Chapter 6 The Devolution of the Child Ballads to the Travellers
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Abstract
This chapter charts the decline in popularity of the Child ballads over time, taking the earlier (Greig-Duncan) collection as a baseline against which to compare the later (School of Scottish Studies) collection in terms of repertoire and the chronological distribution of contributors and their sources. It appears that the Travellers continued to sing the long narrative ballads for their own entertainment for only one or two generations longer than the general population. The phenomenon of singers with very large ballad repertoires is noted. The cultural context of ballad singing is discussed in terms of the advance of modernity and the insulation against it provided by the Traveller lifestyle. The performance context is touched upon, and it is suggested that the long ballads are more suited to singing while passing the time than to platform performance.