Ballad Entry Descriptions
The full-text entries for each ballad type are available as .pdfs in the web directory katalog-de.
They are organized according to the ballads' arrangement in Rolf Brednich's proposed Freiburg System categories. While it is theoretically possible to to determine a ballad's URL by consulting the categories listed on the web page describing that system (Freiburg list), it is considerably easier accessing them via the main search page via the thematic classification. The ballad types' placement within the Freiburg System arrangement can be arbitrary in the sometimes overlapping categories. (For more on that arrangement and on the classification used here, consult the Introduction).
"Ballad" and "Ballad
type"
A "ballad type" (or in abbreviated form: "ballad") for
the purposes of this index and catalog refers to texts (reflecting their
melodies) that "not only tell the same story, but tell it in the same
stanzaic pattern with essentially the same phraseology" (Laws, ABBB
pg. 102). A "ballad type" is thus a composite of all the ballad
type's variants which express their story with very similar, apparently related
wording. It is a collage characterized more by its stability and communality
than by its diversity. A new variant of a "ballad type" will elicit
a listener response something like, "oh, that's the same song as
...."
The construct "ballad type" emphasizes textual coherence more than narrative coherence. Thus, a "ballad type" here is fundamentally different than an Aarne-Thompson "Tale Type" which analyses internationally fairy tales and legends, myths and epics, lumping stories together because of vague or isolated points of similarity, be they from Norway, "Africa," or Timor.
· Each ballad type description entry includes:
·
·
The header
top right names the catalog identification number in this catalog. That
number will either be a roman numeral (e.g., Fr: I or Fr: IV) or a
corresponding Arabic equivalent (e.g. 01 or 04) followed by a decimal
subdivision (e.g. I.4 or 01.4 or 04.4) and then followed by a running number
within that category, either in parentheses (e.g. I.4 (1) or if Arabic a dash
and the running number (e.g. 01.4-01). The file name of this example is
01.4-04.pdf. The roman numerals are being replaced by Arabic throughout. A
number top right without Roman numbers will be the URL of the entry. See Numbering.
·
Nr.
The number of the ballad type in my dissertation. This relic is no longer
relevant.
·
[Standard Title]
The standardized title used in this catalog, it reflects the usual title
employed by singers, scholars and publishers; descriptive titles were
preferred, or titles which made clear a song's relationship with other songs.
·
[Phrase
title]
A single sentence summarizing the plot contents of the ballad type,
intended to give the user a quick idea of its content generally and indicate
whether this is probably the ballad sought.
·
DVA Signatur:
The principal file identifier in the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv under
which one can find the most central information about the song type. The song
file will contain many cross-references across the German Folksong Archive's
collections and indices (s. also Catalog Introduction).
·
Titel
The titles, in selection, under which the ballad appears in collections
and publications. Variations are often given as parentheses and alternatives
separated with a virgule /.
·
Anfänge
Varying incipits recorded in song reports. The DVA's several card
catalogs are organized by incipit. While the variations given here summarize
what incipits we were actually able to use to access this ballad type, it is
possible that the combinations might yield a putative incipit which was not
found in tradition. But such alternatives are most useful in searching the DVA
catalogs; and if the incipit is "fictive," it won't yield any
relevant results anyway. This array of possible incipits is much more likely to
help the individual researcher find the material than an artificial selection
of "genuine" incipits.
Europeans in general tend to identify songs by their first lines, incipits,
while North Americans tend to think of titles. Both incipits and titles will also
aid anyone, however, in locating reports or articles on a particular ballads in
the DVA or elsewhere.
·
Inhalt
The plot summary
is told in language reminiscent of that used in the ballad, so that if you know
the song you can "hear it in the background." The plot is summarized
in "paragraphs", i.e. narrative sections characterized by a shift in
the action or "new scene" in the plot. e.g. from "misdeed"
to "capture" to "punishment;" or perhaps from the "village
well" to the "bedroom." Variations and alternates are noted by
parentheses and virgules. Cohesive groups of similar variations within a
single ballad type are noted as "versions".
