这些叙事曲最早于1916年和1939年出版，但民间已经流传久远，特别是在肯塔基、维吉尼亚、北卡罗莱那地区，这些歌曲更可以追溯到欧洲大布列颠岛屿传统的歌调。歌曲多为情歌，表达爱慕之情和对恋人的等待。女高音Custer LaRue以迷人的嗓音提升了原来音乐中天然的美感。伴奏的乐器主要是柳特琴、西特琴等中古乐器，巴尔地摩合奏团简单的伴奏组合使音乐更加质朴和亲切。这张唱片录音极佳，是测试人声表现的名片。

Product Details

Performer: Custer LaRue, Mary Anne Ballard
Audio CD (March 28, 1995)
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Dorian Recordings

1. Turtledove
2. Fair Margagret And Sweet William 
3. Gypsen Davey 
4. Arise, Arise, Ye Slumbering Sleeper 
5. Soldier Boy For Me 
6. Lord Bateman 
7. Berayna 
8. The Outlandish Knight 
9. Lady Gay (The Wife Of Usher’s Well) 
10. Johnny Home From Sea
11. Charlie’s Sweet 
12. Earl Brand 
13. The Lady And The Dragoon 
14. The Nightingale 
15. The Rebel Soldier 
16. The True Lover’s Farewell 


The True Lover’s Farewell: Appalacian Folk Ballads: Custer LaRue (soprano) with members of The Baltimore Consort (Dorian Recordings DOR-90213).
This lady with the strange name specialises in singing folk music, but it is interesting that her approach to this kind of music has been through singing mediaeval and Renaissance music, giving her treatment of this music a very unique style.

The songs on this disc, too, have a strange style. They clearly come originally from Europe, particularly the British Isles, but on the way through the American Appalacians they have aquired a faster beat, and in some cases quite different tunes. The songs, and tunes, were collected from old people living in this area of America, and each song is notated with the date of its collection, and the singer who sang it for the collector.

There are some beautiful individual tracks: the long ballad "Lord Bateman" with a wonderfully catchy tune, and unusually for a traditional ballad, a happy ending; "Soldier Boy for Me" with its careless approach to love (reminiscent of Lydia in "Pride and Prejudice"); the sad, lyrical "Arise, Arise, You Slumbering Sleeper".

I’ve been playing this, and a companion disc, "Custer LaRue sings the Daemon Lover", quite a lot recently, and I’ve still to grow wearing of listening to them.

以下试听是其中的两首歌曲：





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