The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
The refrain is another peculiarity of the
popular ballad that establishes its derivation
from the choral " song. The rest shall bear this
burden " : the singer's monotone is regularly relieved
by the audience joining in with a repeated
phrase or phrases.
It can hardly be doubted
that the modern chorus is a direct descendant of
this habit. In our English ballads, the refrain is
not of such frequent occurrence as in those of
other lands, because many of our traditional
ballads are of the historical or " chronicle " type
rather than the dramatic ;
in such ballads the
interest is centred in the narrative, and will not
brook any interruption. Still, we have plenty of
refrains, both of the incomprehensible type,
mere parrot-repetitions corrupted beyond hope
of restoration, yet incontestably lyrical
:
"Now you are a-going to Cape Ann,
Follomingkathellomeday
Remember me to the self-same man.
Ummatiddle, ummatiddle, ummatallyho, tallyho,
follomingkathellomeday : "
and of the more intelligible type, often beautiful
:
**
Over yonder's a park which is newly begun,
All bells in Paradise I heard them a-ring
Which is silver on the outside, and gold within.
1
And I love sweet Jesus above all thing."
1
The first quotation is an early nineteenth-century version,
recorded in America, of The Elfin Knight; the second is an
English popular carol, as sung in Staffordshire in 1862.
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