Folk Tunes from Mississippi by Arthur Palmer HudsonReview by: F. H.Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Dec., 1938), pp. 216-217Published by: English Folk Dance + Song SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4521145 .

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Folk Songs fromt the Souithern Highlands. Collected and edited by MNIELLINGER EDWARD HENRY_ New York: J. J. Augustin. $5.50.

The first serious collection of songs from the Southern Appalachian Mountains of America was- made in the years preceding the Great War by Olive Dame Campbell, to whom Cecil Sharp was indebted for his introduction to the songs. He spent 46 weeks in the mountains during the years i9i6-18 and noted over i,6oo tunes, representing about 5oo different songs.

Since that date many collections of folk-songs have been published in America, not only from the Southern Mountains, but from many other parts of the Northern Continent. The latest addition is Folk Sonzgs fromn the Sovthern Highlands, a well got-up volume containing the texts of i8o different ballads and songs (some with variants) and about 50 tunes collected by Mellinger E-dward Henry with the assistance of his wife.

A certain number of the texts (without airs) are "popular" rather than " folk," e.g. " Broken Vows," No. 69, and " A Package of Letters" or "The Little Rosewood Casket," No. 73. The theme of faithless love is " folky " enough, but the expression of these songs reflects the maudlin sentiment of the uncultured literate and is the antithesis of the poetic feeling which is associated with the culture of the unlettered.

As would be expected, there is little new material, but the collection includes the rarely found ballad of " King Henry V's Conquest of France," and an interesting cante-fable, " Little Dicky Whigburn." There are also some pleasing little variants in some of the well-known ballads and songs, e.g. in " Young Beichan " (or " Lord Bateman," or here " Lord Behun ") the Turkish lady (alias Miss Susie Price) sails to Glasgow, the home of the hero, just after he has celebrated his wedding with the " brown girl," and she is offered bv him instead of a pr-omised 9go,ooo, first his older and then his younger brother. These offers are scornfully refused

I wish you luck with your younger brother, But I don't want no such a man. Come pay me down my ninety thousand pounds And I'll go home to my native land.

To wN-hich Lord Behun replies: No, love, don't talk so; It's wAhether you marry him, or let that be, I'll wed you to my owNn self, If with me content you'd be.

And the story, as usual, ends happily for every one, except, perhaps, for the first wife and her outspoken mother. " The Foggy Dew " appears under the unfamiliar title of " Bugaboo," and- " The Maid freed from the Gallows " is modernised by the introduction of a railway train which brings the true-love to the scene of the execution.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry have not been fortunate wvith the accompanying airs. There are practi- cally no first-rate tunes, but this may be due to faulty notation, of which there are many obvious instances. The book, like most of the folk-song publications from the U.S.A., is well annotated but it is a pity that reference is made only to the one-volume collection of Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp, published in I9I7, and not to the complete two-volume collection, English Folk Songs fron the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil Sharp (Oxford University Press, 1932).

In an Introduction, MIr. Henry gives an appreciation of the country and its inhabitants. The- songs, as he tells us, " came as the result of nearly a life-time's interest in the southern mountains," although it was not until the summer of I923 that, stinmulated by the late Professor Alphonso Smith, he turned his attention to ballad-collecting. " WVe never made it a burden," he writes. "We love the mountains and we love the people."A M. K.

Folk Songs fromt the Souithern Highlands. Collected and edited by MNIELLINGER EDWARD HENRY_ New York: J. J. Augustin. $5.50.

The first serious collection of songs from the Southern Appalachian Mountains of America was- made in the years preceding the Great War by Olive Dame Campbell, to whom Cecil Sharp was indebted for his introduction to the songs. He spent 46 weeks in the mountains during the years i9i6-18 and noted over i,6oo tunes, representing about 5oo different songs.

Since that date many collections of folk-songs have been published in America, not only from the Southern Mountains, but from many other parts of the Northern Continent. The latest addition is Folk Sonzgs fromn the Sovthern Highlands, a well got-up volume containing the texts of i8o different ballads and songs (some with variants) and about 50 tunes collected by Mellinger E-dward Henry with the assistance of his wife.

A certain number of the texts (without airs) are "popular" rather than " folk," e.g. " Broken Vows," No. 69, and " A Package of Letters" or "The Little Rosewood Casket," No. 73. The theme of faithless love is " folky " enough, but the expression of these songs reflects the maudlin sentiment of the uncultured literate and is the antithesis of the poetic feeling which is associated with the culture of the unlettered.

