ballads and sacred harp songs
nathanael welch
j frankel
It's a better bet to describe what is there in the SH harmonies & compare it to how those songs are harmonized comparable to non-SH arrangements, preferably of the same eras as the SH songs than to look for patterns inside SH that SH harmonization generally doesn't follow.
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Wade Kotter
From: nathanael welch <nathanlo...@gmail.com>
To: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 9:20 AM
Subject: [fasola-discussions] ballads and sacred harp songs
nathanael welch
mitc...@msu.edu
Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America [250 songs], George Pullen Jackson, 1937 - J.J. Augustin Publisher; 1964 - Dover
Downeast Spirituals and Others [300 songs], George Pullen Jackson, 1939 - J.J. Augustin Publisher
Jackson goes through the sources of each song rather thoroughly. Of course, the index contains the names of the shape note tunes, not the songs they're derived from, so you'll have to go through the books song by song to find out which are based on ballads. The good news is that he cites all of the shape note books in which the tunes are found, so you can see the differing harmonzations of a given tune in, say, the Denson/James Sacred Harp, the Cooper Sacred Harp, Christian Harmony, Southern Harmony, (& a whole lot more).
Marian Mitchell
Wade Kotter
mickve...@aol.com
Please could you explain what you mean by harmonic rhythm?
Mick Verrier
Warren Steel
>to clarify a little bit, in regards to j frankel's post, what I want to
>try to look at is how the Sacred Harp tunes have denied expectations, or
>fulfilled the expectations inherent within the melodies themselves. I will
>definitely be talking about the dispersed harmony, and the quartal
>harmonies, as characteristics of the harmonizations. But I don't want to
>try to make these melodies or harmonies conform to the rules of the common
>practice period. I probably wasn't very clear on that. Maybe to put it
>another way: most (if not all) folk melodies have an implied harmonic
>rhythm, one you can especially hear at cadence points, and I am interested
>in how the intrinsic harmonic rhythm of a melody influenced the setting of
>that melody in shape-note style music, or if the setting of the melody
>altered or otherwise shifted that intrinsic harmonic rhythm. My intention
>is not to make these implied harmonies conform to common practice
>harmonies, but rather to let the melodies speak for themselves, and then
>let the shape-note tunes speak for themselves, and compare the two.
>Hopefully that was a little more clear.
I don't believe that ballad melodies should be assumed to
have harmonic implications or expectations at all. They are,
after all, melodies, and are traditionally sung without
accompaniment. I think that to sing a melody attested 200
or more years ago and try to assign "implied" harmonies is
a fallacy, and merely tells how *you* would like to harmonize
it. Take for example page 47, PRIMROSE. The midpoint, an
E in the melody, could be accompanied with harmony that
might imply harmony on E or harmony on A, maybe even C sharp.
It might well be a ballad tune--some authors have suggested
that it resembles one, and suggested concordances. Chapin
may have set it with a non-triadic E and A, but that is not
the only alternative. Nobody is accusing you of trying to
alter the traditional settings, but to assume that present-
day common practice harmonies have any relevance, or that
some settings have "denied" your common-practice expectations,
seems dangerous and beside the point. It's like looking for
triads in Webern, or implied dominant sevenths in Hildegard.
Another question, of course, is which Sacred Harp tunes
*are* ballad melodies, or which tunes actually circulated in
oral or written form before they were set as psalm or hymn
tunes? If they don't appear in published secular sources or
manuscripts, or in oral renditions that can reliably be
judged old, how do you know if they're folk tunes? Signs
exist, such as 1. so-called modal melodies that "seem to"
end on notes other than the "implied" (whose opinion?) key
note, 2. melodic structures incorporating re-use of melodic
phrases, or patterns such as ABBA or AABA; or 3. appearance
in differing melodic versions or polyphonic settings, as
though they were set from oral tradition by varying authors
at different times and places. But these are only hints,
not definitive evidence of oral origins.
>I already know, for instance, that 111b in the Sacred Harp (to die no
>more) is based off of the ballad "the Three Ravens".
