This article reflects on three recent publications dealing with broadside ballads in the Czech lands. These include a publication from regional museum collections and two exhibition catalogues. It presents the various ways of comprehending this interdisciplinary phenomenon and current research trends (research into the materiality of the prints, reflection on the musical component, multilingualism and the like). It also presents terminological considerations and reflects on the broadside ballad as part of 18th and 19th century popular culture.
The oral tradition preserved several dozens of folk songs that arose out of the broadside ballads. In these cases the broadside ballad was shortened, the strophes that included verses and formulations not reflecting the popular experience were omitted and the vulgar words replaced by formulations typical for folk song. The tolkative character of the broadside ballad was substituted by the concise way of folk song. The texts were supplemented by folk melodies. These statements can be proved by the case of the song Such a sorrow I have, cloth trousers… that arose out of the broadside ballad. This folk song existed in many textual and melodic variants and under various incipits on the whole territory of Bohemia and parts of Moravia and Slovakia. Some formulations in the broadside ballad indicate its origin in the period of 1811–1816, while the folk song appeared for the first time in the collection of K. J. Erben from the year 1864. In published and manuscript collections were ascertained in the whole 23 textual and 18 melodic variants. The tunes come out of the traditional melodies and usually imitated some concrete folk song. The songs are mostly dance songs, in triple time, mostly in the rhythm of „sousedská“, ländler or round-and-round („kolečko“). The instrumental recordings of closing parts of some songs as well as the notes of the collectors prove that these songs accompanied the dance at dance evenings or weddings. Their humorous text and dance rhythm probably contributed to their popularity and wide spreading, especially on occasions of high-spirited wedding celebrations. The song had been preserved in oral tradition, in numerous variants, for almost 200 years, and this constitutes one of the main attributes of a folk song.