‘Cognitive strategies in rhyming in new ballads – an improvisatory approach’ was the title of a presentation of Folk Song Lab hold at the conference ‘Rhyme and Rhyming in Verbal Art and Song’. The main focus in the presentation was to illuminate the different methods used for improvising end-rhyme in ballads and how they worked: Improvising from a story-board, from a stilleben or just figuring out a story while singing are some of the methods used. Also formulas such as improvising narrative using third person perspective, dialogue, or the chrochet/braid/chain-method were described. Its amazing how the brain works when trying to rhyme!
The conference was hold at the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki. Many interesting papers and keynotes were presented at the conference that takes place between 22nd-24th May (2019). Nigel Fabb’s (Professor of Literary Linguistics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow) keynote: ‘Why is rhyme different from alliteration? A psychological and aesthetic account’ was really relevant for the Folk Song Lab project. Also some presentations about rap like Venla Sykäri’s (Finnish Literature Society/University of Helsinki) ‘Strategies of rhyming in contemporary extemporized oral composition’ about the modern rap-scene in Finland had connections with the Folk Song Lab project.
Folk Song Lab 