and that the Danish ballad here cited as DgF 487 has been
printed as No. 486.
2 Jahrbuch f. Volksliedforschung XIII
18 ArcherT aylor
6-10); "Variation" (pp. 10-12); "National and International" (pp. 12-16);
"Plot" (p. 16); "Mood" (pp. 16-19); "Poetical Artifices" (pp. 19-21); "Classification"
(pp. 21-22); "Titles and Phrasing" (p. 23); "References" (pp. 24-25);
II, "Bibliography"( pp. 26-35) (including descriptionso f relatively little-known
books).
The text consists of a corpus of Lithuanian balladry (one infers that it is intended
to be complete but there is no clear statement to this effect). The summaries of the
types are given a letter indicating the category and an identifying number. The
categories are rather numerous and are entirely different from those employed in
other classifications of narrative songs. For that reason they are worth quoting:
A. Youth and Maiden; B. Family; C. Cruelty; D. War; E. Historical; F. Magic;
G. Dead; H. Mythological; J. Fate; K. Drowning; L. Hunting; M. Animals, Birds,
and Plants. Category I is omitted to avoid confusion with the numeral. A typical
example of a summary is
A66. "Dear Girl, Wake Me Up Early"
A soldier, spending a night with a girl, asked her to awaken him early in
the morning so that he could be on time for his duties. He overslept, indeed,
and made complaints to the girl, because she did not waken him.
(3) Kolb, No. 5 = Bartsch II No. 339/ Bielinis No. 20 / TD IV No. 200.
Ukrainian: Cub. V 198 No. 26. White Russian: Bel Sbor. I 95 No. 54
(Cf. 97 No. 57); II 407 No. 703.
There are no indexes accompanying this list but it is not so long that a student
will find it difficult to run through it for the information he needs. He will be all
the more likely to do this because the original classification adopted by Balys involves
some overlapping. Comparison with other systems of classification suggests
itself immediately. Since Balys was once archivist of the Lithuanian collections we
can assume that he has indexed all the Lithuanian ballads and has thus given us
invaluable information about a body of tradition that is otherwise difficult to
survey.
Two scholars have indexed American ballads and have enjoyed the unusual
success of seeing their work in a second edition. They deal with quite different
kinds of ballads and consequently their methods and results differ considerably.
The first of these catalogues to be considered here is (No. 32) Tristram P. Coffin,
The British Traditional Ballad in North America, Publications of the American
Folklore Society, Bibliographical Series, 2 (rev. ed., Philadelphia, 1963. Pp. xv,
186). This is a list of the Child ballads reported from tradition in the United States
and Canada. Professor Coffin intended to write a treatise on story variation rather
than a list. Had he chosen a title that stated this purpose and had he arranged his
materials accordingly, the scholarly world would have accepted his work for what
he intended it to be. Its arrangement is according to the numbers in Child, English
and Scottish Popular Ballads. He only occasionally refers to or uses the classification
of the versions that Child had set up since these concerned British as well as
3 Abbreviations have not been expanded.
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 19
American texts. He recognizes entirely new categories of versions and cites a few
texts belonging to each category. He gives also very large collections of versions
without putting them into categories. Except in occasional instances his discussion
does not deal with Child's categories of versions nor with those set up by other and
later editors. There is an index of titles but none of story variation. An index that
would make apparent the kinds of variation would be difficult to make but would
be very instructive. The book is marred by many bibliographical errors, but they
have not proved to be a hindrance to its acceptance as a list of American and
Canadian versions of the Child ballads.
G. Malcolm Laws, Native American Balladry. A descriptive study and a bibliographical
syllabus (1950), which had the good fortune to enjoy a revised edition
(Publications of the American Folklore Society, Bibliographical and Special Series,
1; Philadelphia, 1964. Pp. xiv, 298) is, as its title indicates, both a historical
and critical study of native American ballads (and in the revised edition Canadan
ballads) and a list (No. 33). We are concerned only with the latter. This list includes
ballads that have been sung traditionally within the past forty years. Pieces known
to have been composed since 1930 and those of uncertain traditional quality have
been included. The latter category are, however, listed briefly in Appendix II (pp.
257-276). "Ballad-like Pieces" are listed alphabetically by titles only with references
to a printed text in Appendix III (pp. 277-278) and "Imported Ballads and
Folksongs" are similarly listed in Appendix IV (pp. 279-280).
