John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopaedia of Music… (1880)
“ The ballad has less musical pretension than the air, and the words of a ballad claim our attention quite as much as the tune. With ordinary listeners, this species of song is more generally felt and understood than any other. Songs have at all times afforded amusement and consolation to mankind. Every passion of the human. breast has been vented in song. Before music is cultivated as an art, every country has its nation-al songs, which enter largely into all their amusements, and are sung with feeling by exiles and wanderers from their native land. Every profession and trade has its song ”