Do you already know this, or assume it? What evidence do
you have? It may be so, but beware of assuming it's true
because some authorities say so. I prefer to remain agnostic
unless I see hard evidence. And do you mean "based off of"
or "based on"? What's the difference?
Many so-called ballad tunes may not be "ancient" at all,
but have 18c. "baroque" origins and clearly *do* have harmonic
implications--I'm thinking of SAWYER'S EXIT or THE LEGACY
in Missouri Harmony--actually a set dance. But generally I
think it's wise for theorists to look at this music mainly on
its own terms (how did the composers think and operate?)
rather than on our modern categories, rules or canons.
Maybe this is what you mean by
>but rather to let the melodies speak for themselves, and
>then let the shape-note tunes speak for themselves, and
>compare the two.
but I'm not convinced that many of the melodies "speak"
harmonically outside the very melodic parts with which
they're set.
--
Warren Steel mu...@olemiss.edu
Professor of Music University of Mississippi
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/
John Garst
Does Ben Franklin count? As I recall he thought that was what made
folk melodies attractive. Or something like that.
J
At 4:09 PM -0800 11/16/11, Wade Kotter wrote:
> "most (if not all) folk melodies have an implied [later you say
>intrinsic] harmonic rhythm." But I'll leave that to others if they
>decide to chime in.
--
john garst ga...@uga.edu
Wade Kotter
John Garst
thought that people liked folk or fiddle tunes because the used the
notes of simple chords. Or some such.
J
At 5:30 AM -0800 11/17/11, Wade Kotter wrote:
>Haven't heard that one, John. But I tend to side with Warren's
>position on this issue.
>
>Wade
>
>
>From: John Garst <ga...@uga.edu>
>
>Wade,
>
>Does Ben Franklin count? As I recall he thought that was what made
>folk melodies attractive. Or something like that.
>
>J
>
>At 4:09 PM -0800 11/16/11, Wade Kotter wrote:
>
>> "most (if not all) folk melodies have an implied [later you say
>>intrinsic] harmonic rhythm." But I'll leave that to others if they
>>decide to chime in.
>
>-- john garst <mailto:ga...@uga.edu>ga...@uga.edu
--
john garst ga...@uga.edu
John Garst
Give me leave, on this occasion, to extend a little the sense of your
position, that "melody and harmony are separately agreeable and in
union delightful," and to give it as my opinion that the reason why
the Scotch tunes have lived so long, and will probably live forever
(if they escape being stifled in modern affected ornament), is merely
this, that they are really compositions of melody and harmony united,
or rather that their melody is harmony. I mean the simple tunes sung
by a single voice. As this will appear paradoxical, I must explain my
meaning.
In common acceptation, indeed, only an agreeable succession of sounds
is called melody, and only the coexistence of agreeable sounds
harmony. But, since the memory is capable of retaining for some
moments a perfect idea of the pitch of a past sound, so as to compare
with it the pitch of a succeeding sound, and judge truly of their
agreement or disagreement, there may and does arise from thence a
sense of harmony between the present and past sounds equally pleasing
with that between two present sounds.
Now, the construction of the old Scotch tunes is this, that almost
every succeeding emphatical note is a third, a fifth, an octave, or,
in short, some note that is in concord with the preceding note.
Thirds are chiefly used, which are very pleasing concords. I use the
word emphatical to distinguish those notes which have a stress laid
on them in singing the tune, from the lighter connecting notes that
serve merely, like grammar articles in common speech, to tack the
whole thing together.
That we have a most perfect idea of sound just passed, I might appeal
to all acquainted with music, who know how easy it is to repeat a
sound in the same pitch with one just heard. In tuning an instrument,
a good ear can as easily determine that two strings are in unison by
sounding them separately as by sounding them together; their
disagreement is also as easily, I believe I may say more easily and
better, distinguished, when sounded separately, for when sounded
together, though you know by the beating that one is higher than the
other, you cannot tell which it is. I have ascribed to memory the
ability of comparing the pitch of a present tone with that of one
past. But if there should be, as possibly there may be, something in
the ear, similar to what we find in the eye, that ability would not
be entirely owing to memory. Possibly the vibrations given to the
auditory nerves by a particular sound may actually continue some time
after the cause of those vibrations is past, and the agreement or
disagreement of a subsequent sound becomes by comparison with them
more discernible.
