Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides.

We know from a reference in William Langland's Piers Plowman, that ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material we have is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495.

Early collections of English ballads were made by Samuel Pepys ( 1633 – 1703 ) and in the Roxburghe Ballads collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer ( 1661 – 1724 ).

Broadside ballads ( also known as ' roadsheet ’, ‘ stall ’, ‘ vulgar ’ or ‘ come all ye ’ ballads ) were a product of the development of cheap print in the 16th century.

The subject matter varied from what has been defined as the traditional ballad, although many traditional ballads were printed as broadsides.

At the same time in Germany Goethe cooperated with Schiller on a series of ballads, some of which were later set to music by Schubert.

They were generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published separately or as part of an opera ( descendants perhaps of broadside ballads, but with printed music, and usually newly composed.

The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads.

Both Brothers were attracted from the beginning by all national poetry, whether in the form of epics, ballads or popular tales.

In 1952, Scottish poet Derick Thomson concluded that Macpherson had collected Scottish Gaelic ballads, employing scribes to record those that were preserved orally and collating manuscripts, but had adapted them by altering the original characters and ideas, and had introduced a great deal of his own.

As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by " Robin Hood games " or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities.

While Robin Hood and his men often show great skill in archery, swordplay and disguise, they are no more exaggerated than those characters in other ballads, such as Kinmont Willie, which were based on historical events.

It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical ; in particular stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved.

Among these were pamphlets, posters, ballads etc.

The band were able to showcase their ability on the album to juxtapose pert pop ballads (" Kayleigh ", charting at No. 2 in the United Kingdom, behind charity fundraiser " You'll Never Walk Alone " by The Crowd, and " Lavender ", which charted at No. 5 ) with longer song cycles of lost youth, first love, drug abuse, drink, prostitution and, ultimately, rebirth and redemption, all inspired by Fish's life experiences.

These traditions consisted primarily of English and Scottish ballads — which were essentially unaccompanied narratives — and dance music, such as Irish reels, which were accompanied by a fiddle.

During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, and Australian folk music and bush ballads such as Waltzing Matilda were heavily influenced by Anglo-Celtic traditions, while classical forms were derived from those of Europe.

Critics of salsa romántica, especially in the late 80s and early 90s, called it a commercialized, diluted form of Latin pop, in which formulaic, sentimental love ballads were simply put to Afro-Cuban rhythms — leaving no room for classic salsa's brilliant musical improvisation, or for classic salsa lyrics that tell stories of daily life or provide social and political commentary.

It was a highly stylised imitation of the ballads and poems that were still being told throughout the Spanish countryside.

The result was a collection of 280 songs, ballads, ditties, brought together from all regions of America, more than one hundred never before published: The American Songbag.

Since Child died before writing a commentary on his work it is uncertain exactly how and why he differentiated the 305 ballads printed that would be published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.

In literature the most successful figure of the mid-nineteenth century was Walter Scott, who began as a poet and also collected and published Scottish ballads.

He then published an idiosyncratic three-volume set of collected ballads of his adopted home region, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

He wrote admirable ballads, a historical novel, some licentious verse, and satires published under the penname of Kozma Prutkov.

Sharp's collection of Appalachian ballads was published in 1932.

Loewe wrote five operas, of which only one, Die drei Wünsche, was performed at Berlin in 1834, without much success ; seventeen oratorios, many of them for male voices unaccompanied, or with short instrumental interludes only ; choral ballads, cantatas, three string quartets ( his opus 24 ), and a pianoforte trio ; a work for clarinet and piano, published posthumously ; and some piano solos.

As a young man he composed the ballads Ivry and The Armada, which he later included as part of Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history which he composed in India and published in 1842.

* The Boy's Percy ( published posthumously in 1882 ), consisting of old ballads of war, adventure and love based on Bishop Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

A group of American archivists and researchers that included John A. Lomax, his son Alan Lomax, poet Carl Sandburg, musician and activist Pete Seeger and others collected, recorded, and published old ballads, prison songs, Appalachian folk music and black blues.

He contributed to Blackwood translations of Spanish ballads, which in 1823 were published separately.

This practice is reflected in the ballads written about Turpin, the earliest of which, Dick Turpin, would appear to have been published in 1737.

The most recent edition of the ballads, however, published in 2002, now includes Child's rediscovered essay, " Ballad Poetry ," which he had published anonymously in 1874.

Scott began as a poet and also collected and published Scottish ballads.

In 1906 Stone published a book of Sea songs and ballads and in 1923 he wrote the history of his old regiment.