Laws recognizes and discusses the difficulties of classification (pp. 11-12) and
comments (p. 12, n. 10):
Each ballad is listed under a particular heading and given a number so that
it may be readily identified and distinguished from similar pieces. Other
arrangements will be found more suitable for other purposes. Designating a
ballad "C 19" does not mean that it should always be studied as a lumberjack
ballad or that "C 18" and "C 20" should be regarded as most nearly like it.
Nor should the reader be too disturbed to find that "G 1" and "G 31" are
widely separated (since the latter has been added in this edition), though both
are about railroad accidents. Both may be located fairly easily under "Ballads
of Tragedies and Disasters." While it may be theoretically desirable to have a
logical system of classification of all Anglo-American ballads, I have seen no
indication that such a system can be devised.
These carefully considered remarks by one who has offered us twice in the space
of fifteen years a classification of American ballads have general validity and
should be noted by all who undertake to classify folksongs. It seems unnecessary
to cite the categories that Laws sets up, since they are useful only for a particular
kind of balladry. It is enough to underscore his final remark about the difficulty or
impossibility of inventing a logical system of classification of Anglo-American
ballads. We can praise his later work (No. 34), American Balladry from British
Broadsides: A guide for students and collectors of traditional song (Publications of
the American Folklore Society, Bibliographical and Special Series, 8; Philadelphia,
1957). Like its predecessor, this is a well-conceived reference work.
20 ArcherT aylor
I mention here a work that I have not seen because it has been recommended to
me as a list: (No. 35) D. M. Balashov, Narodnyie ballady (Moscow-Leningrad,
1963). If it is indeed a list or contains a list and if it contains international
parallels, it is obviously a work of great usefulness.
PART III. LISTS IN A CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT
We come finally to lists of folksongs in a chronological order. For obvious
reasons such lists deal with only one genre of folksong. It would be difficult if not
impossible to arrange love songs, historical songs, and ballads in a single chronological
order and the result would have at best only doubtful value. Chronological
lists other than the naturally chronological collections of historical songs are
characteristicallyli sts of narrative songs. There appear to be two varieties of such
lists: (1) lists arranged according to the dates when the individual songs were
composed (such dates are obviously based on conjectures having various degrees of
plausibility) and (2) lists arranged according to the dates when the song was
published, alluded to, or otherwise indicated to have existed.
Lists (Usually Collections) in a Chronological
Order Suggested by the Contents of the Songs
Editors of collections of narrative songs, especially the collections accepted as
autorities, have ordinarily preferred to arrange the texts according to dates of
composition that can be inferred with more or less confidence from the contents of
the songs. Stylistic details-for example, the use of a two-line stanza-seem
occasionally to have played some part in the arrangement. Unfortunately editors
have rarely, if ever, discussed their procedures but have expected readers to perceive
their arrangementa nd the reasonsf or it. Theser easonsa ppeari n the editorical
comment on individual songs. Svend Grundtvig chose this plan for (No. 11)
Danmarks gamle folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1853-). It seemed obvious to him to put
first a few songst hat concernedp re-Christianm ythology, that is to say, the heathen
gods, and to continue with songs that suggested a later date for various reasons.
Francis James Child arranged his English and Scottish Popular Ballads (No. 14)
in a similar chronological order, beginning with No. 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded,"
because he recognized as parallels some very old texts in Indo-European
tradition. A critical analysis of his procedure that would include the texts that
came to his knowledge too late to be included in the proper places is much to be
desired.
Let us turn now to chronological lists of the second variety, those arranged
according to actual dates when the texts can be shown to have existed either in
print or in allusions. There are two examples of such lists. Ewald Fliigel published
long ago a list of Child's ballads in an order determined in this fashion: (No. 36)
"Zur Chronologie der englischen Balladen," Anglia, XXI (1899), 312-358. We
now know a great deal more than Fliigel could have known and can suggest
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 21
improvements in his work than he would no doubt have accepted, but these do not
impair the novelty and merit of his idea. Unfortunately no one has attempted to
draw inferences that his list might have suggested. Two samples of his method will
indicate how he went about the task:
23 (the number in Child's collection). Judas (the title of the text).
