English folk 2013

Folk Music
Traditional English Music in
the 20th century - revivals

Suggested Readings
! Broughton S, Ellington, M and Trillo, R (eds.),
World Music, The Rough Guide, vol 1, Africa,
Europe and the Middle East (London,1999)
! Cohen, Ronald, Folk Music, the Basics (London,
2006)
! Lifton, Sarah, The Listeners Guide to Folk Music
(New York, 1983)
! Lomax, Alan, Folk Song Style and Culture (New
Brunswick, 1994)
! Rob Young, Electric Eden, (2010)
! Garland Series on particular area

Questions
! What is it that constitutes folk music?
! Are there basic similarities across the
geographical areas?
! How and why is it performed?
! How are traditions changing?
! What is the future?
! Connections with popular music and art
music.

Folk?
! By and for the people - Fortune my Foe
Vernacular traditions
! Not composed but organically generated
through usage and changing over time
! Sense of place, identity and cultural
belonging – national traditions
! Functional concerns – dancing, ballads,
lullabies, etc - - Playford’s Dances

Big Area of Study
! One of the main branches of ethnomusicology
! Of great interest in early part of 20th century – for
composers of art music – Bartok, Kodaly,
Grainger, Grieg etc all collectors of folk music
! In Britain – part played by Cecil Sharp and the
English folk song and dance society
! Influence of art music composers Vaughan
Williams, Holst, Grainger, Butterworth, Moeran,
etc - Berio - Black Black Black

And Now
! Seen by many as old fashioned, boring, stayed –
its role increasingly subsumed by pop music and
pop culture – kids know pop songs and no folk
songs
! In period before and after war there was
considerable emphasis on promoting folk song
and dance in schools – radio programmes,
recorders, singing together – largely gone
! Folk clubs and revival in 1950s and 60s Folk and
Skiffle folks greatest moment.

Revivals
! There are many influences on ‘folk’ music
and there have been several ‘revivals’
! 1. Big one in the 1900-30s based on
dance and song collecting. Strong
connections with art music – work of
Grainger, Holst, Butterworth, Peter
Warlock and Vaughan Williams.
! 2. Period after the war of source singers
and purists.
! 3. From 60s new generations with new
approaches, new songs and connections

19th Century
! Folk music collectors – especially in
Scotland and Ireland – Robert Burns,
Johnson, William Stenhouse, John Glen.
! William Chappell’s ‘English Music of
Olden Times.
! Expansion of industrial working class –
largely ignored.
! Brass Bands and singing clubs

Cecil Sharpe
! In 1899 Cecil Sharp by chance saw the
Headington Morris Men outside the
Mason’s Arms in Headington Oxford.
! Started his interest in Folk Dance and then
song.
! 1900-1930 age of folk collectors – Sharp,
Carpales, Grainger, Kennedy.
! English Folk Song and Dance Society.
! Folk Dance into schools. Problems after
Sharp’s death. 1930s.

English Folk and Folk Clubs
! Generation of 50s A. L. Lloyd,
Ewan McColl, Peegy Seeger, etc
! Source Singers, Harry Cox,
Copper family,
! Revival singers – Martin Carthy,
Nic Jones, June Tabor - How
Pleasant and Delightful - Ian Giles

A. L. Lloyd – All for me grog
1961

Instruments
! Violin
! Concertina
! Accordion
! Pipe and Tabor
! Piano
! (not the guitar – which was rare before the
mid 1950s and came from American)

1950s
! Influence of Alan Lomax, Peggy Seeger
and Ewan McColl. Work of Duncan and
Peter Kennedy.
! Gritty industrial folk music.
! Only allowing performers to play music at
folk clubs which was ‘native ‘ to them.
! Political and engaged.
! Lead by McColl
! Folk Clubs throughout Engand.

Early Sixties
! New Younger Generation of folk artists
from America.
! Often with radical political views and new
songs
! Festivals in America had become quite big
and it was more professionalised.
! Some on the edge of commercialism
! E.g. Peter Paul and Mary
! Case of Bob Dylan

Instrumentalists
! Instrumentalists of 60s and 70s– Jansch,
Swarbrick, Renbourn, John Martyn (play
excerpt)
! Electric Bands – Steeleye Span,
Watersons, Albion Band, Fairport
Convention etc.
! Explosion of interests in folk that was
fused with early music, electric rock, even
Jazz and African music.

Where are they now
! Essentially they are still around and still
record and perform – but as a minority
genre within a much bigger pool.
! Many groups have become electrified
! Others have fused with musicians of other
traditions – some stayed ultra regionalist
! Folk Clubs still exist – but again have had
to make room for all sorts of other music
clubs (rave, garage, blues. Etc)
! Many big festivals – like pop festivals –
e.g. Glastonbury

New Generation
! In the last few years a new generation of
artists have begun to create a new fusion
of traditional music and newly composed
music in a folk idiom.
! E.g. Catherine Tickell,
! Using amplified acoustic instruments they
address and attract a young audience.
! Often a younger generation of the Fairport
convention/Steelye Span groups.

Celtic Traditions
! British Isles – Scotland (Tweedside), Ireland and
Wales – all have their own regional traditions as
do the English regions.
! Continent – French folk traditions based on
concept of regionalism
! Britanny especially – but also south and massive
central – importance of specific instruments,
regional dialects and dance forms
! Irish - modelled on The Chieftains - Folk Road

Elsewhere
! Tenors of Sardinia, Lanedas of Sicily
! Difference between Northern and
Southern Europe
! However big pan European similarities in
dance forms, ballad styles, modal tunes
and instrument types.

English folk 2013

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English folk 2013