Customer Reviews

The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads

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This is hands down the most useful book for balled research in the British Isles. I own the condensed (paperback) version of this three volume set.

I consider it the gem of my collection. Bronson retraced the path of James Child some years later, collecting all the tunes he could. He then classifies them into tune variant families. In the condensed version, he presents at least one example of each tune variant, with lyrics and written music.

Bronson provides exhaustive notes of the sources, including listing the original manuscript (if available), allowing you to easily identify and track down original sources to the music.

Consistent classification allows you to cross-reference each ballad with the Child versions.

This is my favorite book ever!