J
--
john garst ga...@uga.edu
John Garst
The harp was strung with wire, which gives a sound of long
continuance, and had no contrivance like that in the modern
harpsichord, by which the sound of the preceding could be stopped the
moment a succeeding note began. To avoid actual discord it was
therefore necessary that the succeeding emphatical note should be a
chord with the preceding, as their sounds must exist at the same
time. Hence arose that beauty in those tunes that has so long
pleased, and will please forever, though men scarce know why.
Me:
In any significant time listening to fiddling, you will hear a lots
of sawing back and forth on arpeggios, then a shift to another
arpeggio, etc.
Wade Kotter
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] ballads and sacred harp songs
FAQ: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8623821/Fasola-Discussions-FAQ.html
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] ballads and sacred harp songs
Robert McKay
On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:59:48 -0500 John Garst <ga...@uga.edu> writes:
> ...and to give it as my opinion that the reason why
> the Scotch tunes have lived so long...
Just for the record, "Scotch" is what the English call whisky. We Scots
prefer the adjective "Scottish." :)
Robert McKay (goffsca...@juno.com)
Owner of the DWTS Discussion list on Yahoo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DWtS_Discussion
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Mark Wingate
The question really seems to be how SH harmony writers respond to the
tonal markers in a melody. Surely the tunes in the SH contain these
markers, regardless of their origin.
Mark Wingate
Kindling Stone
On Nov 16, 10:20 am, nathanael welch <nathanlovestr...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Nikos Pappas
I think you also need to figure out what type of folk hymn you might be interested in. As you intimate in an earlier e-mail, you talk solely about contrafacta. Contrafacta are generally popular in nature and not traditional. Their subsequent circulation and treatment (both melodically and harmonically) can be subject to folk process. However, the fact that contrafacta exist is not a demonstration of folk origin. In fact, contrafacta became associated as much with Lowell Mason as the shape-note compilers, because of Mason's adaptation of melodies by popular classical composers of the day as hymn texts. This process goes back to the early seventeenth century; PLEYEL'S HYMN is an example of a popular contrafactum. Other folk hymns exist in variant versions, but do not have an über-secular source for their origin. Thus, they can be folk hymns, but not contrafacta. Another type of folk hymn would be the parody tune, or one based upon another tune. Just because something looks folksy doesn't mean that it is. Someone could intentionally write a folk-like tune. However, this tune would not be traditional. Separating the intentionality from the tune is practically impossible without being able to interview the tune's composer.
You also have the additional work of identifying a contrafactum, determining its folk or popular-based status, determining the validity of the scholarship of the scholar who identified the contrafactum, and deciding whether you want to follow nineteenth or twentieth-century understandings of what makes a "ballad" a ballad.
For instance, one of the possible sources listed for the CLAMANDA tune family, itself a contrafactum, is the supposed "Lazarus" ballad tune. Scholar David Music noted a connection of this tune to folk music in his Selection of Shape-Note Folk Hymns (Madison, 2005), specifically linking it to Child ballad 56, a paraphrase of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16: 19-31.
However, this connection does not constitute a reference to traditional music, but rather popular song. In fact, Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland personally wedded this text to a tune set by A. J. Hipkins, Esq., F.S.A. in Westminster, England, in their publication, English Country Songs (London, 1893). They stated: "It is not claimed that these words belong to the beautiful tune here given, but they suit it so well that there is a great probability of their having at one time been associated together" (103).
Subsequently, English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams canonized its supposed folk status in the early twentieth century through two works, "Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus," a piece for harp and orchestra, and a sacred setting titled KINGSFOLD. According to William Chappell in The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (London, 1859), the tune had in fact circulated in England as early as the 1820s, but was then a common song often sung by and associated with unemployed vagrants, including sailors and gardeners:
Other times, nineteenth-century musicians sang the words of traditional ballad texts (Child ballads) to non-traditional melodies. Many scholars speak of the secular tune becoming a sacred tune through the resetting of religious words to a secular song. However, the opposite could occur from time to time, as seen with a secular four-shape tunebook from Clinton County, Ohio in 1831. Compiler Joseph Anthony, Jr, stated:
Hymns cannot please all; and songs but few can learn the tunes of correctly, when no work is in circulation containing them. By this means many excellent voices and good tastes for music are never cultivated, that might, had they been able to come at tunes and songs, that suited their state and disposition of mind, afterwards turn it into its true usefulness, in swelling the church pæan, and being one of its ornaments....
