Two Reviews of Ozark Folksongs (Vance Randolph)
by Ruth Ann Musick
The Journal of American Folklore
[Ruth Ann Musick collaborated with Randolph on at least two articles so the reviews of Vol. I and Vol. IV are positive- written by someone who knows folksongs and the man. The footnote in the first review has been placed at the end of the review.]
Review: Ozark Folksongs. Vol. I
by Ruth Ann Musick
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 238 (Oct. - Dec., 1947), pp. 434-436
Ozark Folksongs. Vol. I. By Vance Randolph. (Columbia, Mo.: State Historical Society of Missouri, I946. Pp. 439. $3.75.)
Fifteen years ago the Vanguard Press published Vance Randolph's Ozark Mountain Folks, which contained a number of excellent old ballads, as did his The Ozarks, published the year before by the same house. Until recently the most extensive publication in Missouri folk songs has been H. M. Belden's collection, Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society, brought out in 1940 in the University of Missouri Studies. However, Vance Randolph's new work, Ozark Folksongs, a series in four volumes, the first of which is now available, is probably the most comprehensive undertaking ever planned for any single region. Missourians have made much of their iolklore and Vance Randolph has probably done more than any other American folklorist in interpreting a single region.
Mr. Randolph's authority is acknowledged in the dedication of that outstanding novel of the Ozarks, The Woodscolt, by Thames Williamson: For Vance Randolph "Because he is the acknowledged authority on Ozark dialect, because we traveled them thar hills together, and because he twice went over this story in the painstaking effort to make it regionally perfect." Also, it seems that in all the songs he has collected to date, he has done what every ballad collector should do-set down the words exactly as the singer sings them, without trying to supply missing words, or "touching up" the text. Furthermore, although he is more interested in the words than the music, he "has made every effort to record the melody as accurately as possible," having an assistant set down the melodies as they were sung until I938, and recording the songs with a portable machine since then.
Volume I of Ozark Folksongs, British Ballads and Songs, is divided into three parts:
(a) The Introduction, a six-page gem of some of Mr. Randolph's experiences as a ballad collector, including incidents in connection with different singers;
(b) The Traditional Ballads, or those included in the collection of Francis J. Child, which cover I77 of the 439 pages; and (c) Some Later Importations, including such songs as "Willie Taylor," "Green Beds," "The Little Mohee," etc.
Chapter II, "The Traditional Ballads," of which there are forty-one in this volume, with as high as sixteen versions of a single ballad in some cases, is perhaps the most fascinating section, since probably more people are familiar with this group than with any other. It is interesting to note that the tunes or texts of at least one variant of many of the songs are often similar in Missouri, Iowa, West Virginia, and Kentucky, in keeping with an observation by Professor Samuel P. Bayard, that "The North Carolina tradition is found in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and on west to Iowa.
It is not quite accurate to say that as these old ballads moved westward into Misparts Missouri they left out verses and changed tunes. Of course, this may happen in any song that is transmitted by rote, but there are always sections where it will survive in semioriginal form. In almost every case there is either a complete text given by Mr. Randolph, or there is a complete version known somewhere in Missouri. (For example, Mr. Randolph's fragment, "Courting Jessie," is only a chorus and half a verse of a four-verse song, known in northern Missouri.) Naturally every song is not known in its entirety in every part of any state.
With regard to the melodies there will be, of course, great variation in all transmission by rote. Also, it is altogether probable that old melodies fuse with later, commonly-known melodies, such as "Polly Wolly Doodle," "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," etc. None of the versions included in Mr. Randolph's collection is an exact school-text or sheet-music version of these well-known songs, but there are certain similarities.[1]
There are some excellent melodies included in this volume, as "The Three Little Babes" (Child No. 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well"), especially Version B, which is similar to the recorded version of John Jacob Niles. Also, there are some unusual tunes given for "The House Carpenter," (e.g., Version F), all excelling the one generally used in northeast Missouri, but not equal to an unrecorded West Virginia version in the possession of the reviewer. "The Gypsy Davy" (Child No. 200, "The Gypsy Laddie"), Version A, has something of the tune of the Woody Guthrie version, but no melody of this old ballad quite equals the recorded version of John Jacob Niles.
"Lord Bateman" (Child No. 53, "Young Beichan"), Version E, has a delightful melody, superior to the one known in northeastern Missouri. However, it was a disappointment to the reviewer that Mr. Randolph did not include the text given in Ozark Mountain Folks, with that wonderful line, wherein the irate mother-in-law reminds Lord B.:
Don't you forget my only daughter
No matter who-all has crossed the sea.
Chapter III, "Some Later Importations," includes some very interesting songs. "Courting Jessie" (Miss Jessie at the Railway Bar) contains one unique line
And the modest harness maker.
The northeast Missouri version has "The quiet little Quaker," but there are four verses known there with spoken lines preceding each chorus, such as, (Spoken, after Verse 4):
"Yes, Jessie was gone, but I had one consolation; there were a few others that got left as well as myself. There were:
. . . Chorus. "One Morning in May" is similar to the John Jacobs Niles version in text, but not in melody. Also the words of "The Valiant Soldier" are almost identical with Burl Ives's "The Bold Soldier," but the tune has little similarity. "Johnny the Sailor" (Green Beds"), has an interesting melody but quite different from that of the northeast Missouri version, known as "Young Johnnie." Much of the text is the same.
"There Was An Old Miller" is essentially the same in words as a northeast Missouri version, and also a West Virginia one, except that the old woman always wins out, as in Mr. Randolph's Version C:
He died too quick to make his will,
And the damned old woman she got the mill.