Ms., Trinity College, Cambridge B. 14. 39 "of the 13th century"'
117. A Gest of Robyn Hode. a) Druck von Chapman and Myllar, Edinburgh
15085
The usefulness of Fliigel's list is obvious and it is suprising that scholars have
made so little use of it. Criticism of the list in terms of our better knowledge of
printing in Great Britain is called for and I shall not linger over it. A curious
methodological detail is the fact that, although he was making a chronological list
he begins an entry not with a date but with Child's number. One could expect
him to begin with the date, which is his basis of classification. He does proceed in
this fashion when it is a question of a text not represented in the English and
Scottish Popular Ballads. Thus, for example, he cites in the appropriate place
fragments or allusions found in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Knight of the Burning
Pestle. These appear under "ca 1611" (see p. 323). In similar fashion many
texts in the section entitled "Balladen aus dem Percy Folio Ms" (pp. 325-328)
are noted as belonging to a much earlier date than the date of the edition. But, the
divergence from a strictly chronological order to an arrangement according to the
sources of texts is vexatious. Of course it is virtually impossible to establish a
precise chronology and all the more so when we do not any longer have the
original. Another instance of these difficulties appear on p. 339, where a text of
Child, No. 20, "The Cruel Mother" printed "um 1686" is cited in a section listing
texts of the second half of the eighteenth century. The chronology of texts recorded
in the nineteenth century is perhaps not very important, but Fliigel varies here
(pp. 349-357) from strict chronology to employ Child's arrangement.
Fliigel intends to index only the ballads that Child edited with some more or
less accidental additions. He does not include ballads or fragments mentioned in
the Stationers Register, the Complaint of Scotland (1575), and Captain Laneham's
Letter. The first of these has been excerpted by (No. 37) Hyder E. Rollins, "An
Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries in the Registers of the Company of Stationers
of London," Studies in Philology, XXI (1924), 1-324 (with some remarks
on pp. 1-2 about previous attempts to list the ballad entries). This is also a chronological
list of ballads, but is naturally of limited extent. The other works that
Fliigel cites were available in 1899 in modern editions. A new chronological list
that makes use of reference works not available to Fliigel is obviously a desid-
4 For our purpose we may disregard his further remarks.
5 Fliigel cites more printed texts here, but one example is enough. It should be noted,
however, that he cites here "Rymes of Robyn Hood" with the date "ca. 1377" that
should have been mentioned much earlier under an appropriate date. To be sure, it does
not seem to be possible to identify the "Rymes" as a reference to a particular ballad
known to us.
22 Archer Taylor
eratum. A sobering observation is that few scholars seem to have studied Fliigel's
list and to have drawn any inferences from it about the history of English ballads.
Another chronological list is found in a learned article (No. 38) by S. Griswold
Morley entitled "Chronological List of Early Spanish Ballads," Hispanic Review,
XIII (1945), 273-287. It begins with a version of "Gentil dama y el ruistico
pastor" (Primaver y flor, No. 145) found in a manuscript of 1421. There follow
three ballads from a manuscript dated about 1440 and the list continues down to
the texts in the Cancionero musical de los siglos XV y XVI (Cancionero de palacio),
which is dated about 1505. Here Morley stops just before the publication of two
great collections, the Cancionero generale of Hernando del Castillo (1511) and
that of Juan Fernandez de Constantino (n. d.). Although he cites texts from the
Cancionero musical according to types, he does not regard (p. 285) the dates of the
manuscripts generally to be sufficiently well established to justify more than a
tentative arrangement. His brief article is remarkable for the inferences he draws.
Few who have written on ballads have done anything similar. The contrast with
Fliigel's silence is striking. Morley comments on the popularity of the romances
generally, the scarcity of some types ("The lack of [romances juglarescos] is... a
curious and unexpected fact"), and the absence of texts belonging to the famous
cycles of ballads about such heroes as Bernardo del Carpio, Fernain Gonzilez, the
Infantes de Lara, and the Cid. Finally, he points out that "The earliest romances
viejos preserved are strongly lyrical in nature. The readiness with which observations
about the history of Spanish romances suggest themselves on reading Morley's
article and their obvious importance emphasize the merit of a chronological listing
of the texts6.
PART IV. THEMATIC INDEXES OF NARRATIVE SONGS
There remains a variety of list or index that, although it is very useful, is represented
by only a few examples. It is the thematic index or index of motifs and
narrative themes. There is no general agreement about what such an index should
contain or about its arrangement. We must define it by considering the examples.
We need not name here the few general indexes of motifs and themes accompanying
a few standard collections of texts. These also are regrettably few and show that
editorial practice has reached no agreement regarding contents. Among indexes
published apart from collections I mention only (No. 39) H. F. Feilberg, Bidrag til
en ordbog over jyske almuesmal (4 vols., Copenhagen, 1886-1914). This includes
references to the materials of folksongs.