As would be expected, there is little new material, but the collection includes the rarely found ballad of " King Henry V's Conquest of France," and an interesting cante-fable, " Little Dicky Whigburn." There are also some pleasing little variants in some of the well-known ballads and songs, e.g. in " Young Beichan " (or " Lord Bateman," or here " Lord Behun ") the Turkish lady (alias Miss Susie Price) sails to Glasgow, the home of the hero, just after he has celebrated his wedding with the " brown girl," and she is offered bv him instead of a pr-omised 9go,ooo, first his older and then his younger brother. These offers are scornfully refused

I wish you luck with your younger brother, But I don't want no such a man. Come pay me down my ninety thousand pounds And I'll go home to my native land.

To wN-hich Lord Behun replies: No, love, don't talk so; It's wAhether you marry him, or let that be, I'll wed you to my owNn self, If with me content you'd be.

And the story, as usual, ends happily for every one, except, perhaps, for the first wife and her outspoken mother. " The Foggy Dew " appears under the unfamiliar title of " Bugaboo," and- " The Maid freed from the Gallows " is modernised by the introduction of a railway train which brings the true-love to the scene of the execution.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry have not been fortunate wvith the accompanying airs. There are practi- cally no first-rate tunes, but this may be due to faulty notation, of which there are many obvious instances. The book, like most of the folk-song publications from the U.S.A., is well annotated but it is a pity that reference is made only to the one-volume collection of Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp, published in I9I7, and not to the complete two-volume collection, English Folk Songs fron the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil Sharp (Oxford University Press, 1932).

In an Introduction, MIr. Henry gives an appreciation of the country and its inhabitants. The- songs, as he tells us, " came as the result of nearly a life-time's interest in the southern mountains," although it was not until the summer of I923 that, stinmulated by the late Professor Alphonso Smith, he turned his attention to ballad-collecting. " WVe never made it a burden," he writes. "We love the mountains and we love the people."A M. K.

Folk Tunes fromi Mississippi. Collected by ARTHUR PALMIER HUDSON. New York: National Service Bureau. 25 cents.

This collection of 45 tunes comes as a welcome appendix to M\ir. Hudson's collection of folk-song- and play-party game texts issued by the North Carolina, Press in 1q3(:). Tunes were excluded from that book on account of impatience and expense, and the present supplement, which is not printed but reproduced from typewritten sheets, has been financed by the Works Progress Administration. There are one or two new songs (with texts) not found in the earlier collection,

2I6

Folk Tunes fromi Mississippi. Collected by ARTHUR PALMIER HUDSON. New York: National Service Bureau. 25 cents.

This collection of 45 tunes comes as a welcome appendix to M\ir. Hudson's collection of folk-song- and play-party game texts issued by the North Carolina, Press in 1q3(:). Tunes were excluded from that book on account of impatience and expense, and the present supplement, which is not printed but reproduced from typewritten sheets, has been financed by the Works Progress Administration. There are one or two new songs (with texts) not found in the earlier collection,

2I6

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:23:28 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

e.g. " The Young Oysterman," a version of a ballad by Oliver \Vendell Holmes now starting on a folk career to a perky tune with a snatch of waltz refrain. The tunes in themselves are not of outstanding quality and most of those in six-eight time are given in a notation of three-four, but one must be glad that so glaring a defect as the omission of all tunes from a collection of I50 songs has at any rate been partially made good. A melodic index is appended, constructed on the methods advocated by Krohn and Bartok.

F. H.

e.g. " The Young Oysterman," a version of a ballad by Oliver \Vendell Holmes now starting on a folk career to a perky tune with a snatch of waltz refrain. The tunes in themselves are not of outstanding quality and most of those in six-eight time are given in a notation of three-four, but one must be glad that so glaring a defect as the omission of all tunes from a collection of I50 songs has at any rate been partially made good. A melodic index is appended, constructed on the methods advocated by Krohn and Bartok.

F. H.

e.g. " The Young Oysterman," a version of a ballad by Oliver \Vendell Holmes now starting on a folk career to a perky tune with a snatch of waltz refrain. The tunes in themselves are not of outstanding quality and most of those in six-eight time are given in a notation of three-four, but one must be glad that so glaring a defect as the omission of all tunes from a collection of I50 songs has at any rate been partially made good. A melodic index is appended, constructed on the methods advocated by Krohn and Bartok.

F. H.

British Calendar Customis. Eniglanid. Volumie II. Fixed Festivals. By A. R. WRIGHT, F.S;A. Edited by T. E. LONES, MI.A., LL.D., B.SC. Published for The Folk-Lore Society by William Glaisher, Ltd. 15/- net.

