Traditional Song Forum

Report of the Exeter meeting, 21^st Feb 2009

The meeting held in Exeter was enjoyed by all who attended and brought in a number of new people to hear some talks with a West Country theme. The morning discussuin was also lively and you can read all about it in the notes of the meeting which you can find here.

Details for the next three meetings are current;ly being thrashed our and it is likely that we will be meeting in London, Suffolk and Newcastle over the next 12 months - probably in that order. Details will be confirmed as soon as we know ourselves. (12th mar 09)

Peter Kennedy - Archived Website

After Peter Kennedy's website was taken down in September 2007, following his death and that of his wife, Beryl, I agreed with his family that I would try to find a way to launch a modified version of his 'Folktrax' website as a memorial to Peter and Beryl and to answer the calls from a number of people who had found it a useful resource, because of the huge amount of information that it contained. I approached a number of people but had not been able to secure a permanent home for the site. I have just disciovered, though, that it can be accessed on the web through the 'Wayback Machine' on Archive.org. There are versions of the site there that date back over many years, though not all of them are complete replicas. For the purpose of reference I would suggest using the last version which appears to be all there. It can be found here. (21st Jan 09)

Songs and Ballads of the West - now available online

Talking of the Internet Archive on Archive.org, I discovered the other day that a new tranche of texts by Sabine Baring-Gould has been added to the archive, bringing the total to 377 (though some are duplicates). One of the new texts is the 1891 edition of Songs and Ballads of the West’ – the first version of the collection, with Henry Fleetwood Sheppard as musical editor. Baring-Gould himself preferred this version and wished, in old age, for it to be republished as a memorial to Sheppard. It’s taken 75 years, but this is a welcome republication, in a medium that would have amazed but delighted it’s author. It is an agreeable coincidence that it should appear so close to the 175th Anniversary of Baring-Gould's birth. You can find it here. (21st Jan 09)

Resources in Essex:

Sue Cubbin has written to me from Essex to tell me that she will be retiring from Essex Record Office at the end of March. You will probably have seen the excellent publication that Sue produced on Vaughan Williams collection of folk songs from Essex and she has also given a lot of support to others working in the area. She also talked at the recent day focused on Vaughan Williams collecting in the East of England which was organised by East Anglian Music Trust. Sue is now tidying things up before she retires and she has sent me two very useful lists of folk song and dance resources to be found in the Essex Record Office. I have added them to the items in our 'Library' but you can access them from these links as well

Essex Record Office - Folk Music and Song Resources

Essex Record Office - Folk Dance Resources

Thanks, Sue! (11th Feb 09)

New Carol Book

Ian Russell has written about a new publication from Village carols. He says:

You may like to know that The Sheffield Book of Village Carols, ed. Ian Russell (Sheffield: Village Carols, 2008), casebound ISBN 0-9524871-3-6, 192pp. is available from Village Carols, P.O.Box 2099, Sheffield S35 0XU (01224 645486), Ł16.00 plus Ł6.00 p&p (UK). See http://www.villagecarols.org.uk/ (11th Feb 09)

TSF Subscriptions

Subscriptions are now due for 2009. If you haven’t already done so please send your cheque for Ł8 (made out to Traditional Song Forum) to Doc Rowe at 4, Vesage Court, Leather Lane, London EC1N 7RE. (21st Jan 09)

Publishing music on the web

Lewis Jones has updated his article ‘How to publish music on the web as high quality sheet music’. You can find the article in the ‘Library’ section of this website or click here. (21st Jan 09)

Folk SouthWest

Emily Antell has written from Folk Southwest to say that their Easter School, ‘Extending the Tradition’, will again be running from 16^th – 19^th April at Chantmarle in Dorset. For details visit their website www.folksw.org.uk . (21st Jan 09)

Report on TSF Meeting in Sheffield - 8th Nov 08

My apologies for the delay in reporting on the last meeting of TSF. I have been swanning about Australia, New Zealand and Japan for two months, shamelessly enjoying myself and failing miserably at being a hyper-efficient TSF Secretary. In fact, things were so bad that I rebelled against taking the notes for the last meeting, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to write them up. I am very grateful, therefore, to Pete Wood who very kindly stepped into the breech and wrote the notes for the meeting. Not only that, but he did them in less than a week, setting a standard of excellence that I could only aspire to. I have now uploaded the notes to the site and you can read them here (18th Jan 08)

Vaughan Williams in the East

Katie Howson has written to say that the East Anglian Music Trust are organising a day of talks with a concert to celebrate Vaughan Williams collecting in the Eastern counties. See the details here. (1st Nov 08)

"Murder They Wrote" ...

... is the title of the 20th International Folk Song and Ballad Seminar to be held in Inishowen on the 20th - 23rd March 2009. Apart from some great singing sessions and concerts there are two talks that will be of particular interest to TSF members. The first will be given by Nicholas Carolan and is called "Where did you get all those? - Song collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive." The second talk will be given by Peta Webb under the title "Poor Murdered Woman in English Songs and Ballads." Details from inishowenseminar@eircom.net

Festival of Village Carols

Ian Russell has sent me details of The Festival of Village Carols which will be held in Grenoside Community Centre, Sheffield on Saturday 29th November 2008. There is a full days programme of singing and instrumental workshops and there will be a 'Grand Sing' in the evening with guest spots for invited choirs. Admission by ticket only from Village Carols, PO Box 2099, Sheffield S35 0XU or ring Ian and Norma Russell on 01224 645486.

