Sample Ballad: Full text

SMB 42: "Liten Karin"

Each ballad will be linked to both a literal and a singable English translation as well as a constantly updated bibliography. Some will be linked to musical performances of the ballad. The translation for the above sample, which is the first two stanzas of the ballad known as “Liten Karin” (SMB 42), is both literal and singable, and two performances of the ballad have already been recorded. Because of the relatively simple language of the ballads and because of the lack of rhyme and strict meter in them, our literal translations will often satisfy the need for both literalness and metricality. Just as frequently, however, the linguistic register of the ballads can shift, and our translations will shift accordingly to replicate as closely as possible the lexical, syntactic, and metrical complexities (or simplicities) of the original.

Each ballad will undergo musical analysis according to an adapted form of the "Numericode" system presently used for cataloging European music collections (RISM catalogs).  The code for musical analysis, when registered in the data base, will differentiate balladic melodies by musical "families," which in numerous cases will correspond to text variants for each ballad type, but in other cases may yield interesting new information regarding ballad relationships.
Numericode analysis of "Liten Karin" (TSB B 14:5 = SMB 42:F, tune notated 1810-14, and reproduced from Geijer-Afzelius' edition):
       
        F.6, 2/4, A-' // '3 / 1 2 3 4 / 5 4 3 5 / 7 5 6 4 / 5 :// 5 / 7 5 6 4 / 5 3
        1 2 / 3 5 4 2 3 / 1 //
       
The above code has been adapted slightly from Ingmar Bengtsson's directions (see "Numericode–A Code System for Thematic Incipits" in Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning, 1968, 5-40).  The information given before the first double-slash includes tonic key for the recorded melody, major/minor mode, tempo and position of initial tone.  The sequence of numbers refers to scale positions, and the medial double-slash shows, in this case, a half-cadence with repetition indicator. 

The numericode system adaption above is not definitive, and will naturally need discussion during months 1-6 of the project.  An alternative system used by Jan Ling and Margareta Jersild ("A Method of Cataloguig Vocal Folk Music", Meddelanden från Sv. Visarkiv 21) may also be discussed.  In addition to the pitch code noted above, Ingmar Bengtsson has also suggested a duration code which may be noted on a line below or integrated into the pitch line.  This can work nicely for most ballad tunes, when applied parenthetically in a “lute notation” system, in which a duration is indicated only at the beginning and otherwise when the note-value changes.

Parenthetical duration notation integrated into the line above makes it look like this (an eighth note is "(8)" and a dotted quarter "(4.)", a sixteenth note is (6):
       
        F.6, 2/4, A-' // '3 (8) / 1 2 3 4 / 5 (8.) 4 (6) 3 (8) 5 / 7 5 6 4 / 5 (4.)
        :// 5 (8) / 7 5 6 4 / 5 (8.) 3 (6) 1 (8) 2 / 3 5 4 2(6) 3 / 1 (4.) //

With this integrated system all essential features of the melody are notated.  But highly complex recordings of more recent date may need "essentializing" before the coding process begins.  This and other issues must be resolved in the preparatory period before the coding process is started.

Each ballad will undergo strophic analysis, which will yield a code, the numbers in which represent strong beats with the double and single quotation marks indicating feminine and masculine endings respectively. The semi-colon indicates a minor musical pause, the colon the mid-point of a melody. The code resulting from such analysis, when registered in the data base, will differentiate ballads by strophic “families”; these families can then be cross-linked to a comprehensive register of all the melodies analyzed for the whole project. Ballads that have no known melody then, for instance, can be plausibly associated with known melodies of ballads that conform to the same strophic pattern. For “Liten Karin,” the strophic analysis looks like this:

3”3’;=:3”3’.

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