{"id":47372,"date":"2024-09-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6a38a969-f41d-4c60-a9a1-ea38ef5de6c4"},"modified":"2024-09-17T12:07:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T10:07:18","slug":"cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion\/","title":{"rendered":"Cecil Sharp: the man who saved English folksong from oblivion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 17 September 2024 at 09:00 AM<\/p>

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Cecil Sharp. Practically a deity to folk performers. As legendary singer-guitarist Martin Carthy tells me, \u2018We\u2019d be absolutely lost without him\u2019. However, this remarkable individual\u2019s achievements as a collector of vast quantities of folk music at source were built on conventional classical music foundations.<\/p>

What is folk music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Cecil Sharp, the early years<\/h2>
Sharp\u2019s music-loving parents realised that his birth on 22 November 1859 (in London\u2019s Camberwell area) had fallen on St Cecilia\u2019s Day, named after the patron saint of music. Hence \u2018Cecil\u2019. His mother gave him early piano<\/a><\/strong> lessons, but things developed apace when Sharp boarded at Uppingham School, from 1869. Uppingham\u2019s headmaster, the Revd Edward Thring, saw music as integral to school life. He employed as music master Paul David, son of the leading German violinist<\/a><\/strong> Ferdinand David and friend to Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong> and Clara Schumann<\/a><\/strong>. Joseph Joachim, one of the great 19th-century violinists, appeared at an Uppingham concert.\u00a0<\/p>
Sharp acquired the skills of a violinist as well as pianist<\/a><\/strong>. However, his parents baulked at the idea of a musical career \u2013 deemed insecure, perhaps, or too much of a \u2018trade\u2019. Unsure where his future lay after studying mathematics at Cambridge, he was packed off to Australia by his father in 1882 to sort himself out. In Adelaide, Sharp fell into legal work, but music dominated his life \u2013 as pianist-piano teacher, organist<\/a><\/strong>, violinist and choral conductor<\/a><\/strong>. He also dabbled in composition. <\/p>
\u2018He enjoyed being away from the disapproving stare of his parents,\u2019 observes David Sutcliffe, author of Cecil Sharp and the Quest for Folk Song and Dance<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. \u2018Sharp wrote that his stay in Australia gave him the happiest years of his life.\u2019 One reason for that was the friendship Sharp struck up with one Charles Marson, an Anglican clergyman. Their relationship was to prove pivotal to Sharp\u2019s ultimate career path.<\/p>
Best folk songs: the 15 most famous folk songs<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
The moment that changed everything… hearing live folksong<\/h2>
On returning to Britain for good in 1892, Sharp adopted a multi-faceted musical life, including lecturing. A steady if modest income arrived via the role of director of studies at the Hampstead Conservatoire. Stability was also provided by marriage to the astonishingly patient and understanding Constance (Connie) Birch.<\/p>
Then, the moment that changed everything \u2013 an uncanny parallel to what befell Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/a><\/strong>. Both had lectured on English folk song, but only in conceptual terms. Then, in 1903, each underwent a damascene experience of folk song performed \u2018live\u2019. Vaughan Williams heard septuagenarian labourer Charles Potiphar sing Bushes and Briars<\/em> in Essex. Sharp\u2019s revelatory moment came while visiting Charles Marson (also now returned home) at his Hambridge vicarage in Somerset.\u00a0<\/p>
English folk songs: 10 of the best<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
As one of Sharp\u2019s future female collaborators (and his biographer) Maud Karpeles relates, he had been \u2018sitting in the vicarage garden talking to Charles Marson\u2026 when he heard John England quietly singing to himself as he mowed the vicarage lawn. Sharp whipped out his notebook and took down the tune; and then persuaded John to give him the words. He immediately harmonised the song. And that same evening it was sung at a choir supper by Mattie Kay, Cecil Sharp accompanying.\u2019<\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The story of Cecil Sharp’s folk collecting expeditions around Somerset<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The race to collect folk songs before they disappeared<\/h2><p>Both Sharp and Vaughan Williams instantly grasped that there must be substantial numbers of folk songs out there which, if not gathered in, would vanish as traditional rural life\u00a0withered on the vine. Both subsequently trudged and bicycled through country lanes in search of songs, or variants of those already collected. <\/p><p>Sharp returned repeatedly to Somerset before heading further afield. His musical priorities had utterly changed. \u2018I don\u2019t think he was disillusioned with classical music as such,\u2019 suggests David Sutcliffe. \u2018But he\u2019d struggled to find status in that world. He just fell in love with folk music\u2026 the directness of melodies delivered by untrained singers. Here was a field in which he might really make his mark.