This second volume of the Series " British Calendar Customs" now in preparation by The Folk-Lore Society, relates to customs observed oln fixed dates of the year, in distinction to Volume I which dealt exclusively with " movable" feasts largely depending upon a varying Easter.

Volume II is rich in detail supplied from manuscript and printed sources, and throug1h the memories of living witnesses. It concerns itself with customs which are, or used to be, celebrated during the first six months of the year, beginning with New Year's Day and ending with Oak Apple Day on the twenty-ninth of May. Many of these popular feasts were occasions for hilarity, and consequently for song and dance. Thus, to those whose minds run on traditional dance, -and more especially to those who are actively concerned in its record and revival, the interest of -this publication is very great, for the references to dance are numerous.

Around the Festivals of the New Year and Twvelfth Day records of mumming, wassailing, and dancing abound; but it is in the month of May that the most light-hearted of seasonal celebra- tions culminated, their popularity being shown by the pertinacity with which many of them survived even to the present day. Records have been selected from most counties, and some of the references go back to an early date. One of the first notes on the maypole dance is given in a church roll of expenses and receipts, dated 1490 :--" To William Belrynger for clensinge of -the Church at ye Dawnse of P'owles . . . Sd." In Herefordshire on May Eve the people of Kingstone and Thruxton would put trays of moss outside their doors for the fairies to dance on, 'While in London as late as the nineteenth century milkmaids and chimney-sweeps were as famous as morris-men for their May-day dancing.

The reading of such records brings regret at the demise of the majority of the customs, and at the same time enhances one's gratitude for the few that remain; for it is by a knowledge of these that one has the key to the truth within the archives. It is only partially true that the grimmer ,origin of May rites came to be forgotten while that which survived was the gay and the decorative. One has only to attend the present May-day celebrations of the hobby-horse at Padstow to realise that there something primitive and frightening still dominates the participators, although it may be vocally unexpressed, and would most certainly be denied.

J. S.

British Calendar Customis. Eniglanid. Volumie II. Fixed Festivals. By A. R. WRIGHT, F.S;A. Edited by T. E. LONES, MI.A., LL.D., B.SC. Published for The Folk-Lore Society by William Glaisher, Ltd. 15/- net.

This second volume of the Series " British Calendar Customs" now in preparation by The Folk-Lore Society, relates to customs observed oln fixed dates of the year, in distinction to Volume I which dealt exclusively with " movable" feasts largely depending upon a varying Easter.

Volume II is rich in detail supplied from manuscript and printed sources, and throug1h the memories of living witnesses. It concerns itself with customs which are, or used to be, celebrated during the first six months of the year, beginning with New Year's Day and ending with Oak Apple Day on the twenty-ninth of May. Many of these popular feasts were occasions for hilarity, and consequently for song and dance. Thus, to those whose minds run on traditional dance, -and more especially to those who are actively concerned in its record and revival, the interest of -this publication is very great, for the references to dance are numerous.

Around the Festivals of the New Year and Twvelfth Day records of mumming, wassailing, and dancing abound; but it is in the month of May that the most light-hearted of seasonal celebra- tions culminated, their popularity being shown by the pertinacity with which many of them survived even to the present day. Records have been selected from most counties, and some of the references go back to an early date. One of the first notes on the maypole dance is given in a church roll of expenses and receipts, dated 1490 :--" To William Belrynger for clensinge of -the Church at ye Dawnse of P'owles . . . Sd." In Herefordshire on May Eve the people of Kingstone and Thruxton would put trays of moss outside their doors for the fairies to dance on, 'While in London as late as the nineteenth century milkmaids and chimney-sweeps were as famous as morris-men for their May-day dancing.

The reading of such records brings regret at the demise of the majority of the customs, and at the same time enhances one's gratitude for the few that remain; for it is by a knowledge of these that one has the key to the truth within the archives. It is only partially true that the grimmer ,origin of May rites came to be forgotten while that which survived was the gay and the decorative. One has only to attend the present May-day celebrations of the hobby-horse at Padstow to realise that there something primitive and frightening still dominates the participators, although it may be vocally unexpressed, and would most certainly be denied.

J. S.

British Calendar Customis. Eniglanid. Volumie II. Fixed Festivals. By A. R. WRIGHT, F.S;A. Edited by T. E. LONES, MI.A., LL.D., B.SC. Published for The Folk-Lore Society by William Glaisher, Ltd. 15/- net.

This second volume of the Series " British Calendar Customs" now in preparation by The Folk-Lore Society, relates to customs observed oln fixed dates of the year, in distinction to Volume I which dealt exclusively with " movable" feasts largely depending upon a varying Easter.