·
Belegübersicht
is a sparse overview
of the documented song tradition. It includes the date of the first
documented report of the ballad. Dating the first report is done conservatively
with datable texts, reliable reports or a year of publication. Then the number
of reports of folk performances we could ascertain, and the number of those
which had melody (shown with a *). If there are versions, their relative
strength is given in a rough percent to give some idea as to the strength
of various currents in that song's tradition.
Then follows a list of the song landscapes (cultural regions) which were
documented in the DVA (cf. Farwick-Holzapfel Volksliedlandschaften). Some "Liedlandschaften"
carry names which are no longer in use, but which I have retained for
historical reasons.
Presence in chapbooks and broadsides is noted, as is presence in popular
song books (which documents more about the influence upon the tradition
than it does reporting from live tradition).
I made effort to count a single publication (in whatever form) only once, or
not all if the publication repeats an original report housed in the DVA. Thus
a folk ballad printed in the Kommersbuch in the first edition (1858) and
included in every edition until today (167th ed.) is only counted once in the
census of reports. Those same words and melody sung onto a vinyl record would
be a second "reportable" counting. If that same song turned up in
many - dozens? - of further citations, I did not make any effort to enforce
some artificial count. But I did reflect that in the Comments and in the
Bibliography. If a song only lived in the mass media (of whatever form) I did
not include it. Finally, some international parallels are cited, as are
some rough parallels from prose traditions.
·
Kommentar
Comments flow from
the material, often calling attention to things which attracted our attention
while working up the song folder: relative modernity of the reports of
"ancient heathen" songs, or close associations between certain
variants and certain song landscapes, or sometimes social implications of the
song texts. There is little contextual commentary because there are hardly any
extant reports of a singing context.
·
Veröffentlichungen
The Publications
are basically self-explanatory; this is both a bibliography and a
discography. Abbreviations are resolved in the Bibliography,
other citations are given in full. Asterisks indicate melody, two
asterisks indicate acoustic documentation (here mostly LP disks, either
academic or commercial). I have strived to present a geographical, social and
historical documentation.
The Auswahl aus den Gebrauchsliederbüchern (= "Selections from
Popular Song Books") are exactly that: selections. Once a song gets taken
up into the commercial song books it changes very little in text or melody, and
just because a song is published does not mean it was "truly" or even
"commercially" "popular." But a large number song books
containing that song do suggest that. We have not counted such in our
"Belegübersicht" count. But here in the bibliographic
"Veröffentlichungen" we give a sampling. It does give us
clues about a song's singers if it often appears in "socialist"
songbooks, or for "women", for "soldiers", or in the
"Boy Scouts' Songbook." Again, given the incipits, the researcher
is directed to the DVA for further investigation, made hopefully easier by
this catalog.
·
Themen
The Themes (TU = "Thematic
Units")
and the Roles (DP = dramatis personae) that were used in the ballad
classification and which are intended to aid finding song material are listed
here. If there are various "versions" of the plot, then the
Themes and the Roles are listed for each. With this design, it is possible to
see how different versions of a specific ballad type are similar and where they
differ. Even though the text may be largely similar, the plot versions might
differ significantly. Take for instance the Ulinger cycle: in one version the
brother can rescue her from the murderer-seducer, in others with similar text
he arrives too late to save her. The comparison of versions and variation
played a major role in devising the Themes.
·
Beispiel
The Example is chosen according to a loose hierarchy: preference was
given to 1) variants which represent the main current of the ballad's textual
tradition, 2) variants which have a melody, 3) variants which have some
contextual data associated, and 4) variants which have not been published
previously. Occasionally, when a certain "Version A" is to be found easily
in published sources,but "Version B" not, I will give "Version
B" as an example (annotated), or one with a melody, in order to make more
of the tradition accessible generally. Early sources are presented as
"diplomatically" (that is, with the least editorial intervendion, most
transparent) as possible
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