\u2019<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/best-pieces-music-inspired-american-folk-tunes\">The best pieces of music inspired by American folk tunes<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Sharp\u2019s grounding in classical music was invaluable, says Katy Spicer, artistic director of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.efdss.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">English Folk Dance and Song Society<\/a><\/strong>, with which Sharp was intimately involved. \u2018He was able to write down tunes swiftly, hearing all the note durations and intervals accurately. And he was good at gathering the \u201cmetadata\u201d \u2013 information on locations, plus the professions and backgrounds of the singers.\u2019\u00a0<\/p><p>There was the man who couldn\u2019t remember a song unless he was in his armchair by the fire. And the farm worker who only performed when feeding his pigs. \u2018Sharp was great at winning singers\u2019 confidence,\u2019 says leading folk performer Brian Peters. \u2018They opened up to him. He was then able to return and collect still more songs.\u2019\u00a0<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cecil Sharp House Choir with leader Rose Martin on St George's Day in Trafalgar Square, April 2023\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MiQn0s__WKk?start=16&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Cecil Sharp House Choir performs in Trafalgar Square, London on St George’s Day 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/best-folk-singers\">These are the best folk singers of all time – and a standout track you need to hear from each<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cecil Sharp – generating publicity and a sense of mission<\/h2><p>Sharp would be surprised, perhaps, at research which has shown only around 20 per cent of the songs he collected date from before 1800, as folk music archivist par excellence Steve Roud (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/archives.vwml.org\">archives.vwml.org<\/a><\/strong>) explains. \u2018The vast majority of songs had been spread around the country on \u201cbroadsides\u201d \u2013 cheap song-sheets sold in the streets and at fairs. However, the music wasn\u2019t printed, so every potential singer needed to learn the tune by ear \u2013 the street sellers sang the songs \u2013 or fit the words to an existing tune, or make up their own melody. In fact, it was tunes that mainly interested Sharp and Vaughan Williams, given that they\u2019d been moulded by generations of singers and were therefore more authentically of \u201cthe people\u2019s taste\u201d than the words.\u2019<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-irish-folk-songs\">Best Irish folk songs: 6 beautiful traditional Irish songs you just can’t help singing along to<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Sharp never claimed to be<em> the<\/em> pioneer collector, given the long history of published selections of folk\/country songs. Among Victorian\/Edwardian collectors, Lucy Broadwood and the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould stand out. What Sharp brought uniquely into play, says Roud, was \u2018his sense of mission and enormous energy. And he brought the folk music movement the publicity it needed\u2019. That publicity came in the shape of articles, lectures and published collections of Sharp\u2019s (deliberately unembellished) arrangements of folk songs, with special attention given to promoting the\u00a0singing\u00a0of them in schools.\u00a0<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A unique tonal language to strengthen the nation’s character<\/h2><p>Insofar as these songs were largely collected in rural settings, enthusiasts like Sharp felt they reflected a community significantly less smitten by change than the burgeoning, melting-pot urban centres. And the various scales in which the songs were often sung \u2013 \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/modes-in-music-what-they-are-and-how-they-are-used-in-music\">modes<\/a><\/strong>\u2019, like those in Tudor church music \u2013 had the whiff of distant antiquity about them which suggested they represented the very fibre of the nation\u2019s history. The likes of Sharp, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gustav-holst\">Holst<\/a><\/strong> and Vaughan Williams, says Brian Peters, \u2018were struck by melodies that didn\u2019t conform to the conventional major and minor scales. When you hear a song for the first time in, say, the Dorian mode, it sounds strange. But\u00a0that\u00a0was the appeal.\u2019\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/russian-folk-songs\">Russian folk songs: 10 of the best<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>\u2018The leading role of continental music, particularly by German composers, and the jibe that England was<em> \u201c<\/em>das Land ohne Musik\u201d (the land without music)<em>, <\/em>was keenly felt by English composers,\u2019 observes Julia Bishop of the University of Sheffield, \u2018but now there seemed to be a new way forward. Even though modal folk songs were in the minority of those collected by the likes of Vaughan Williams and Sharp, they offered the potential for a different tonal language for English music.\u2019<\/p><p>Moreover, Sharp asserted that singing folk songs in schools would \u2018refine and strengthen the national character\u2019. \u2018The mood was ready for this folk song revival,\u2019 says David Sutcliffe. \u2018Ordinary people sensed the need for renewal after the shortcomings exposed by the Boer War. The desire to promote an English \u201cnational music\u201d was one outcome of that.