Music Review: - John Clark's 'A Ballad Book’
/**Now in Stock at the LANA Store** – A Ballad Book for Singers, Lyre or Other Melodic and Accompanying Instruments, selected and arranged with chord indications and optional Preludes/Interludes, by J. S. Clark.
Review by Sally Willig
John Clark has brought to the lyre community a wonderful and needed compilation of songs in this first volume for those who love the old English and Scottish ballads. In his introduction, John describes ballads as “sung narratives or stories, and their use and development have accompanied the unfolding of Western music since medieval times until today.” He has researched the melodies and lyrics, with the help of the Oxford Book of Ballads by James Kinsley (1922-1984). The ballads run the gamut of life experience with dramatic tales of love, death, heroism, evil, comic relief, and so on. This volume contains 31 songs with Clark’s own originally composed “optional” preludes and interludes, along with guitar chord indications. John gives hints and suggestions in his introduction, but also leaves room for the musician to make artistic choices in instrumentation, tempi, and dynamics. A few of the Ballads are: “Thomas the Rhymer,” “Fair Margaret and Sweet William,” "The Carpenter’s Wife (The Daemon Lover),” “Unquiet Grave," “The Wee Wee Man,” “The Cherry Tree Carol,” and many more.
Music is a wonderful way to bring the cultural history and atmosphere of the North to audiences. John Clark has made it possible to bring the lyre to this popular genre. I also see possibilities for adding other instruments to further embellish the songs and underscore the storylines. Playing and singing several of these pieces as a set for a musical sharing or more formal concert would be very entertaining. This music book would also make a lovely gift for the folk music enthusiast. Intermediate to advanced lyrists will enjoy playing these songs. It is also possible to divide the accompaniment into two parts for more ensemble fun.
