Jennifer C. Post is assistant professor of music and curator of the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College. She has conducted fieldwork in both India and New England and has published articles on women and music in India and on traditional music in northern New England.
Ballads and other folk songs played an important role in family and community social life in northern New England from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Anglo-American ballads and folk songs dominated, yet French, Italian, and other European song traditions also played significant roles in the lives of residents during this period. The Anglo-American tradition was maintained at informal gatherings and carefully planned events in household, neighborhood, and occupational communities. The songs, transmitted in oral, written, and recorded form, were popular until the beginning of the twentieth century. By the middle of the century media influence and changing cultural values encouraged individuals and families to discard many songs that were once central to their family and community life. Songs popular today in the region are from different sources, yet provide evidence of continuity from the earlier traditions.
Singing traditions that continued in some families until the mid-twentieth century accompanied work and play, provided entertainment, and established or reinforced relationships in social groups. Singers of traditional songs in New England communities were seldom professionals, nor is there evidence that singers were singled out within a community as consistently as in the neighboring Canadian maritime provinces. Many communities, though, identified specific individuals who were well known as carriers of older song traditions or who could readily provide entertainment for a group of listeners with their knowledge of specific songs or repertoires.
Songs were sung in conjunction with communal activities and on occasions when people gathered specifically to sing. Singing also played an important role in daily life, especially to provide relaxation and to ease workloads. Historical information references songs sung during or after a work bee, or hymns and other songs sung by women who gathered in the afternoon to socialize after their chores were done. We know that songs frequently accompanied womens's—and sometimes men—s—daily work.
In rural families living in Vermont (as well as in other northern states) mothers sang to their children to keep them occupied while the women finished their household chores. A Shrewsbury, Vermont, woman remembers her mother singing songs while doing her kitchen chores:
During her work she would sing to pass away the time while she was doing her dishes or baking or skimming the milk pans—she had big pans of milk with cream on the top and she would skim the cream from the milk pans—and all that time she would be whistling or singing. And I had an older sister, and we loved to be entertained by our mother. And I remember so well, that in our kitchen we had a big woodbox behind the cookstove. It was painted sort of a cream color with a red trim and a nice wooden red top. And when my mother was mopping, my sister and I would get up on top of the woodbox and then we would plead with our mother, while she was mopping the kitchen floor, to sing to us. And our favorite song was called "Cabbage and Meat," but of course she sang lots of other songs that she'd learned from her father.
In addition to singing while working, women and men sang ballads and songs at small and extended family events and at neighborhood gatherings. It was not unusual for family members to gather in the living room to sing. A Ripton, Vermont, woman talks about her father's music at home:
Sometimes, you know, when we had company, and sometimes when we was all alone he used to sit there and sing those songs. And he taught us the "Woodmen's Song" there, and that's how we learned our ABC's, I guess…. He used to sing "Down By the Old Mill Stream," you know that, and "I Wandered Today to the Hills, Maggie"…and "Darling I Am Growing Old." And we used to sit around the table and sing. And then sometimes we'd go in what they called the parlor—the livin' room. And my brother and my sister'd play the organ and we'd sing.
In occupational communities, especially the lumber camps, men entertained one another in the evening with songs, dance tunes, and stories. This became an opportunity to exchange songs from family, regional, and occupational sources. The men who spent winter months in the camps returned to their farms in the spring and shared songs they learned with members of their families at home.
The repertoires of Vermonters included songs brought from the British Isles, regional or local songs learned at home, neighborhood, and occupational community gatherings, and songs learned from newspapers, magazines, recordings, and the radio. Northern New Englanders enjoyed humor, suspense, human tragedy, and moral lessons in the songs that they sang. The old ballads of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the local songs, and the more recent popular songs all provided this for them. Although we like to think that families in rural New England communities sat around and sang only the old British ballads, in fact they seldom distinguished among the many types of traditional, locally created, and popular songs that comprised their repertoires.
BALLADS AND SONGS
Anglo-American ballads, or narrative songs, that were popular in the northern New England states include ballads in classical and broadside categories as well as local or regional songs. The classical ballads compiled by Francis James Child in nineteenth-century Scotland and England are frequently characterized musically by their modality and textually by the way the stories are told. Generally the stories are impersonal. The dramatic retelling of a story may contain dialogue and nearly always includes exaggeration; the language is stylized and uses formulaic phrases and stanzas. Between 1920 and 1965 collectors in the region found examples of many ballads sung in communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These included the well-known titles "The Outlandish Knight" ("Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," Child 4), "Lord Bateman" ("Young Beichan," Child 53), "The Farmers' Curst Wife" (Child 20), and "The Golden Vanity" ("The Sweet Trinity," Child 286) but also ballads that were not as well known in the United States, among them "Lizie Wan" (Child 51), "The Keach in the Kreel" (Child 281), and "Johnny Barbour" ("Willie O Winsbury," Child 100).
