Some modern composed murder ballads in the discussion at Australian Folk and Roots Music Forum:
but I’m after the more traditional street ballads and the like, generated through the mysterious processes of oral tradition. No one seems to have come up with any of these yet, other than a possible on the Gatton murders, though this seems more like a poem recently set to music. We certainly come across poems on old murders, not always in ballad form, but still looking for Australian examples of the type of thing at http://www.planetslade.com/murder.html.
On the evidence to date - or its absence - I’m sticking with my original observation that we haven’t traditionally, at least, been much interested in such narrative songs.
2 comments:
Thanks for mentioning PlanetSlade, my murder ballads site. I've been writing about Bushranger Ballads there recently, some of which could be described as Murder Ballads. I'm planning to add some new Australian crime songs there soon at: http://www.planetslade.com/bushranger-ballads.html.
NB this message was meant to post some days ago, but I had a problem with Technology!
Re "The Gatton Tragedy" :
Some years back, Dale Dengate kindly sent me some pages from the “SINGABOUT” magazine, dated Dec 2005.
In addition to her review of Stephanie Bennett’s book on the subject, there was a simple score for a song entitled “The Gatton Tragedy”. The notes say :
“This song, the tune of which is a development of BOTANY BAY, was sent to Gay Terry by her aunt, Mrs I. Beattie, of Brisbane.”
There follows a short description of the known facts about the triple murder and its botched investigation and then the song, which has 4 verses and a chorus. I don’t read music so I can’t comment further, but I’m sure you would have access to this publication.
There is also a 2003 CD by Alan Musgrove entitled “Songs They Used to Sing : A Collection of Australian Folksongs”. This includes a 4:29 track entitled “The Gatton Tragedy”. I have not heard this track nor this artist, so cannot comment here either.
However, maybe it’s more what you are after??
I am still preparing the late Paul Lawler’s settings of 3 of JS Manifold’s poems for upload to his YT channel and when it’s all done, I’ll let you know - FWIW! :)
Cheers,
Richenda Bridge
Maleny, Qld
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