Characteristics and Constraints in Ballads and Their Effects on Memory

Abstract

Four sets of ballads, chosen as a sample of an oral tradition as it existed in North Carolina in the early 1900s, were examined in order to determine whether ballad characteristics used in combination are sufficient to account for the stability observed from performance to performance, as well as across generations of oral transmission. The characteristics included verse length, presence of refrains, presence and location of poetics, the pattern and number of end rhymes, the metrical patterns, average number of syllables per word, the pattern of meaning and imagery in lines, the frequency of repeated lines both within and across ballads in the set, the musical scales used, and the agreement of metrical stresses and musical beats. The combination of these characteristics provides many constraints which limit the possible word choices and can act to stabilize transmissions. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.