Themes: Part 1
Themes
The songs we consider to be traditional have stuck around in the popular consciousness because of common themes that resonate with the general population over different periods of history. Often these are similar to the way in which you might group books or films into different genres. These categories are listed for convenience and some songs might fall into more than one category.
Visit the EFDSS Education Resource Bank for a range of thematic packs of folk songs.
Calendar Customs
Some songs are very much associated with other activities tied to the old religious calendar of the British Isles. It isn’t unusual to find songs associated with various begging/money raising traditions
Example 1: Mayers Song (Ella Mary Leather Collection)
Example 2: Stafford Begging Song (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Example 3: Pace Egging Song (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Example 4: Calling On Songs (Maud Karpeles Collection)
Carols / Religious
There is more to the term ‘carol’ than just Christmas carols – in the past carols covered a whole range of religious songs including those for Easter and may as well as many other significant points in the Christian calendar.
Example 1: God rest you merry Gentlemen (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Example 2: Cruel Herod (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Comedy and Diversion
Sometimes elaborate jokes told over several verses, at other times these might simply be parodies of other well-known and more serious songs. Their principal aim is to make an audience laugh. Some trades may be traditional butts of jokes: for example tailors and parsons!
Example 1: Three Jovial Welshmen (Cecil J. Sharp Collection, at Clare College, Cambridge)
Example 2: Butter and Cheese and All (George Gardiner Collection)
Historic Events and Figures
Often starting out as printed song sheets (see Broadside ballads) there are many songs telling stories of famous events, real people, battles, disasters and other things that were considered newsworthy or worth commemorating. Often they become changed over time
Example 1: The Death of Nelson (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Example 2: Admiral Benbow (Anne Geddes Gilchrist Collection)
Heroes and Villains
Sometimes historic but often distorted deliberately or by time to become mythic accounts. These range from stories of Robin Hood, highwaymen and famous pirates to accounts of Lord Nelson.
Example 1: Dick Turpin (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection, at Clare College, Cambridge)
Example 2: Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Industrial Songs
With the rise of the industrial revolution, industry was either the daily occupation of many ordinary people or a preoccupation. This means there are songs both of the hardships of day to day work in pits, mills and other industries and love songs associated with those trades. Whilst fishing and whaling songs could be songs of the sea, they’re really songs reflecting important historical trades. Whaling was very much carried out on an industrial scale and as part of an ‘industrial’ process.
Example 1: As I worked a Sewing Machine (Lucy Broadwood Collection)
Example 2: The Factory Lad (Frank Kidson Collection)