They published a good many ballads, and some plays, including a surreptitious and botched first quarto of Romeo and Juliet, to which it is suggested Chettle added lines and stage directions.

In 1858 he published a 3-volume edition of Thomas Percy's Reliques of ancient English poetry, consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces from our earlier poets, authoring a prefatory ' Memoir and Critical Dissertation ' entitled ' Life of Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore ; with Remarks on Ballad Poetry.

He spent his leisure in collecting materials for a volume of local ballads which he published in 1819 under the title of The Harp of Renfrewshire.

The first collection of Manx church songs was printed in 1799, and was followed by many other collections, though it was not until the 1870s and 1880s that Manx music began to be published in any great quantity, as drawing-room ballads, religious songs, and choral arrangements all became popular.

In 1661, following the Restoration, he published Songs and other Poems, containing songs on various subjects, followed by a series of political songs ; ballads, epistles, elegies and epitaphs ; epigrams and translations.

A book about the making of the radio ballads was published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first broadcast of John Axon.

In America a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British and Irish songs, and ' native American ballads ', developed without reference to earlier songs.

* List of Irish ballads

* They are associated with the Tír na nÓg, the land of the dead and the Sidhe, in Gaelic folklore, and as such frequently appear in Scottish, Irish, and English folksongs and ballads in association with death, or fairies, or returning from the grave.

According to Siobhán Marie Kilfeather the song is from the music hall style of the period, and while one cannot wholly dismiss the possibility that it is " based on an older folk song ", " neither melody nor words bear any relationship to the Irish tradition of street ballads.

In the 1930s he recorded for ARC, Hit of the Week, and Decca Records, and in the 1940s made records for Columbia. There is also a personal recollection that in the 1940s he had a 15-minute daytime program wherein he sang Irish ballads and read letters of inspiration sent in by listeners.

It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music ( especially fiddle music ), hymns, and African-American blues.

* List of Irish ballads

German yodeling may have converted southern field hollers into a more musical form and combined them with Irish narrative ballads, resulting in the unique form of the yodeling tradition in America.

Irish traditional music includes many kinds of songs, including drinking songs, ballads and laments, sung unaccompanied or with accompaniment by a variety of instruments.

He recorded two Irish ballads, " Danny Boy " and " Maureen ".

He wrote some stirring nationalistic ballads, originally contributed to The Nation, and afterwards republished as Spirit of the Nation, as well as a memoir of Curran, the Irish lawyer and orator, prefixed to an edition of his speeches, and a history of King James II's parliament of 1689 ; and he had formed many literary plans which were brought to naught by his early death.

: Solo competitions shall be held for the following instruments: fiddle ; two-row accordion ; concert flute ; whistle ; piano accordion ; concertina ; uilleann pipes ; harp ; mouth organ ; banjo ; mandolin-excluding banjo-mandolin ; piano ; old-style melodeon ; bodhrán ; war pipes ; miscellaneous such as three and five row button accordion, piccolo, harmonica and other stringed instruments ; céilí band drums ; accompaniment – confined to piano, harp, guitar and bouzouki-type instruments ; solo traditional singing in Irish and English ; whistling ; lilting ; newly composed ballads and amhráin nua-cheaptha ( newly composed songs in Irish ).

The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals.

They are highly respected in their native Ireland, covers of Irish ballads by Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly are largely regarded as definitive versions.

The traditional music of East Tennessee has evolved from a blend of English and Scottish ballads, Irish and Scottish fiddle tunes, African-American blues, and religious music.

He was for several years president of the Irish Literary Society, and was the author of the famous ballad of Father O ' Flynn and many other songs and ballads.

Directly related musically to old English, Scottish, and Irish folk ballads, Western music celebrates the life of the cowboy on the open ranges and prairies of Western North America.

Their material, written almost entirely by lead singer Michael Slattery and guitarist Todd Kassens, has been called " drunken carnival music ," but it was wide ranging, from hard rock to gentle ballads, from sea shanties to French cabaret music to Irish drinking songs.

This has been achieved by the playing of traditional music, particularly ballads, jigs and reels with rock instrumentation ; by the addition of traditional Celtic instruments, including the Celtic harp, tin whistle, uilleann pipes ( or Irish Bagpipes ), fiddle, bodhrán, accordion, concertina, melodeon, and bagpipes ( highland ) to conventional rock formats ; by the use of lyrics in native Celtic languages or dialects and by the use of traditional rhythms and cadences in otherwise conventional rock music.

In the mid-1960s, McGrath became a well-known recording artist in Japan, releasing a series of successful albums of Irish and other folksongs and ballads sung in Japanese.

* List of Irish ballads