What's New in the Ballad Index

Version 3.4

Released beginning July 25, 2014.

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

We have revised the software to include Steve Roud's Broadside Index. This does not affect the online index; it's just the downloaded software.

Materials Added in this Edition

No new books were added in this edition.

Version 3.3

Released beginning June 5, 2014.

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There have been no changes to the Ballad Index format. We have made some code changes which will probably reduce the number of entry errors slightly.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were fully indexed in Version 3.3:

In addition, these books were partially indexed:

We now have 11828 different songs, under 20477 titles. At least 666 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 3.3.

The Supplemental Tradition now contains full or partial texts for 1041 songs.

There are 409 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 171 with at least 1000 words of notes; 19 with at least 5000 words of notes.

The five most popular songs:
1. Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (124 references)
2. The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (104 references)
3. The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (100 references)
4. Young Beichan [Child 53] (88 references)
5. The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (87 references)

(The most popular non-Child Ballad? Frog Went A-Courting, with 80 references.)

An even 5500 songs -- just less than half the song in the database -- have only one reference.

Version 3.2

Released beginning January 2, 2014.

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

A new Bibliography file has been added to the Ballad Index software. And we now make a PDF version of the Index available.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were fully indexed in Version 3.2:

In addition, these books were partially indexed:

We now have 11651 different songs, under 20060 titles. At least 1369 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 3.2.

The Supplemental Tradition now contains full or partial texts for 1038 songs.

There are 389 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 152 with at least 1000 words of notes; 19 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Version 3.1

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There are no changes to the format.

Materials Added in this Edition

Only one book was fully indexed in Version 3.1:

However, we included ADDITIONAL entries from many more books.

We now have 11247 different songs, under 19266 titles. At least 343 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 3.1.

The Supplemental Tradition now contains full or partial texts for 1027 songs.

There are 384 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 166 with at least 1000 words of notes; 18 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Version 3.0

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

The major change is the release of new Ballad Index software for Windows 7.0 and higher, Macintosh OS X 10.6.8 and higher, and iPad running FileMaker Go. See the software page for download and installation instructions.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 3.0:

We now have 11194 different songs, under 19110 titles. At least 526 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 3.0.

The Supplemental Tradition now contains full or partial texts for 1021 songs.

There are 384 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 166 with at least 1000 words of notes; 18 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Version 2.8

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There are no changes to the basic format, but we have added a new Table of Contents to make it easier to find songs by title. Also, in the HTML version of the index, the Roud numbers are now live links -- that is, if you click on the Roud number, it will give you a list of those items in the Roud index.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.8:

We now have 11112 different songs, under 18887 titles. At least 444 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 2.8.

There are 381 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 164 with at least 1000 words of notes; 18 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Version 2.7

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There are no changes to the format. We are thinking about ways to improve the searching function.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.7:

(Some of the above are short enough that they are simply cited in ADDITIONAL entries rather than having full treatment: these are marked *)

We now have 11003 different songs, under 18652 titles. There are over 39,000 references (excluding Roud references), pointing to something like 30,000 texts, and more than 7900 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 3200.

At least 1066 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 2.7.

There are 378 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 161 with at least 1000 words of notes; 18 with at least 5000 words of notes.

I count 218 books fully or partly indexed, with many more cited in ADDITIONAL entries. At least 883 sources are cited in the NOTES.

Version 2.6

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

We have (not entirely voluntarily) adopted a new search engine format. Other than that, we have not made any substantial changes to the format.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.6:

We now have 10731 different songs, under 18211 titles. There are over 38,000 references (excluding Roud references), pointing to something like 30,000 texts, and more than 7800 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 3200.

At least 2306 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 2.6.

The NOTES now include almost 1,400,000 words. There are 358 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 151 with at least 1000 words of notes; 15 with at least 5000 words of notes.

I count 215 books fully or partly indexed, with many more cited in ADDITIONAL entries. At least 827 sources are cited in the NOTES.

Version 2.5

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

In an effort to make it easier to read and understand the NOTES to songs, we have implemented a new BIBLIOGRAPHY field and format. About 300 songs now have bibliographic data.

We have also implemented a style for multi-part entries, so that extremely long entries will not choke search software.

