Arizona republican., 1915-03-19
OLO BALLADS
 IN NEW DRESS
Something About the Songs Whici: the Fuller Sisters Will Sing at the Woman's Club Next Monday Night is Set Forth

English ballads, which play an lm- portant part in the repertoire Of the Misses Fuller, who will appear here on Monday night under the auspices of the Womans club were mnch more commonly found a century ago thah they are today. Nowadays one must go to some such collection as Percy "Reliques" to find them. Even thls is not entirely satisfactory. for the older collections are by no means complete, they have in many cases been edited out of their original form and they never included the music. A hundred years ago they were sold on the streets of London. and vendors did a thriving trade i'll them They were printed in what was called the "brOadside'' form. This was a large sheet of paper, printed on only one side. containing the words of the ballad. sometimes in thirty or forty stanzas. and surmount- ing the poem wood-cut Illustrative of the character of the work.
 For this a graduated scale of prices was charged. depending. upon the care
 
 pared The customary rate was "a penny plain. tuppence colored, and three pence in a glass frame
 This charge did not include the music. for the tunes were communi- cated only by memory. At the time of making the sale the ballad mOn ger was in the habit of singing q few verses to the customer. who learned the melody by this means, and later memorized the words at his leiZure
 Many of the ballads are very old, dating back in number of instances to the age before the invention of printing. These, of course were either written out labOriOusly by hand. or were passed along by word of | mouth They were ordinarily sung by wandering, professional musicians. the minstrels of the day. and dealt with | either historical events, or tales which had become semi-legendary in l character. such as the manifold tales
 Of the famous outlaw, Robin Hood, | and his company of genial robbers. The Misses Fuller have only re- gently issued q number of the ballads
 which they sing in what is as nearly
 as possible a reproduction of the
 old broadside form They are inter-
 esting examples. and musicians and
 collectors in all parts of the coun- l try have seized upon them to add to 1 their libraries. They are more com plete than their predecessors, be-
 cause the melodies have in each
 case been included. Care has been
 taken here to preserve the air of | antiquity. since the old-fashionad
 square notes are used, such as are
 found only in ancient manuscripts. 1 The wood-cuts at the top of the
 pages have been prepared by Miss Dorothy Fuller, one of the trio of
 sisters. In them she displays a feel ing for the old pictures as marked
 as she does when she sings the
 music.
 These broadside ballads are more
 than attractive examples of the
 printers art. They frequently con-
 stitute the only permanent preserva
 ton of the songs themselves. In
 their researches in England the
 Misses Fuller were many times
 called upon to rescue a number of
 their songs from complete oblivion by taking them down from the lips
 of some elderly peasant or vllager
 the only one of his community who
 remembered them. They were thus
 learned in precisely the same man
 ner that they were passd along en-
 turies ago. In this day of revived
 interest in the song lore of England
 the Misses Fuller have played ar
 important part in bringing to light
 many songs which otherwise would I have been completely forgotten They
 occupy q high place as authorities
 on the subject of British song. ant it's constantly increasing interest is due in great part to their effort. both ac collectors and interpreters.