Volume II is rich in detail supplied from manuscript and printed sources, and throug1h the memories of living witnesses. It concerns itself with customs which are, or used to be, celebrated during the first six months of the year, beginning with New Year's Day and ending with Oak Apple Day on the twenty-ninth of May. Many of these popular feasts were occasions for hilarity, and consequently for song and dance. Thus, to those whose minds run on traditional dance, -and more especially to those who are actively concerned in its record and revival, the interest of -this publication is very great, for the references to dance are numerous.

Around the Festivals of the New Year and Twvelfth Day records of mumming, wassailing, and dancing abound; but it is in the month of May that the most light-hearted of seasonal celebra- tions culminated, their popularity being shown by the pertinacity with which many of them survived even to the present day. Records have been selected from most counties, and some of the references go back to an early date. One of the first notes on the maypole dance is given in a church roll of expenses and receipts, dated 1490 :--" To William Belrynger for clensinge of -the Church at ye Dawnse of P'owles . . . Sd." In Herefordshire on May Eve the people of Kingstone and Thruxton would put trays of moss outside their doors for the fairies to dance on, 'While in London as late as the nineteenth century milkmaids and chimney-sweeps were as famous as morris-men for their May-day dancing.

The reading of such records brings regret at the demise of the majority of the customs, and at the same time enhances one's gratitude for the few that remain; for it is by a knowledge of these that one has the key to the truth within the archives. It is only partially true that the grimmer ,origin of May rites came to be forgotten while that which survived was the gay and the decorative. One has only to attend the present May-day celebrations of the hobby-horse at Padstow to realise that there something primitive and frightening still dominates the participators, although it may be vocally unexpressed, and would most certainly be denied.

J. S.

Irn England Still. By PHYLLIS CRAWFORD. J. XV. Arrowsmith. 8/6 This is a book of gossip not of science. It would however serve a useful purpose as a guide to

any enquiring visitor from overseas who wanted to know what traditional practices, ceremonies Sand celebrations survive in England. It is written in an amiable style and the author has travelled up and down the country in quest of information and whenever she could fit in their times and seasons has actually attended local festivals of the most diverse kinds. She begins with the pomp and pageantry of kings and proceeds by way of folk dances to traditional games -and traditional food and so to the fairs and markets where it is bought and sold. She is always the attentive tourist and makes no profession of being an initiate, so that her description of Morris and Sword dances will not satisfy the expert, and the inadequacy of her pages on the Abbots Bromley dance show a singular lack of anthropological insight for anvone making a record of ancient custom. But the book is not in the least pretentious and the idea that prompted the collection of these historical, artistic or folkloristic survivals into a single book of modest .dimensions is an excellent one.

F. H.

217

Irn England Still. By PHYLLIS CRAWFORD. J. XV. Arrowsmith. 8/6 This is a book of gossip not of science. It would however serve a useful purpose as a guide to

any enquiring visitor from overseas who wanted to know what traditional practices, ceremonies Sand celebrations survive in England. It is written in an amiable style and the author has travelled up and down the country in quest of information and whenever she could fit in their times and seasons has actually attended local festivals of the most diverse kinds. She begins with the pomp and pageantry of kings and proceeds by way of folk dances to traditional games -and traditional food and so to the fairs and markets where it is bought and sold. She is always the attentive tourist and makes no profession of being an initiate, so that her description of Morris and Sword dances will not satisfy the expert, and the inadequacy of her pages on the Abbots Bromley dance show a singular lack of anthropological insight for anvone making a record of ancient custom. But the book is not in the least pretentious and the idea that prompted the collection of these historical, artistic or folkloristic survivals into a single book of modest .dimensions is an excellent one.

F. H.

217

Irn England Still. By PHYLLIS CRAWFORD. J. XV. Arrowsmith. 8/6 This is a book of gossip not of science. It would however serve a useful purpose as a guide to

any enquiring visitor from overseas who wanted to know what traditional practices, ceremonies Sand celebrations survive in England. It is written in an amiable style and the author has travelled up and down the country in quest of information and whenever she could fit in their times and seasons has actually attended local festivals of the most diverse kinds. She begins with the pomp and pageantry of kings and proceeds by way of folk dances to traditional games -and traditional food and so to the fairs and markets where it is bought and sold. She is always the attentive tourist and makes no profession of being an initiate, so that her description of Morris and Sword dances will not satisfy the expert, and the inadequacy of her pages on the Abbots Bromley dance show a singular lack of anthropological insight for anvone making a record of ancient custom. But the book is not in the least pretentious and the idea that prompted the collection of these historical, artistic or folkloristic survivals into a single book of modest .dimensions is an excellent one.

F. H.

217

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:23:28 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions