Richard Spencer running the ‘door’ and Steve Roud in the chair
7 December is the next meeting.
Next year there’s a special treat: the first three meetings 11, Jan, 8 Feb, 8 March, will be a mini conference. A collection of virtual papers from the American Folklore Society’s conference. Check the time on the website, there will be changes.
Broadside day Sheffield 14 February.
Women and Folk Conference in Manchester 18 April
Paul Mansfield An Unreliable Mirror? The Blind Beggar’s Daughter of Bethnal Green and its Historical Resonances.
This is an old ballad going at least as far back as the late 17th century. Using the ethnomusicological perspective that there is a strong link between the people and context and the music they produced, Mansfield looked at two versions. One from 1765 with 67 verses, and another version published in 1820, with only 9 verses. It’s a story about the courtship of the blind beggar’s daughter. In the first version, she’s too pretty, and this causes friction with her employer and she asks her parents to let her go away to seek her fortune. The second version has much less detail, but she isn’t yet employed. In the 18th century, there is a rise in female employment outside of the home, but it also meant a questionable status of the women (implying they were sexually available). The other choice was marriage for money. The blind beggar is described in the earlier version as ‘silly’ (possibly meaning insignificant or unimportant, or perhaps innocent or not blameworthy). In the early version a suitor says he ‘loathes’ beggars. The later version also relegates a beggar to a lower status than the suitor. Social attitudes towards beggars could be ambiguous and may align with attitudes towards the ‘undeserving poor’ and relate to the economic stresses of the day, or local or religious authorities. Does blindness encourage more sympathy, or does it make the beggar more ‘other;’? The setting of the song was at the time, outside of London to the North East, in Essex. There’s about 12.5 miles between Bethnal Green and Romford. In the first song she travels first to Stratford, and then on to Romford, where she meets a suitor, and they travel back to Bethnal Green. In the later version the beggar is living in Romford, but why would he travel to Bethnal Green to beg? Romford was a market town in west Essex. Bethnal Green was an agricultural village close to London, but around 1760 Bethnal Green becomes urbanized / industrialized, and becomes much bigger. Weaving was important there, and it was very densely populated, with pockets of extreme deprivation. The choice of place names may have had a token function – lending a sense of realism to the song. It might be symbolic, representing the urban environment. If you carry out this sort of investigation into the text it helps you appreciate the meaning of the ballad, and gives you a way in to the social history.
Vic Gammon Susan Tilley and the Representation of Women in North East Popular Song (c. 1790 – 1850)
Susan Tilley was an experienced academic and educated musician and embarked on an MLit degree. Tynside Song is a really large subject. Susan’s work dealt with the early publications put out by Newcastle Printers, and the first group of ‘collectors’ such as Joseph Ritson and John Bell, examining the songs under six subject headings drawn from Mary Wollstonecraft’s book A Vindication of the Rights of Women published in 1792. Mary Wollstonecraft ‘s work was used as a contemporary guide to create a model for grouping and analysing the songs. Themes – Characteristics of acceptable female behaviour, necessity for marriage, risk and ease of seduction, earning a living, domestic responsibilities, and civic activity. Do the songs reflect attitudes and values, or did they influence them? Susan wrote that they did have some influence, reinforcing the stereotypes of their time. The period of 1790-1859 were years of great economic and social change, and the area was the furthest English region from London. Population growth, urbanization, economic stimulation and instability were the hallmarks of the time, it was an era of great change. There is a varying amount of use of dialect in the songs. Susan used real cases to illuminate the song texts. Some songs with other than idealized views of women had a restricted audience, but some were reprinted often enough to indicate they were popular. The section on sex and seduction discusses the vulnerability and difficulties women faced. Most songs in this section were found in Bells manuscripts but not his published works. Working women appear frequently in the songs, boisterous and confident women appear in some songs. The ideal was a homebody, obedient, faithful and sober. But some songs deal with discord, lack of money, domestic violence. The final chapter deals with women in political protest, strikes, etc. For her work see: ‘Vic Gammon’s Audio Archive and Other Interesting Stuff’. https://archive.org/ .
Steve Thompson Ballads and disability in Victorian Wales
‘Mwnwr tlawd’ written by a miner about being injured living with the loss of the use of his lower limbs. Many 19th c. ballad singers were disabled, partly because their opportunities for employment were limited. They were described as ‘the journalists of the hills’ because of their role in disseminating news. There were a number of ballads (20 or more) relating to disability. It’s not a significant number, but it does give some idea about disability in the 19th c. Autobiographical sources are rare, and come from higher levels of society. Ballads were more concerned with the poor or working class. Dic Dywyll, a famous blind ballad singer active in the 1800s. There were other famous singers whose names indicate blindness, and many of the ballads themselves offered autobiographic material about disability. Sometimes to a rather graphic level of detail as to how the protagonist became disabled through accident or injury. The ballads described the hardships encountered by the disabled, many of whom took up writing, singing, and selling ballads as a way to make ends meet. They implored their listeners to employ Christian charity, pricking their conscience to encourage sales / contributions. The disabilities are foregrounded, creating an image based on personal experience. The ballads also emphasize that the protagonist and the listener / reader are similar in certain ways, for instance, they once were able bodied, or could see, or had an ideal childhood, but because of an accident they are now different than the listener. The ballads make use of the melodramatic mode to to elicit sympathy and encourage kindness and generosity.