The oldest and still the most important index of themes in narrative songs is an
alphabetical index (No. 14) in Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. It is a
valuable scholarly aid almost seventy years after its first publication. Unfortunately
its existence has not suggested to the editors of other collections that an
6 Professor Morley omits mention of some romances that he is aware of in Fray Ambrosio
Montesino, Coplas (Toledo, n. d. [ca. 14851); see pp. 284-285, n. 27. No doubt
this rare book was not available to him at the time when he was writing.
Lists and Classificationso f Folksongs 23
index of this sort is a useful addition to their work. Since it includes much more
than the English ballads, it has general value. There is a brief index of this sort in
Erk and Bdhme, Deutscher Liederhort (No. 23), but it does not, I venture to think,
enjoy general scholarly use. These indexes are alphabetical in arrangement.
Finally, there is a "thesaurus of Scandinavian song" (No. 40)-the words are
those of W. Edson Richmond, who calls it to my attention-by Ernst von der
Recke. This work is in manuscript, but I make an exception to the rule of omitting
mention of manuscript indexes because it exists in several copies-one each in
Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm-and has therefore enjoyed publication of a
sort. I have not seen it and both name and describe it from information given me
by Erik Dal and W. Edson Richmond. It is a very large classified list of topics or
themes-horses, love, marriage, etc.-in all the songs published in Scandinavian
collections down to about 1935. The arrangement is classified. It was compiled
after Feilberg's Bidrag til en ordbog and is far more comprehensive in conception.
Richmond calls it an "indispensable" work.
PART V. CONCLUSION
The foregoing account of lists and classifications of folksongs enables us to make
some general remarks about them. It is incomplete and intends to name only characteristic
varieties. It does not aim to be a bibliography. It does not, for example,
include efforts to list or classify hymns, a genre that occasionally overlaps folksong.
These present to a maker of a list difficulties and complications of their own. It
is worth saying that we do not have among reference works for the study of folksong
a work similar to (No. 41) John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (rev. ed.,
London, 1908; reprinted, 2 vols., New York: Dover, 1957). This is encyclopedic in
quality. It contains rather little about subject matter (which is to be understood
more or less from the circumstances and the title), a great deal about the origin,
use, and currency of the texts, and somewhat about tunes associated with the texts.
Its scope and quality make the Dictionary a work that the maker of a list of
folksongs can profitably study for ideas that he can use. Nor have I mentioned such
works as (No. 41) Philipp Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der diltesten
Zeit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts (5 vols., Leipzig, 1864-1877) and (No.
42) Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder (6 vols.,
Giitersloh, 1889-1893). There are also difficult problems in listing and classifying
lyric quatrains known as stev, Schnaderhiipfel, coplam and pantun (Malay)7.
7 For a start see such works as Gustav Meyer, Essays und Studien zur Sprachgeschichte
und Volkskunde (2 vols., Strassburg, 1885, 1893); Richard Steffen, Enstrofig nordisk
folklyrik, Svenska landsmilen, 16, No. 1 (Stockholm, 1898) and Svenska lAtar, Svenska
lansmilen, 16, No. 2 (Stockholm, 1918-1921); E. K. Bliimml and F. S. Krauss, Ausseer
und Ischler Schnaderhiipfeln (Leipzig, 1906); A. Ive, Canti popolari velletrani (Roma
1907); and Wayland D. Hand, The Schnaderhiipfel: an Alpine folk lyric (Diss., University
of Chicago, 1936). Olav Bo is the modern authority on the subject, especially on
the Norwegian stev. I list these works in chronological order without raising the
questions that they suggest.
24 ArcherT aylor
Before drawing any general conclusions I may point out once more that one list
that has been mentioned should be revised in the light of the considerable additions
to our resources.A new edition of Ewald Fliigel'sc hronologicalt abulation( No. 36)
of Child's English ballads is needed. It should be a strictly chronological arrangement
of the texts and should include also fragments of lost or unidentifiable
ballads and allusions to them. Fliigel mentions materials of the latter sort but only
incidentally and without any effort to achieve completeness. Such a chronological
list promises to yield much new information about the nature and history of English
balladry. There is a need for such a list because English ballads exist in many
widely scattered texts. A similar list of Danish ballads has not been made and does
not promise to be as informative as the English list because we owe our knowledge
of early Danish ballads chiefly to various collections of roughly the same period.