Joseph Anthony, Jr., "Preface" to The Western Minstrel, or Ohio Melodist (Cincinnati: E. H. Flint, 1831)
With a loss of secular melodies available to him, because of the words-only songsters commonly circulating around his area, Anthony wedded traditional texts such as the ballad of WILLIAM AND MARGARET to LEANDER. Likewise, he could take popular love songs, such as THE VIRGIN'S FIRST LOVE and set it to the hymn tune SOLICITUDE (which you can find in Walker's Southern Harmony). As a result, a seemingly traditional ballad tune might not be traditional or attached to a ballad text as a result of secularizing sacred tunes in the manner described by Anthony.
Finally, there is the issue of what do you consider a "ballad." Twentieth-century conceptions of ballads are quite different than nineteenth century understandings. Another secular four-shape tunebook, The Social Lyrist by J.H. Hickok (the author of an earlier Sacred Harp), calls his tune selection ballads, but does not include any ballads as considered by ballad collectors such as Cecil Sharp. Hickok's preface elaborates:
The compiler of this little volume remembers well the time, when the sentimental, pious, or patriotic song formed a prominent part of the social evening entertainment; but he has seen a change pass over our country; and with a large portion of our youth, few songs are left in use, except such as are of a light and frivolous, or an openly immoral character. He believes this state of things is owing, in part, to a want of such secular music, as is suited to the capacity of that extensive portion of our community, who use only the patent notes; and to do something towards supplying this deficiency, is the object of the little compilation, which is now respectfully and affectionately dedicated to the youth of our country, by Their devoted friend, The Compiler.
J. H. Hickok, "Preface" to The Social Lyrist: a collection of sentimental, patriotic, and pious song, set to music (Harrisburg: W. Orville Hickok, 1840).
This collection is mostly popular songs, including some operatic tunes, Scottish tunes taken from Burns (JOHN ANDERSON MY JO), and patriotic songs (THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER). It does not include the folk tunes and "traditional" ballads collected by early ethnomusicologists such as Cecil Sharp. However, the author considered these tunes "ballads." So what type of ballads would you be looking at, those understood by nineteenth-century Americans (who actually compiled the books), or those understood by early ethnomusicologists whose methodology was oftentimes not above inventing a tradition if it seemed aesthetically pleasing?
Nikos Pappas, Lxgtn
ipse
> I think you also need to figure out what type
> of folk hymn you might be interested in.
Greetings,
I agree with the general point, but think the matter can be
simplified somewhat. Surely the process of transposing texts
is nothing new, e.g.: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/
I also agree that the criterion of labeling a tune "folk" by
identifying a secular analogue was established by previous
collectors, including G. P. Jackson, and that it can be inaccurate
as well as arbitrary.
I suggest that the core repertoire of fasola hymnody itself
constitutes a folk genre, one uniquely valuable because it
represents an oral tradition preserved and developed within
a written medium (shape-notes). I would identify this core
repertoire as that common to the books ca. 1820-1860,
esp. the 30's and 40's. As has been mentioned, I did an
intensive study of fasola modality some years ago, wanting
not only to identify the modal and gapped melodies, but
also to determine their distribution (relative frequency).
I concluded that a particular modal system does indeed
identify the folk content of fasola hymnody, and that it
derives in large part from the English, Scottish and American
oral traditions. I observed that the modes comprise more
than the set of tones employed. Particular phrases (mostly
pentatonic), including cadences, characterize each set of scales,
and do have harmonic implications which I believe are realized
in some of the settings, although I have not made of detailed
study of these. I suspect that the dispersed (quartal) harmonies
have their origin in oral improvisation.