"Willie Taylor," another fragment, similar to Iowa and north Missouri versions, has an interesting second line in the stanza:
Then she called for a brace of pistols,
Brought they was at her command,
An' she shot her own false Willie
As she held him by the hand.
The Ozark version of "The Sailor's Sweetheart" ("Sweet William") is unique in that it is the mother (Version A), or the girl herself (Version D), who is to build the boat, whereas in the northeast Missouri version, and most versions, it is the father. In every case, when the girl learns her sailor boy is dead,
She wrung her hands and tore her hair,
Just like some lady in great despair.
"The Maiden in the Garden" tells the same story as a northeastern Missouri version of "William Hall," but the text varies in every version and also the melody.
Other well-known songs included in this group are "The Pretty Mohee," "The Cuckoo," "Soldier, Soldier, Marry Me," "Billy Boy," "The Farmer's Boy," "Vilkens and Dinah," "The Wild Moor," etc.
Thomas Hart Benton's end drawings of an Ozark river scene are picturesque and striking, as usual, and certainly appropriate. Also, throughout the book, there are photographs of Ozark singers, the artists in folk ballads of that region, that have made the books possible. These photographs will be appreciated by every reader.
RUTH ANN MUSICK
Fairmont State College,
Fairmont, West Virginia
Footnote 1. Examples are: "Pretty Polly Ann" (Child No. 4, Version C), "I Went Home One Night" (Child No. 274), and "Dandoo" (Child No. 277) are similar respectively to "Polly Wolly Doodle," "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," and "A Frog Went A Courting," though not identical.
Edwin Ford Piper, Professor of English at the State University of Iowa until his death in I939, said that "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" was popularized in the 'twenties from an old song. If he was correct, it is possible that the melody may date back a good many years, and that it originally had entirely different words.
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Review: Ozark Folksongs, Vol. IV
by Ruth Ann Musick
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 254 (Oct. - Dec., 1951), pp. 442-44
Ozark Folksongs, Vol. IV. By Vance Randolph. (Columbia, Missouri: The State Historical Society of Missouri, I950. Pp. 455. $I5.00 for set of 4 vols.)
Volume IV of Vance Randolph's Ozark Folksongs concludes the most extensive collection of folk songs that has been made so far in any one area in this country by one person. It contains 455 pages, including a complete index of all four volumes, by titles, first lines, and contributors and towns. It also contains nine illustrations of the contributors. This volume is divided into two sections. Chapter XI, "Brush-Arbor Music," contains 69 different songs with 51 tunes, and Chapter XII, "Miscellaneous Songs and Ballads," contains 220 different songs with 152 tunes.
The chapter on "Brush-Arbor Music," is fascinating. Mr. Randolph's introduction to this section is a two-page masterpiece. His quotation from a typical sermon, warning against the dangers of education, and stating, "Hell is chuck full of school ma'ams," may throw some light on the antipathy one of my contributors seems to have had toward educators-or colleges.
One is intrigued by such warning songs as "The Dying Youth," "Wicked Polly," "William Cook," "The Hell-Bound Train," etc., though I had never thought of them as church songs at all. A typical verse of "The Dying Youth," sometimes known as "Death Is a Melancholy Call" is:
A few more dyin' words was passed;
These turrible words they was his last;
He says, "Oh, parents, fare you well,
By devils I am dragged to hell,
And it's awful, awful, awful."
Perhaps, of these, the text of "The Hell-Bound Train" is the most vivid, and perhaps the tune too. One verse goes:
The train it flew at an awful pace,
The brimstone a-burnin' both hands an' face,
An' worse an' worse the roadbed grew,
An' faster an' faster the engine flew.
Two tunes and a text of 17 verses are given for "The Skeptic's Daughter" and one tune and a text of 11 verses are given for "The Death of A Romish Lady." Two old favorites that were extremely popular in my mother's youth, and, I believe, still are, in some sections, are "The Old Time Religion" and "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours." It is not surprising, I think, that a version of the "pile-up" song, "The Twelve Apostles," should be known in the Ozarks, although "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and "The Seven Joys of Mary" evidently are not. I had never heard "The Great Speckled Bird" before. It has charming tune.
Chapter XII, "Miscellaneous Songs and Ballads," contains a wide range of songs, songs of tramps, train wrecks, the alphabet, states and capitals, counties, presidents, gambling men, love songs, other sad songs, sentimental songs, a few comic songs, etc.
Many of these songs are old favorites such as "Young Charlotte," "The Ship That Never Returned," and the interesting fragment, "The Ponsaw Train" (The Lakes of Ponchartrain). Many are love songs, usually sad, such as "Willie Moore," "The Deep Blue Sea," "Once I Had A Sweetheart," etc. "The Sad Song," contributed by May Kennedy McCord, is especially haunting and beautiful. Some of the songs as "White Wings" are especially interesting to me because my father or mother sang at least fragments of them, when I was a child in northern Missouri. Others, as "Timbrook" (Ten Broeck, a famous race horse) intrigue one in tune and text. Still others, such as "The Letter Edged in Black" and "The Little Rosewood Casket," although they do not vary much in text or tune, I believe, are of definite interest because they are part of the vast bulk of folk songs known in the Ozarks, and because they are good and complete texts. There are a lot of fine songs in this section.
When one thinks of the vast amount of time Mr. Randolph has put in, in the collecting, transcribing, and editing of folk songs alone-not to mention his work in other fields-one wonders if anyone else will ever be able to do a comparable job in any other section of America.
Fairmont State College, RUTH ANN MUSICK
Fairmont, West Virginia