The vast amount of information contained in Bengt R. Jonsson, Svensk ballad
tradition (No. 30) seems likely, however, to reward the maker of a chronological
list. It is altogether likely that he will provide one in his forthcoming second
volume. A chronological list of German ballads offers difficult problems that calls
for much study. It should be much more than an index to information already
available in collections and investigations. I am referring here to a list comparable
to Fliigel's list and not to a list according to the more or less plausibly assigned
dates of composition. I shall not venture to express an opinion about chronological
lists in other languages, especially in French. S. Griswold Morley's list (No. 38) of
early Spanish romances tempts to renew and enlarge his effort. It must be emphasized
that these lists are lists of texts that we have or know from allusions. Chronological
lists of subject matter involve very different problems. Chronological lists
of other varieties than ballads seem not to have been made. Historical songs are,
to be sure, usually arranged in the order of the events narrated, an order which
correspondsf airly well with the dates of their composition.C hildren'sr hymes,l ove
poetry, and quatrainss carcelya dmit of chronological isting.
The fact that a few standard collections-notably Grundtvig, Danmarks gamle
folkeviser (No. 11), Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (No. 14), and Erk
and BShme, Deutscher Liederhort (No. 23)-have served as both collections and
lists has already mentioned more than once. They are also bases of new lists made
for special purposes. These new lists do not succeed entirely in setting themselves
apart from the parent works. They therefore lack some information that a student
finds necessary. They differ considerably in methods and call for comparative
study. Only Erk and Baihme, Deutscher Liederhort requires special comment here.
With all its faults it still serves general reference needs. The original edition is no
longer obtainable and the recent reprint is too expensive to serve readily as a list.
A handlist of at least the narrative ballads in the Liederhort would be useful for
reference purposes until this collection has been replaced by something more satisfactory.
There is no ideal plan for a list of folksongs and especially a list of narrative
folksongs. An alphabetical list of titles calls for an index of subject matter (I cannot
see that this index should be classified). A "logical" arrangement-which is no
Lists and Classifications of Folksongs 25
doubt a classified arrangement-requires an alphabetical index of titles. Either of
these plans needs to be supplemented by a chronological index, an index of related
songs in other languages (Child alone provided this), and an index of themes and
incidents; see Fliigel's criticism of Child's index in Anglia, XXI (1899), 314-315.
I cannot cite any index according to forms that would make it easy to find ballads
in various kinds of stanzas, ballads containing refrains (of which there are various
kinds), and ballads with such characteristic introductions as "As I was out walking",
"Come all ye...," and the like. Finally, a list must include references to tunes and
recordings. The ideal list will give us information in a form that is easy to use.
INDEX OF LISTS AND CLASSIFICATIONS CITED
Balashov, D. M. No. 35 Kirkland, E. C. No. 17
Balys, Jonas No. 31 Laforte, Conrad No. 15
Bernhardi, W. No. 7a Laws, G. M. N. 33, 34
Braga, Theophilo No. 26 Liestol, Knut and others No. 10
Check-List of Recorded Songs No. 16 Morley, S. G. No. 38
Child, F. J. No. 14 North Carolina Folklore Society No. 4
Coffin, T. P. No. 32 0 Suiilleabhain, Sean No. 1
Cushing, Helen No. 6 Pound, Louise No. 3
Davis, Jr., A. K. No. 20 Quigley, Margaret C. No. 5
Dean-Smith, Margaret No. 18 Recke, Ernst v. d. No. 39
Duran, Augustin No. 25 Romanski, St. No. 19
Erk, Ludwig and B6hme, F. M. No. 23 Rollins, H. E. No. 37
Feilberg, H. F. No. 39 Ross, James No. 21
Fliigel, Ewald No. 36 SchiorringN, ils No. 12
Griiner Nielsen, H. No. 13 Sears, Minnie E. No. 7
Grundtvig, Svend No. 11 Seemann, Erich No. 27
Heggstad, Leiv Shearin, H. G. and Combs, J. H. No. 2
and Griiner Nielsen, H. No. 29 Strekelj, Karel No. 24
Hennig, Kurt No. 28 Upadhyahya, K. D. No. 8
Jonsson, Bengt R. No. 30 Vargyas, Lajos No. 27a
Julian, John No. 41 WackernagelP, hilipp No. 42
Jungbauer, Gustav No. 22 Zahn, Johannes No. 43
Katona, Imre No. 9
1 Jahrbuch f. Volksliedforschung XIII
2 Archer Taylor