An Approach to the Indexing of Ballad Tunes

Abstract

Comparative studies of British-American ballad tunes have in most cases been based on transcriptions of a single stanza of each ballad analyzed. Folk singers rarely sing any two stanzas of a ballad in exactly the same manner. Nor is a second rendition of a ballad likely to be an exact reproduction of the first rendition. Thus it cannot be expected that the application of this method will produce accurate data.