\u2019<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/shanty-mad-why-the-age-old-folk-tradition-of-the-sea-shanty-has-made-a-comeback\">Shanty mad: why the age-old tradition of the sea shanty has made a comeback<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new interest in English folk dance<\/h2><p>From 1907, Sharp\u2019s attention was captured by English folk dance. The almost feverish collecting began all over again \u2013 this time, of both music and steps. \u2018These dances and their music were also in danger of disappearing,\u2019 observes Steve Roud. \u2018Sharp and another enthusiastic collector, Mary Neal, really were doing pioneering work. It was so exciting for Sharp to discover a totallynew field of activity like this.\u2019 Hundreds of melodies were \u2018saved\u2019.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/ukrainian-folk-songs\">Ukrainian folk songs: 10 of the best<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Here was further scope for Sharp\u2019s classical music training, says David Sutcliffe. \u2018His skills on the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/violin-history\">violin<\/a><\/strong> equipped him to collect 222 fiddle tunes for Morris and country dances. No other collector ventured upon this territory. The English traditional fiddler has historically been\u00a0neglected.\u2019<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A move to America<\/h2><p>There was nonetheless a glorious swansong as far as Sharp\u2019s folk song collecting was concerned. While teaching\/lecturing in the US during the First World War, he was approached by one Olive Campbell, who had been taking down songs in the Appalachian Mountains. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-american-folk-songs\">The best American folk songs: 14 songs guaranteed to stir the hearts of all Americans<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Would Sharp develop this work? He would indeed, and duly returned to the States several times on collecting expeditions, believing (essentially wrongly, as it turned out) that he was tapping into a lingering English folk song\u00a0tradition.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cecil Sharp – an astonishing legacy<\/h2><p>Space doesn\u2019t permit extended coverage of the various criticisms that have been slung Sharp\u2019s way over the years: alleged misogynistic and fascist tendencies, for example. Little stands up to serious scrutiny and in any case at Sharp\u2019s centenary we might think it more gracious (with apologies to Mark Antony in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/classical-music-inspired-shakespeare\">Shakespeare<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s<em> Julius Caesar<\/em>) to praise him rather than bury him. According to the musicologist Richard Sykes, by the time of his death in June 1924, a musical folk culture was firmly embedded in the British national psyche, largely thanks to the man whose legacy amounts to getting on for 5,000 collected songs and tunes.<\/p><p>Folk performers have fulsomely tapped into that legacy, but Julia Bishop believes Sharp the thinker remains neglected in academic circles: \u2018Especially in his book <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/English-Folk-Song-Conclusions-Sharp-Cecil\/dp\/1110352387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">English Folk Song: Some Conclusions,<\/a><\/strong><\/em> Sharp made in-depth musical observations about these folk melodies which deserve greater exploration.\u2019<\/p><p>Meanwhile, interest in the great man\u2019s song\/melody archive at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/efdss.org\/cecil-sharp-house\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cecil Sharp House<\/a><\/strong> in London is thriving, says Katy Spicer, via both live events and a fulsome online offering. \u2018Our website receives around a quarter of a million hits a year. We get visitors from a variety of creative fields, including classical musicians \u2013 looking for inspiration and\u00a0finding it in Sharp\u2019s work.\u2019\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Tuesday, 17 September 2024 at 09:00 AM Cecil Sharp. Practically a deity to folk performers. As legendary singer-guitarist Martin Carthy tells me, \u2018We\u2019d be absolutely lost without him\u2019. However, this remarkable individual\u2019s achievements as a collector of vast quantities of folk music at source were built on conventional classical music foundations. What is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47373,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/cecil-sharp-the-man-who-saved-english-folksong-from-oblivion.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Tuesday, 17 September 2024 at 09:00 AM Cecil Sharp. Practically a deity to folk performers. As legendary singer-guitarist Martin Carthy tells me, \u2018We\u2019d be absolutely lost without him\u2019. However, this remarkable individual\u2019s achievements as a collector of vast quantities of folk music at source were built on conventional classical music foundations. What is…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/47372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}