Cecil Sharp

Cecil Sharp
Born(1859-11-22)22 November 1859
Camberwell, Surrey, England
Died23 June 1924(1924-06-23) (aged 64)
Hampstead, London, England
NationalityEnglish
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Folklorist and song collector
Notable workEnglish Folk Song: Some Conclusions

English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians

The Country Dance Book

Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924)[1] was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician.[2] He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England during the Edwardian period.[3] According to Roud's Folk Song in England, Sharp was the country's "single most important figure in the study of folk song and music".[4]

Sharp collected over four thousand folk songs, both in South-West England and the Southern Appalachian region of the United States.[5][6][7] He published an extensive series of songbooks based on his fieldwork, often with piano arrangements, and wrote an influential theoretical work, English Folk Song: Some Conclusions.[8] He notated examples of English Morris dancing, and played an important role in the revival both of the Morris and English country dance. In 1911, he co-founded the English Folk Dance Society, which was later merged with the Folk-Song Society to form the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Cecil Sharp's musical legacy extends into English orchestral music, and the classroom singing experienced by generations of schoolchildren. Many of the most popular musicians of the British Folk Revival from the 1960s to the present day have used songs collected by Sharp in their work. Scores of Morris dance teams throughout England, and also abroad, demonstrate the resilience of the revival he played a large part in sustaining. In the US, the Country Dance and Song Society was founded with Sharp's support, and dancers there continue to participate in styles he developed.

Over the last four decades, Sharp's work has attracted heated debate, with claims and counter-claims regarding selectivity, nationalism, appropriation, bowdlerisation and racism.[3][7][9][10][11][12][13]

  1. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 2238/9. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. ^ Fox Strangways, A. H.; Karpeles, Maud (1933). Cecil Sharp. London: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ a b Gammon, Vic (2003). "Cecil Sharp and English Folk Music". In Roud, Steve; Upton, Eddie; Taylor, Malcolm (eds.). Still Growing: Traditional Songs and Singers from the Cecil Sharp Collection. London: English Folk Dance & Song Society. pp. 2–22. ISBN 0-85418-187-3.
  4. ^ Roud, Steve (2017). Folk Song in England. London: Faber. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-571-30971-9.
  5. ^ Roud, Steve; Upton, Eddie; Taylor, Malcolm, eds. (2003). Still Growing: Traditional Songs and Singers from the Cecil Sharp Collection. London: English Folk Dance & Song Society. pp. 1–121. ISBN 0-85418-187-3.
  6. ^ Yates, Mike; Bradtke, Elaine; Taylor, Malcolm, eds. (2017). Dear Companion: Appalachian Traditional Songs and Singers from the Cecil Sharp Collection. London: English Folk Dance & Song Society. pp. 1–121. ISBN 978-0-85418-190-2.
  7. ^ a b Peters, Brian (2018). "Myths of 'Merrie Olde England'? Cecil Sharp's Collecting Practice in the Southern Appalachians". Folk Music Journal. 11 (3): 6–46. JSTOR 44987648.
  8. ^ Sharp, Cecil (1907). English Folk Song: Some Conclusions. London: Simpkin; Novello.
  9. ^ Harker, Dave (1985). Fakesong: The Manufacture of British Folk Song, 1700 to the Present Day. Milton Keynes, Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15066-7.
  10. ^ Boyes, Georgina (1993). The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology and the English Folk Revival. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719045711.
  11. ^ Bearman, Christopher (2000). "Who Were the Folk? The Demography of Cecil Sharp's Somerset Singers". Historical Journal. 43: 751–775. doi:10.1017/S0018246X99001338. S2CID 162191258.
  12. ^ Bearman, Christopher (2002). "Cecil Sharp in Somerset: Some Reflections on the Work of David Harker". Folklore. 113: 11–34. doi:10.1080/00155870220125426. S2CID 162196897.
  13. ^ Gregory, David (2009). "Fakesong in an imagined village? A Critique of the Harker-Boyes thesis". Canadian Folk Music. 43: 18–26.