Medieval Ballads

What is a ballad? Then: Now: Poems sung Popular with lower class people Recited in oral tradition similar to Anglo-Saxon times Now: Music that tells a story Ballads are typically set to a slow tempo. Slow ballads are usually around 52 beats per minute while fast ballads are closer to 62 beats per minute.

What are the characteristics? A theme of disappointed love, jealousy, revenge, sudden disaster, domestic dispute Tells of a single incident Gives little background information Gives little characterization Uses dialogue as a story-telling device Must include a refrain and be written in quatrains (Line 2 & 4 rhyme) May contain supernatural elements (optional)

How to hear it? Modern examples: Charlie Daniel’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, Billy Joel’s “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe” Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue” Plain White T’s “The Giving Tree”

What examples will we read? “Get Up And Bar The Door” “Lord Randall” “Edward, Edward”

How we analyze the ballads? Use the worksheets provided to collect information regarding the ballads’ structure and characteristics

Your turn! Get with your Guinevere Round Table Partner With your partner create a ballad that follows the appropriate elements from the Medieval structured ballads. You may write in modern English, but it must still contain the main characteristics we’ve studied It must contain a minimum of 3 Quatrains (12 lines) Don’t forget your repeated lines, dialogue, refrain (repeated lines), single theme, and rhyming lines 2 and 4! Check your worksheet for ideas You will share your ballad with the class!

“GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR”

IT fell about the Martinmas* time, And a gay time it was then, When our good wife got puddings to make, And she’s boild them in the pan. The wind sae cauld blew south and north, And blew into the floor; Quoth our goodman to our goodwife, “Gae** out and bar the door.” *November 15 **Gae = Get

“My hand is in my hussyfskap*, Goodman, as ye may see; An it shoud nae** be barrd this hundred year, It’s no be barrd for me.” They made a paction tween them twa, They made it firm and sure, That the first word whaeer shoud speak, Shoud rise and bar the door. *household chores, cooking ** Nae = Never

Then by there came two gentlemen, At twelve o’clock at night, And they could neither see house nor hall, Nor coal nor candle-light. “Now whether is this a rich man’s house, Or whether is it a poor?” But neer a word wad one o’ them speak, For barring of the door.

And first they ate the white puddings, And then they ate the black; Tho muckle thought the goodwife to hersel, Yet neer a word she spake. Then said the one unto the other, “Here, man, tak ye my knife; Do ye tak aff the auld man’s beard, And I’ll kiss the goodwife.”

“But there’s nae water in the house, And what shall we do than “But there’s nae water in the house, And what shall we do than?” “What ails thee at the pudding-broo, That boils into the pan?” O up then started our goodman, An angry man was he: “Will ye kiss my wife before my een, And scad me wi pudding-bree?”

Then up and started our goodwife, Gied three skips on the floor: “Goodman, you’ve spoken the foremost word, Get up and bar the door.”

How can we tell this is a ballad? Author? Theme? (Disappointed love, jealousy, revenge, sudden disaster, domestic dispute) Single incident? Little background information? Little characterization? Use of dialogue? A form of refrain and quatrains? Supernatural elements?