| George Malcolm Laws | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | folklorist, professor |
George Malcolm Laws (b 1919) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a scholar of traditional UK and US folk song.
His name is normally rendered as "G Malcolm Laws jnr". He is best known for "American Balladry from British Broadsides", published in 1957 by the American Folklore Society. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the English Faculty in 1942. He gives his name to a system of coding folk songs; one letter of the alphabet, followed by 2 numbers. For example "Laws A01" is "Brave Wolfe" also known as "Bold Wolfe" or "The Battle of Quebec". There is no immediately obvious logic, but a broad pattern appears: the letter A is for military songs, the letter D is for nautical songs, the letter F is for murder, and so on. The system obviously limits you to 26 x 99 songs = 2,576. On the plus side, this system is a strong method of bringing together similar songs. It is a useful adjunct to Child numbers. He includes many songs that Child excluded, and of course, new ones that were found after Child died.
The letters A to H are for native American ballads. The letters J to Q are for "American Ballads from British Broadsides".
A fuller list may be found here: -