Best wishes,
David Jensen
Nikos Pappas
- ALMIGHTY FATHER. OLD AIR OF "GO FORGETR ME" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Arranged by B. F. W.
- ARLINGTON = O PONDER WELL adapted from Thomas Augustine Arne's Artaxerxes
- BRUCE'S ADDRESS SPIRITUALIZED = BRUCE'S ADDRESS
- CLAMANDA = FREEMASON'S FAREWELL/ MASONIC ADIEU/ THE PEACOCK/ PEACOCK'S FEATHER
- EXULTATION = WHEN THE BRIGHT GOD OF DAY: Humphreys
- FROZEN HEART = HOB, OR NOB: E. J. King
- GREEN FIELDS = THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS
- HIGHLANDS OF HEAVEN = BRAES OF BALQUIDDER: J. D. Arnold
- HOSANNA = Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- JERUSALEM = WESLEY
- LOVING JESUS = HERE'S A HEALTH TO ALL SWEET LASSES: White & Searcy
- LUMPKIN = BLUE EYED MARY: J. T. White
- MARY'S GRIEF AND JOY = ZULA ZONG by J. P. Webster: Arranged by B. F White
- MECHANIC'S CALL = The Boyne Water: by Jas. F. Story, & S. P Barnett.
- MORALITY= DEATH SONG OF A CHEROKEE CHIEF: secular adaptation
- MURILLO'S LESSON = LESSON by Morelli: Unknown
- O COME AWAY! = CRAMBAMBULI: secular adaptation of a German drinking song
- OAK BOWERY = WASHINGTON'S MARCH by Francis Hopkinson: T. W. Carter
- THE OLD-FASHIONED BIBLE = ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN THE MORNING: L. P. Breedlove
- PLENARY = AULD LANG SYNE
- PLEYEL'S HYMN = Andante from Ignaz Pleyel’s String Quartet in G Major (Benton 349), pub. 1788.: Pleyel
- PLEYEL'S HYMN SECOND = Based on the 2nd movement, ‘Andante grazioso’, of Ignace Pleyel’s Symphonie concertante in E-Flat, Benton 111 (1786)
- RHODE ISLAND = THE INDIAN PHILOSOPHER
- SAWYER'S EXIT = OLD ROSIN THE BEAU: arr. John Massengale
- SOFT MUSIC = DU, DU LIEGST MIR IM HERZEN: B. F. White
- STAR OF COLUMBIA = BONAPARTE'S MARCH CROSSING THE RHINE: Miss M. T. Durham
- SWEET AFFLICTION = ROUSSEAU'S DREAM adapted from Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- SWEET HOME = HOME, SWEET HOME by Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
- WASHINGTON = AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON: Munday
- WHEN I AM GONE = LONG, LONG AGO by T. H. Bayley: M. H. Turner
- WOODVILLE = ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON: Rev. Mr. Thoms & B. F. White
- THE BLESSED BIBLE: Wm. L. Williams
- THE GOOD OLD WAY (?)
- HELP ME TO SING = BY THE WAYSIDE (?): B. F. White
- LEANDER (?): Austin
- ROLL ON = HOB, OR NOB (?): Miss Cynthia Bass
- THE ROYAL BAND (?): W. T. Power
- SOUTH UNION (?)
- UNION (?)
- UNION GROVE (?): W. L. Williams
ipse
>> original folk or ballad melodies
(composed) ballads, Reformation-era metrical psalms, set pieces, (most) fuging tunes, anthems etc. To be more specific: the "core repertoire" I refer to comprises a common body of plain tunes, many of which have "folkish"
character, and only some of which have secular antecedents. Most have three-part settings in the older books or earlier editions ( see Dorothy Horn, who follows Yasser: http://www.fasola.org/bibliography/ybib.html ). Of course, the settings vary from folkish to common practice, auto-didact and even "art". And although the primary characteristics are English-Scottish, "oral tradition" obviously includes other nations, including Germany.