Conference - The Voice in Oral History

Doc Rowe has sent me details of the Oral History Society Annual Conference, to be held at Strathclyde University, Glasgow on 3rd/4th July 2009. The title of the conference is 'The Voice in Oral History'. Further details and the call for papers can be found here

TSF meeting - Sheffield, 8th Nov 08

The next TSF meeting will take place at the Music Department of the University of Sheffield Taptonville Road) on Saturday 8th November. Details of the meeting are being worked out but, as well as the usual sharing of information about projects and other activity, there will be presentations from Sheffield students, and a celebration of Yorkshire song, marking the successful launch of the 'Yorkshire Garland' website. This will take the form of a seminar/forum interspersed with songs and with bags of opportunities for questions and other involvement with the audience, Singers confirmed include Will Noble (Holme Valley), John Greaves (Littlebeck nr Whitby) and Roger Hinchliffe (west Sheffield) - all farmers/ source singers with Steve Gardham sharing songs from the East Riding and his own family songs. It should be another great day so put the date in your diary now!

Pete Wood's book on 'The Elliotts of Birtley'

Pete Wood's new book "The Elliotts of Birtley" was launched at Whitby Folk Week and Birtley Folk Club with great success, and the reaction from the North East was been overwhelmingly positive. Published by Herron Publishing at Ł15.99. For more details and purchase see Pete's website www.petewood.co.uk, or email davidherron98@yahoo.com.

Irene Shettle and Ralph Jordan are presenting a show on September 11th at the Surrey History Centre, Woking based on Lucy Broadwood's work. Details as follows:

Irene Shettle (singer) and Ralph Jordan (multi-instrumental ist - bouzouki, guitar and duet concertina) will be performing their show
"Listen and You Shall Hear: The Life and Work of Lucy Broadwood" at the Surrey History Centre in Woking, Surrey on Thursday, 11th September 2008 at 7.30 pm. The show is being presented by Surrey Heritage, with generous assistance from Surrey History Trust.

Drawing on words and music from Lucy's diaries, correspondence, printed works and collected music, the show is intended to celebrate Lucy's life and work, her pivotal importance in the worlds of folk and classical music, and the 150th anniversary of her birth on 9th August 1858.

For further information on the show and the performers, please visit the Myspace page http://www.myspace. com/listenandyou shallhear

Tickets for the event must be booked in advance, and cost Ł10 (to include an interval glass of wine) .They will be on sale from 22nd July, and can be obtained from Surrey History Centre (tel: 01483 518737 or email shs@surreycc. gov.uk

At this year's Whitby Folk Week which is happening between Saturday 16th and Friday 22nd August, a number of TSF members are giving presentations or leading events. I have prepared a list of those and a few others that might be of interest. The list can be found here. (27th July 08)

On Sunday, 3rd August at 4 p.m. at the Sidmouth Arts Centre, Carol and I will be giving a presentation on the life and songs of Ray Driscoll (1922-2006), traditional singer. Ray was a true traditional singer. He was born in Ireland in 1922 but lived most of his life in England, where he died in 2006. He was unknown to the folk scene until later in his life when he attended a few folk clubs and festivals. He learnt songs such as My Bonny Boy, a version of Long a-growing, from his Irish father, and added to his repertoire when living in Shropshire and London, plus time spent in the Royal Navy. His repertoire consisted of many folk standards such as The Banks of Sweet Primroses and Jones' Ale, but there are also some songs unique to Ray, such as the satirical Napoleonic song Pompalerie Jig and a story of
highway robbery The Doughty Packman. Also unique to Ray was the song Wild, Wild Berry, a haunting reworking of the Lord Randal ballad. The presentation will focus on Ray's life and songs and will explore how a traditional singer acquires a repertoire and style and finds outlets for performance.

The talk will also feature a new CD of Ray, entitled `Wild, Wild Berry'. The CD can be purchased either on line through Paypal to properjob_publicati ons@yahoo. co.uk or by post by sending a cheque payable to G Davies to: Driscoll CD, 39 Buckles Close, Charlton Kings,
Cheltenham, GL53 8QT. The cost is Ł12 plus Ł1 postage (Ł2 postage for overseas). (27th July 08)

EFDSS will be hosting a clebration of A L Lloyd's life at Cecil Sharp House on 15th November 2008. 29th February 2008 is the centenary of Lloyd's birth and the celebration is also tied in with the publication of a bigraphy by Dave Arthur titled 'Bert: The life and work of A L Lloyd'. (20th Feb 08)

There is lots of Vaugham Williams stuff going on this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. Tony Palmers's documentary film 'O Thou Transcendant' was aired by Channel 5 on New Year's Day and is an excellent record of RVW's life and work. Though focussed on the full range of his work it includes interviews with Malcolm Taylor and brief performances by Martin and Eliza Carthy to illustrate his work on folk music as well as demonstrating how he used traditional themes in his compositions. The film was made shortly before the death of Ursula Vaughan Williams and includes extracts of an interview with her made in the VWML. The video is available from EFDSS or from Amazon. (20th Feb 08)

At the January meeting Vic Gammon said that his new book, Desire, Drink and Death in English Folk and Vernacular Song, 1600–1900, would be available shortly. It is now on sale from the publisher, Ashgate. Persuade your local library to buy it if you feel the Ł50 price tag is a bit much. Details at https://www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?isbn=0 %207546%206094%20X from where you (or your library) can also order the book ((20th Feb 08)

The 10th anniversary meeting of the Traditional Song Forum was held at Newcastle University on Saturday 19th January. The report of the meeting can be viewed here. There were six excellent presentations during the meeting, slides/text for some of which are available on this site, from the following links:

In addition, for paid-up TSF members,* a CD-R with the talks recorded as MP3 files can be obtained from the Secretary for a small administration charge - see details in the report. Thanks to the speakers for their diligent work and to Vic Gammon for hosting the meeting. (20th Feb 08)

* A subtle reminder that the 2008 sub is due - though we are grateful that so many people have paid up already this year.