Anglo-American Ballads
The European colonizers and immigrants brought over a variety of musical influences, including the ballad tradition and a number of melodies and dance styles based on folk songs from the British Isles, Italy, and other locations. The operatic tradition was an important influence as well. A number of ballads might be passed down orally, and a written down later, as in the song “House Carpenter,” a story of temptation and death on the high seas.
“Ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.”
Because it was passed down orally for many years, “House Carpenter” (also known as the “Demon Lover”) exists in a number of different versions in which the lyrics have been changed somewhat due to the memories and whims of individual singers. If you compare the traditional lyrics with those sung by Jean Ritchie, you will notice that some of the details change. For example, Ritchie sings of the woman kissing three babies while in the printed lyrics the woman kisses one baby three times. The basic story always remains the same, although some versions omit the last two verses in which the woman’s lover turns out to literally be a demon taking her to Hell.
The printed tradition continued in America throughout the early life of the nation. Music printers produced thousands of “parlor songs,” romantic and nostalgic tunes with simple accompaniment, along with piano music, hymnals, and dance tunes for people to play at home. The popular song industry in the 19th century also produced our first star songwriter, the prolific Stephen Foster, whose tragically short career left us songs like “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Oh! Susanna,” and “Camptown Races.”
However, many of these British and Irish songs continued to be handed down from generation to generation via the oral tradition. This practice was especially true in rural areas in Appalachia and the American South. While musical life in the cities and back in the British Isles diversified and moved on from these old songs, the more isolated areas tended to retain the musical traditions that they originally brought over with them. In many cases, though, the details of the stories were changed to reflect American subjects (aristocratic lords might become mine bosses, etc.) or the melodies were recycled with entirely new words.
“As music became more diverse in the cities, rural areas of Appalachia and the Southern United States retained musical traditions.”