Song text stability

[Natalie Kononenko]

Dear fellow group members,

A couple of questions:
1) I remember that I read somewhere that early scholars looked to songs for
historical material because they thought that songs preserved historical
memory better than prose genres.  I read this so long ago that I can no
longer remember the source.  Can anyone help?  Obviously this was all
before contemporary ideas of emergence in performance.
2) In a similar vein, there were studies that said old language was
preserved in song refrains.  Somewhere I read that the la-la-la at the ends
of stanzas was based on the retention of names of divinities like Lada and
Lele.  Again, can anyone help with the source?
3) Can anyone direct me to modern scholarship on text stability in songs?
I have my own articles.  But there must be more.

Thanks in advance.  Natalie

-- 
Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
200 Arts Building
Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2E6
780-492-6810
http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/folkloreukraine/
http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/Shkola/
http://ukrainealive.ualberta.ca

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