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Broadside ballad entitled 'The bright New Year' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'The Old Year's pass'd and gone the bright New Year has come' / And it may each of us find it bright in every home.' The text preceding it reads: 'Written Compose and Sung with great Success by HARRY WALL. Comic Comidean Vocalist. / This Song must not be sung by Professional's without permission of the Aurthor.' This sheet was published by the Poet's Box, Dundee. It is most unusual for a Poet's Box publication to have an author attached. These publications were quick and cheap and as a result mainly anonymous. Although the name Harry Wall is given there is very little known about Wall or his entertainment business. It is unusual also to find a copyright statement of sorts on a broadside. Copyright issues were not fully addressed until well into the twentieth century. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(96a)
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