minstrel: "Traditional" songs?, Portmore

[Lisa and Ken Theriot]

Conchobar wrote:

[Probably an odd question, but at what point does a song become
"traditional"?

For example, "Bonny Portmore" is listed as traditional, but what does
"traditional" mean?]


"Traditional" usually means "large groups of people may be expected to
sing along".  "Trad" is the grey area between period and modern (while
period material can certainly be called traditional, not all, or even
most, traditional material is period).  Material, usually songs or
rhymes, credited as "traditional" can mean any of the following:

a) Everyone knows it, and it's been around for years (like 50 at least).
Examples here include songs like "This Land is Your Land" and "Scotland
the Brave"; the authors are known, the songs are under active copyright,
and yet they are still considered "traditional" by many. Many songs sung
around fires at Scout camps fall here, hence ASCAP's lawsuit against the
Scouts.

b) We don't know who wrote it, but he's been dead forever (beware the
recently deceased --current copyrights run for the life of the artist
plus 70 years) and no one has any right to claim royalties as his heirs.
This is the definition of a much more specific term, "public domain";
because this is a term in law, publishers do not use it lightly, so for
anything listed as "public domain" you can be fairly certain that your
use of it is safe.  Anything by Robert Burns falls here; we know who
wrote it, there is one "correct" version, but no copyrights are owed on
any use of these songs.

c) We don't know who wrote it.  It was probably the work of many
hands/voices over many years, and tracing its lineage is fascinating but
arcane.  It would be difficult to argue that any one version is "more
correct" than another.  Most of the "Child" ballads fall here, as does
"Bonny Portmore".

d) The editor of the source book did not know the author and was too
lazy to try to find out (or believed in good faith that it really was an
old piece).


Before you perform a piece and credit it as traditional, you need to do
a little research to discover which definition of traditional was used,
and whether it is true.  There are many sloppily researched folk song
books available which list songs as traditional that are NOT. [A good
test is to look for "The Whistling Gypsy Rover" (you know,
ah-dee-doo-ah-dee-doo-dah-day); if it's listed as "traditional" or
"adapted from Child #200", take everything the book says with a grain of
salt, because you've already caught them in one error.  If it's listed
as "copyright Leo Maguire, Waltons Music Dublin, all rights reserved"
you are safer trusting the book.]


Beware learning a traditional song exactly like they do it on the
record.  When you see a credit like "traditional/arranged by J. Baez",
it means the piece is in the public domain, but her performance is not.
Since you can't tell whether her "arrangement" included altering the
words, altering the melody, altering the song structure, or simply
developing the background accompaniment, you'd better bring something
noticeably new to the piece or you could be in copyright trouble again.
[A more experienced musician who may have heard several versions of the
piece can possibly tell you what the hallmarks of a particular
arrangement are.]


In the case of "Bonny Portmore", "traditional" means "Parts of this song
turn up under this title and others such that we aren't sure what the
heck it looked like originally; please yourself."  Several versions were
published by Cathal O'Byrne (1876-1957).  Apparently, it started out as
a nice "I'm leaving my home and the girl I love" song and ended up an
allegorical diatribe on the appropriation of Irish assets by the English
in the hands of the Irish Rebellion folks.


The following is from the discussion threads at www.mudcat.org (posted
by John Mouldon) which is the font if you're looking for info on a trad
song.  Bigger was a buddy of O'Byrne.  You can read the whole thread
(which is fascinating) at
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25493


****************************************
Francis Joseph Bigger, a Belfast solicitor and antiquary, a Protestant
home ruler and friend of Roger Casement, published the text - much
longer than any other known to me - in an article entitled "Bonnie
Portmore" in a little book published for a fund raising bazaar held (I
think) in the nearby Glenavy Parish. I didn't note the full details of
the book but it is catalogued under Bonnie Portmore in the Catalogue of
the Bigger Collection at Belfast Central Library. Bigger says nothing
about how he came by the text - there is no tune - and I haven't yet
found out. However it is of some interest. There is (I was mistaken)
only a scrap in Sam Henry's papers 

BONNIE PORTMORE. 

Bonnie Portmore, you shine where you stand
the more I think on you, the more I think long.
If I had you now as I had you before,
All the lords in Europe could not purchase Portmore. 

There are no lords in Europe such rights can afford
As the Tunnie, Ram's Island, and Bonnie Portmore
There are two lakes, also, for fishing, again,
And the Deerpark, for hunting the head of all game. 

Bonnie Portmore, I'm sorry to see
Such a woeful downfall on your ornament tree;
It stood on your shores for many a long day,
Till the long boats of Antrim did float it away. 

When "Diana" was launched from the dry land,
Both nobles and lords, they stood looking on;
They sailed round the Deerpark and round Feemore,
And came back to the landing at Bonnie Portmore. 

Squire Dobbs was ingenious: he framed a wind-mill
To drain the lough dry, but the lough is there still
His wind-mill and engine, it all was in vain-
The Lough of Portmore he never could drain. 

Your heart would have sorrowed for the cry of the swan,
When the water was doomed from. the lough to be drawn
They gathered together, and went off in flocks,
And have taken abode in Magilligan's rocks. 

'Twould have been a great pity to have drawn it dry,
For, Bonnie Portmore, you need no supply;
'Tis a harbour for shipping, the bogs doth endure,
A pleasure for strangers, and food for the poor. 

Dobbs cut a canal from under the dam,
To drain the wee lough into arable land;
There was ninety-five acres, I dare say, and more
Destroyed from the Tunnie along to Portmore. 

The first who lived in it was Carter, I'm sure
The next was Sir Thomas, and, wonderful more,
They were Christians I know, but still they got worse,
And their bones they lie rotting now in the old Church. 

The canal it did tremble when the flood it came down,
And when the wind blew the mill it went round :
When the wind it did blow the mill she went right-
What she threw off all day crept under at night. 

Then why, Ram's Island, should you still lament
Or why should you yield to their saucy intent
These two lakes united in friendship are bound
It's the opinion of many they went underground. 

The labouring men, they wrought by the yard,
They wrought by the day when the work it -grew hard:
And when the men thought their wages were won,
They were farther in debt than when they begun. 

When Dobbs' intention it would not prevail,
They gathered more workmen, and cut through the soil
And when he had done, and could do no more,
He then bid farewell to Bonnie Portmore. 

In the Tunnie Island there be a great fall,
And thro' Brankin's Park a stone-and-lime wall
And thro' Derryola an open highway,
Before Bonnie Portmore goes all to decay. 

Bonnie Portmore, you're fairly undone!
Where once your fine buildings-their equal was none
With your ivory tables, and windows of ash,
Where lords used to dine, but where people now thrash. 

The birds of the forest, they now cry and weep,
Saying, Where will we harbour, or where will we sleep?
Since Portmore's fine buildings are gone to decay,
And George's fair island it is cut away. 

Now. Bonnie Portmore, fare you well, fare you well
Of your far-famed beauty I ever shall tell ;
When my last day shall come, I'll lie by your shore,
And sweet will my dreams be in Bonnie Portmore.

***********************************

Enjoy!

Adelaide