Johnny Barbour
Fair Mary sat at her father's castle gate
A-watchin' the ships coming in
Her father he came and sat by her side
For he saw she looked pale and thin
For he saw she looked pale and thin.
"Are you sick? Are you sick, dear Mary?" he said,
"Are you sick? Are you sick?" quoth he.
"Or are you in love with a jolly sailor lad
Who sails the distant seas?
Who sails the distant seas?"
"I am not sick, dear father?" she says,
"I am not sick?" quoth she.
"But I'm in love with a jolly sailor lad
Johnny Barbour is his name.
Johnny Barbour is his name."
"Is it so? Is it so, dear Mary?" he said,
"Is it so? Is it so?" quoth he,
"If you're in love with a jolly sailor lad,
Then hanged he shall be.
Then hanged he shall be."
Then the old man called up his merry, merry men,
By one, by two, by three,
Johnny Barbour had been very last man
But now the first was he.
But now the first was he.
"Will you marry my daughter?" the old man said,
"Will you marry my daughter?" quoth he,
"Will you sing and play and dance with her,
And be heir to my houses and land?
And be heir to my houses and land?"
"Yes, I'll marry your daughter," the young man said
"I'll marry your daughter," quoth he
"I'll sing, and play and dance with her,
But a fig for your houses and lands
But a fig for your houses and lands."
"Although Johnny Barbour is my name,
I'm the Duke of Cumberland,
And for every pound that you give to me,
I'll give her ten thousand pounds.
I'll give her ten thousand pounds."
—May Louise Harvey, Woodstock, Vermont, 1934
Some of the broadside ballads found in northern New England can be traced to songs popular in seventeenth-century England, Ireland, and Scotland. As in other regions, there is sharing of stylistic elements between the classical and broadside ballads. These ballads are descriptive and often show lyrical patterns including a "come-all-ye" opening and a tendency to complete the song with a moralizing stanza. Melodically, singers frequently use popular tunes for the ballads, thereby sharing tunes among metrically related groups of ballads. Broadsides of this type popular in Vermont before the middle of the century include "The Boston Burglar," "The Bold Soldier," "Mary of the Wild Moor," and "The Dark Eyed Sailor."
The Dark Eyed Sailor [Laws N35]
It was of a comely lady fair
Was walking out to take the air;
She met a sailor upon the way
And I paid attention, and I paid attention
To hear what they did say.
He says, "Fair lady, why do you roam alone
For the night is come and day's far gone?"
She said, while tears from her eyes did fall,
"It's my dark eyed sailor, it's my dark eyed sailor
That cause me my downfall.
"It's three long years since he left this land.
A gold ring he took from off my hand.
He broke the token in half with me
The other is rolling, and the other is rolling
In the bottom of the sea."
Says Willie, "Drive him from your mind
As good a sailor as he you'll find.
Love turns aside and cold doth grow
Like a winter's morning, like a winter's morning
When the hills are clad with snow."
These words did poor Phoebe's heart inflame.
"Young man, on me you will play no game."
She drew a dagger and then did say,
"For my dark-eyed sailor, for my dark-eyed sailor
A maid I'll live and die."
Then Willie he did the ring unfold.
She seemed distracted with joy and woe.
"You are welcome, Willie. I have lands and gold,
For my dark-eyed sailor, for my dark-eyed sailor
So manly, true and bold.
In a cottage down by the riverside
In peace and harmony they do reside.
So girls, be true while your love's away.
Ofttimes a cloudy morning, ofttimes a cloudy morning
Brings forth a pleasant day.
—J. E. Shepard, Baltimore, Vermont, May 8, 1939
The American ballads in the region are the product of the influence of both classical and broadside ballads on cultural expression of life in America. Musically and textually they are patterned after British ballads yet retain a separate identity with local
language and melodies used freely. These ballads were passed both orally and in print in Vermont and other northern New England states and were popular in labor communities (especially the lumber camps), in families, and at village gatherings, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Locally created ballads also included stories of regional accidents, floods, and murders and provided narratives of everyday events. Included in the region are songs describing accidents, such as a drowning described in "The Calais Disaster," or a train accident in "The Hartford Wreck," both from the late nineteenth century. The details of murders are also described in ballads like "Josie Langmaid (The Suncook Town Tragedy)" and "The Murder of Sarah Vail." The latter describes a murder that actually took place in New Brunswick but was sung by families in Maine as well as in Vermont.
