Category: ballads
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Redrafting
This week I’ve been working from home again. I’ve redrafted my chapter on ballad music ready for my panel meeting and redrafted my article, although I’m not certain where I’m going to send it to. Between them, they have taken me all week. I’m going to proofread them tomorrow, as I think it’s more or…
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Panic!
Almost. Not quite. Well, perhaps sometimes. It comes over me in waves, usually on a Saturday or Sunday. This weekend it was Sunday, today, that the enormity of trying to perfect my chapter before my panel meeting. Now, if I only had to perfect my chapter in time for my panel meeting, things might be…
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Summer Goals (Round 2)
My summer goals • Definition of ‘ballad’ for introduction • Transcription of digital copies of ballads from MSS in the British Library, consulted last autumn. • Archive visits during summer 2013: Stonyhurst College, Lancashire County Record Office, National Archives etc • Completion of article on ballad epitaph • Revise ballad flyting chapter. These goals are…
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Multitasking
The panel date has been set for July 10, so I have been frantically trying to write a chapter this week. Well, not the entire chapter in a week, but I have managed to get a first draft finished in the last ten days, which is good. It still needs a lot of work, because…
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Histfest!
I was very pleased to attend Lancaster University‘s postgraduate history conference yesterday, where I spoke about my work on knowingness in Tudor ballads and the links between sacred and secular music. I think they had a bit of a shock when I started singing ‘Down in Yon Forest‘ to demonstrate the simplicity of melody and…
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Home from my holiday
I think it’s fair to say that we had the best of the weather. On several days last week I got messages from friends in Manchester saying that it was raining, while I was sitting on the beach watching the children playing. Where was I? The Med? The States? No. Ireland. Donegal to be specific… …
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Quick update
A short post, because I probably won’t have time to write one later. This week I have worked mainly on one particular ballad, writing a short article about it that I hope to submit for publication fairly soon. It turned out to be something of a double-edged sword, as there is more to it than…
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Moralising ballads
This week seems to have seen me concentrating on moralising ballads. On Wednesday I had a long meeting with my supervisor, discussing them and the reformation of manners. He suggested I read an article by Peter Lake on Puritanism, Arminianism and a Shropshire Axe-Murder! I read it this morning. Fascinating, it was. So many layers…
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Spring has sprung at last
Weather-wise, it’s been a much better week. Yesterday the weather was beautiful, but unfortunately I wasn’t in a fit state to enjoy it. My eldest kindly brought a bug home from school earlier in the week and having had a sleepless night on Tuesday, I wasn’t in a fit state to kick it out of…
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