Identifying contrafacta (sg. -um) and variants is a tricky business. Besides the deliberate modification of existing pieces and the less conscious tweaking of familiar melodies, composition often employed centonization (copy-and-paste of sections from different melodies, used with texts as well) and troping (textual and melodic insertions). Both techniques have venerable precedents.
To specify the criteria for "folkish" is also complex and, admittedly, a bit subjective. The identification of "composed" pieces is less so on both counts. Many melodies are somewhere in the middle; the ambiguity is not whether folk tendencies are present, but whether they predominate. Folkish characteristics include gapped scales (lacking one or both semitones) and pentatonic motifs. When a hexatonic or heptatonic (6 or 7 note) scale contains two or three pentatonic scales, one will usually be more conspicuous, although there can be considerable "modulation", esp. in the longer, "through" compositions. The "winner" can sometimes be identified in the final cadence, which often consists of or is built on the last three notes of a pentatonic scale. Whatever its provenance, the folkish character of this (melodic) corpus is apparent in comparison to any common-practice repertoire.
Please excuse the omission of examples; I'm writing from memory. Can discuss this further.
Best wishes,
David Jensen
On 11/22/2011 12:30 PM, Nikos Pappas wrote:
Greetings,
Following some of the comments given by David, I thought it might be of interest to post a tentative list of contrafacta that I've found along with some possible others that I haven't been able to track down. David, I do agree with your statements, but differ on one small point. It is possibly what I didn't make clear in my previous post, but which others have alluded to in earlier discussions of this thread. I made the point about what do you consider a ballad because not all of the tunes follow the modal implications of traditional music of Scotland, England, and the United States. As popular songs, they fit within common practice harmony (standard functional classical harmony). In this case, the harmonization could be argued to follow oral tradition but not the melodies themselves. See my list below and you'll see the pattern that emerges.
Many of the second type of folk hymns, the ones that appear in variant versions but do not have an ur-source for a secular original, do follow David's concepts of oral-based traditional modality. These are tunes like NEW BRITAIN, 93D, and PRIMROSE. Without an established secular original, these tunes are not considered contrafacta. Instead, they seem to have circulated orally for years before they were written down. All follow the same general plan, but differ slightly in melodic content. In this case, the melodies as well as their harmonization could be argued to follow oral tradition.
nathanael welch
Robert McKay
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j frankel
And what about the overtone series? Every pitch has within it the makings of some sort of harmony, based on physics alone.
Not only that, but the pitches in these melodies are heard, remembered (by either the listener and the singer) and related to the other surrounding pitches. I also wonder how the people who kept these melodies alive, and passed them on, sang them. By that I mean, I wonder if they were always sung without any sort of instrumental accompaniment. Perhaps someone could answer that for me? If instruments were used, how did they decide what to play?
--------------------------------------------------
It would really be great if we had recordings going back into time, but we don't, not beyond the invention of recording devices.
However, various cultures going into the modern era maintained strikingly differing styles of music.
ipse
I agree that the diatonic scale was (is) naturally
generated by the overtone series, and is distorted
by equal temperament. The question is how to deal
with the asymmetry (comma) of the Pythagorean scale.
The following explores how the tuning of the intervals
other than perfect was reckoned in various cultures:
Max Weber:
The Rational and Social Foundations of Music
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=55388731
Weber notes that this question became apparent in
the construction and tuning of musical instruments.
I thought at first that what might be termed
the "infra-tonality" of traditional singers was
a set of archaic conventions which needed to
be recorded in order to be preserved. I now tend
to think that it is a remnant of once-universal
tonal practice, and that the same characteristics
will recur in any good acoustic environment (such
as certain meeting houses as well as Gothic chapels),
unless impeded by prior aural conditioning.
Cf the following: http://zomobo.net/Just-intonation
Rf:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Just_intonation
As you mention, this is not a new subject.
Best wishes,
David Jensen
On 12/2/2011 7:39 AM, j frankel wrote:
> The real question is, though, which of the many available
> overtones does a particular culture pick to build their scales/
> modes? And if they harmonize tunes, which notes do they
> pick for harmony?
> Not only that, but the pitches in these melodies are heard,
> remembered (by either the listener and the singer) and related
> to the other surrounding itches. I also wonder how the people