The Murder of Sarah Vail
Come all you people lend an ear
A dreadful story you shall hear
This murderous deed was done of late
In eighteen hundred and sixty-eight.
There was a man called John Monroe
Who did Miss Vale a courting go,
This girl was handsome, young, and fair
Few with her that could compare.
Monroe was married it is true,
He had a wife and children, too,
But still Miss Vale he went to see
Not caring what the talk might be.
In course of time an offspring came,
Which brought to light their hidden shame,
But still together they did go
Until he proved their overthrow.
He led her to that lonely spot,
And there he fired the fatal shot,
A bullet buried in her brain,
She fell in death, there to remain.
Then killed the baby with a rush
And covered them with moss and brush,
And hurried off with rapid flight
Not thinking it would come to light.
The jury found it very plain
Miss Vale and baby had been slain,
The jury found it plain, also
That they were killed by John Monroe.
—A. Tolin, Chester, Vermont, 1934
LYRIC SONGS
In northern New England lyric songs and ballads were generally performed in the same social contexts. Lyric songs are identified by their expression of an emotional reaction to an experience or idea, rather than their focus on a narrative content (although narration may be implied). Frequently sung in the first person, lyric songs present interpersonal relationships and tend to speak in general terms, while ballads present specific situations. Like ballads, they use formulaic phrases and stanzas. Songs that express a connection to a social group or society (departure from homeland or family, political or economic conditions) are less common than those that express a relationship between individuals, especially between women and men (i.e., love songs). The lyric songs in the region demonstrate their adaptability to the needs of the singer and audience. The songs of northern New England show clear evidence of the sharing of classical and broadside traditions, British and American narrative songs, and also ballad literature and the lyric song. Like some of the broadside ballads, lyric songs can also be characterized by their borrowed and adapted tunes and texts.
"A-Walking and A-Talking" is an example of a lyric song from Vermont that is derived from the narrative tradition. Many songs of this type exhibit a flexible form with texts and tunes that grow and shrink with individual and regional tradition and practice. Found in many locations in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, this version includes lines and stanzas related to "The Cuckoo," "The Unconstant Lover," "Irish Molly-O," and others.
A-Walking and a-Talking
A-walking and a-talking and a-walking went I
To meet my sweet William; he's coming by'n bye;
To meet him in the meadow, is all my delight,
To walk and talk with him, from morning 'til night.
A meeting is a pleasure, but parting is grief,
And an unconstant lover is worse than a thief;
For a thief will but rob you and take all you have
While an unconstant lover will carry you to the grave.
The grave it will mold you, and turn you to dust.
There is scarce one in twenty, that a fair maid can trust;
They will coax and they'll flatter you, and tell as many lies
As the fish in the ocean or stars in the skies.
The cuckoo is a pretty bird; she sings as she flies,
She brings us glad tidings and she tells us no lies,
She sucks the sweet flowers to make her voice clear
And when she sings "Cuckoo" three months of the year.
Come all you pretty fair maids take warning by me,
Don't place your affections, on the green willow tree
For the tree will but wither, and the roots they will die.
Oh, if I am forsaken, I know not for why.
If I am forsaken it is only by one
And he's greatly mistaken if he thinks I'm undone;
I can court as little by him, as he can by me,
So adieu to these young men, who court two or three.
Myra Daniels and Elmer George, East Calais, Vermont, November 11, 1939
Lyric songs with a religious theme developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in conjunction with singing schools and the efforts to incorporate group singing into church services. In the camp meetings of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, folk songs and tunes were adopted to supplement the Protestant hymns that were commonly taught. Characterized by their melodic connection to folk tunes, these religious songs were adopted in families and communities and sung along with ballads and secular songs popular at the time.
Play-party and other game songs were also popular in northern New England communities. Adults turned to them for entertainment, teenagers used them for courting, and young children sang them on the school playground. Some of the popular titles in Vermont include "Needle's Eye," "Old Cromwell (John Grumlie)," "Water, Water Wild Flowers," and "Go in and out the Window."
The American and British ballads described are not actively sung in Vermont today. Beginning in the 1920s in many northern New England communities, the "old songs" began to be replaced by songs transmitted on the radio and available on commercial recordings or printed on sheet music. By the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s a new generation of "old songs" referred not to the classical and broadside ballads, or even the local or regional ballads and early lyric songs, but to turn-of-the-century popular songs that were sung along with the older ballads. At the same time, though, the narrative tradition and the sentimentalism of the lyric song traditions continued in popular "hillbilly music," in Bradley Kincaid's versions of the old ballads, and in contemporary country music traditions. The old songs that were part of individual and family traditions for so long, while seldom sung, remain in the characteristic sentiment of the performances of contemporary popular songs.
