Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Jeff T. Titon. Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

In Chapter 5 ("Formulaic Structure and Meaning in Early Downhome Blues," pp. 178-93), he employs Parry-Lord theory to discuss recurrent phraseology in blues songs, maintaining that "instead of a mere substitution system, a blues singer possesses a generating system, a variety of formulaic and nonformulaic word groups which carry a variety of rhythmic combinations that may be accommodated to a given tune" (p.179). Numerous examples demonstrate this generativity.
Area: MU, BL, SC, CP