Oral storytellers memorized plot and names but improvised wording freely

Evidence

The oral bard who uses such formulaic language is not, as scholars in the nineteenth century who struggled with the problem of illiterate bards all assumed, a poet reciting from memory a fixed text. He is improvising, along known lines, relying on a huge stock of formulaic phrases, lines and even whole scenes; but he is improvising. And every time he sings the poem, he may do it differently. The outline remains the same, but the text, the oral text, is flexible. The poem is new every time it is performed. — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 36 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Homeric epithets form a metrical system built for oral improvisation — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 33; Oral bards improvised anew at each performance rather than reciting fixed texts — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 36; Movie sound mixers understand dialogue partly because they have rehearsed it — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1905

Broader Connections

• Oral bards improvised anew at each performance rather than reciting fixed texts #corroborates (0.95) — Homer; Robert Fagles; Bernard Knox, The Odyssey, 36