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INTRODUCTION |
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or preservation of folk-song are: a communal unity of interest or occupation, and a certain degree of isolation from the larger world of affairs, and from continuous contact with printed sources. These are the conditions which produced the cowhoy songs — probably our largest body of native folk-songs, except, of course, the folk-songs of negro source or inspiration. (The songs of the American Indians are available only in translation.)
Cowboy songs are, generally speaking, of two types; first, songs transmitted by purely oral tradition; and, second, songs originally printed, clipped from a local newspaper or magazine, fitted to a familiar air, and so handed down from one cowboy to another, becoming genuine tolk-songs in theprocess. During the transition a certain amount of reshaping often takes place. Verses may be added or left out, or the wording altered — these changes usually tending toward a greater simplicity and directness and a more graphic cowboy lingo. An interesting recent example of such a reshaping through oral transmission is furnished by Badger Clark's "The Glory Trail," sung among the cowboys in southern Arizona under the title of "High-Chin Bob."
The differences between the two versions may be noted by referring to the original in Mr. Clark's Sun and Saddle Leather. Obviously some one found the song somewhere in print, adapted it to a familiar tune, and passed it on. This is the history of a number of the songs. Again, others have been built upon well-known airs; " The Cowboy's Dream" is sung to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the |
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