Finally, we have implemented use of TinyURLs to avoid problems with excessively long URLs.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.5:

We now have 10201 different songs, under 16666 titles. There are over 34,000 references (excluding Roud references), pointing to something like 30,000 texts, and more than 7500 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 3000.

At least 2077 songs were added or had their entries updated in version 2.5.

The NOTES now include in excess of 1,200,000 words. There are 306 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 110 with at least 1000 words of notes; 15 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Admittedly some of that is an effect of me being extraordinarily wordy....

Version 2.4

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There have been no major changes to the Ballad Index format itself.

One reminder: The Ballad Index welcomes contributions to the NOTES on a song. Material which meets our criteria for scholarship will be included even if the the contributor has not otherwise supplied material for the index, and even if the editor disagrees with the conclusions.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.4:

In addition we have indexed about thirty years of Sing Out! magazine, incorporating songs which are transcribed from properly traditional sources and apparently not included in other publications.

We now have 9365 different songs, under 15580 titles. There are over 32,000 references (excluding Roud references), pointing to something like 28,000 texts, and 7573 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 2600.

I find that we now have at least some authorship information on 1864 songs. Whatever that tells you.

The NOTES now include in excess of 950,000 words. There are 217 songs for which the NOTES exceed 500 words; 75 with at least 1000 words of notes; 13 with at least 5000 words of notes.

Version 2.3

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There have been no major changes to the Ballad Index format itself.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.3:

In addition, Paul Stamler contributed much additional information about 78 recordings.

We now have 8752 different songs, under 14692 titles. There are over 30,000 references (excluding Roud references), pointing to over 25,500 texts, and 7551 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 2400.

Version 2.2

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There have been no major changes to the Ballad Index format itself. We have, however, made a substantial effort to make key information more accessible. We have now compiled a list of the songs where the Notes or Historical References contain substantial material not found in the more common ballad references. The list of songs with such notes are summed up in the page on Ballad Index Articles.

Note: Everyone, even those who have not contributed to the Index, are invited to contribute articles.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.2:

We now have 8274 different songs, under 13885 titles. There are 28637 bibliographic references (excluding Roud references) and 7262 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 2200.

131 songs have notes exceeding 500 words (3000 characters); most of these are included in the Ballad Index Articles. 38 songs have notes exceeding 1000 words; 18 have notes exceeding 2000 words. Six have notes exceeding 5000 words (though that's arguably just the result of editor Robert Waltz talking too much).

Version 2.1

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

The field names have been slightly changed to facilitate database use. These also made possible significant improvements to the downloadable Ballad Index software. The software has been updated to run on Mac OS X 10.3 or higher.

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.1:

Version 2.0

Changes to the Ballad Index Format

There are two major additions in Version 2.0:

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 2.0:

We now have 6787 different songs, under 11667 titles. There are 19373 bibliographic references (excluding Roud references) and 5449 recording references. Because of duplicates, we cannot give an exact broadside count -- but the number of citations exceeds 1200.

Version 1.8

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 1.8:

We now have 5990 different songs, under 10437 titles. There are 17377 bibliographic references and 5028 recording references.

Version 1.7

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 1.7:

In addition, the Index now includes over 4000 references to Steven Roud's Folk Song Index.

Over 1000 78 recordings were added or their entries updated.

We now have 5691 different songs, under 9808 titles. There are 16198 bibliographic references (excluding the Roud references) and 4427 recording references.

Version 1.6

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 1.6:

In addition, the quality of references for several books indexed early on (Randolph, Eddy, Sandburg, etc.) has been upgraded.

Cross-references to Bronson have been introduced for all Child ballads.

We have added in excess of 1000 78 recordings.

These volumes pushed us to the 100 book mark. The Index now has 5516 songs, under 9452 titles; there are 15,258 bibliographic references and 3109 recording references.

Version 1.5

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 1.5:

In addition, dozens of recordings have been indexed, and there are the usual corrections and additions

Version 1.3

Materials Added in this Edition

The following books were added to the Index in version 1.3:

In addition, several more recordings have been indexed, and there are the usual corrections and additions

What's New in Ballad Index Software
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