Anglo-Celtic Folk Music in America - Assignment Example

Balladic formulas involved the use of recurrent phrases, stanzas, and lines to express narrative ideas and underline the ballad narrative making it easy to remember the words of a ballad while common modifiers were used in changing pitches. The formulas allowed for the remembering of a shortened fashion of a large narrative depicting its importance in remembering words in a ballad. Examples of formulas and common modifiers include stock words, whole stanzas, incremental repetition, and phrases. In songs, the Lily-White hand represented the imminent occurrence of dramatic action including rape or seduction as evident in Prince Heathen and Katherine Jaffray involving rape and torture and rescue respectively. Other formulas used in ballads include dressing in rich attire, where to get a bonny boy, and playing at the ball. Preserving the lyrics or keeping the “emotional core” intact was important because it represented “time-honored expressions of recurrent ballad acts” with formulas facilitating memorization (Harris, 22). Other than localization, other forces of change that affected ballad lyrics include the consciousness of class differences, increased literacy levels/education, urbanization, religion, and different social values and practices (Buchan, 236).

There is a possible connection between African American spirituals and the Underground Railroad, and most scholars believe that a connection exists between spirituality and the Underground Railroad network. Examples of words used in the Underground Railroad network that come from spiritual texts include “Drinking Gourd” which referred to The Big Dipper whose handle pointed to the North Star symbolizing the North Start in the Bible that let the wise men to Jesus depicting that it would lead to salvation for the slaves. “River Jordan” found in the Bible was the code word for Ohio River, and the “Promised Land” meant Canada, a haven for the slaves. Other code words with spiritual connection include “going to heaven”, Follow the Drinking Gourd” map song, and “passengers” referring to slaves and used in the Bible to refer to followers.