Martin A new book on Robert Anderson, the Balladeer of Carlisle will be launched next weekend. This is from the keyboard of Sue Allan, and you can buy the book at https://www.bookscumbria.com/product/cumbrian-books/arts-and-literature/performing-arts/the-cumberland-bard-robert-anderson-of-carlisle-1770-1833/ .
Carrie Grover was born in Nova Scotia in 1879, surrounded by traditional song. When she was 14 the family moved to Maine, but Carrie continued to sing the songs of her birthplace until she died in 1959. A book of her songs, A Heritage of Songs, was published in the early 1950s and she left an … Read more
We have had another highly successful year. In terms of physical meetings, we have travelled hither and yon – the Broadside Day conference was at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, our regular TSF meetings were in Ely in Cambridgeshire, and Belfast in Northern Ireland, and we had an excellent two-day event specifically devoted to the musical … Read more
If you are interested in what the Critics Group got up to then you should listen to this programme, introduced by Martin Carthy, which uses Charles Parker’s recordings of their meetings to reveal something of what went on. You can find it on the BBC ‘Sounds’ website for at least the next year.Go HERE.
Many of you will have seen the film made by Stewart Morgan Hajdukiewicz about the life and work of George Butterworth. If you haven’t, or if you want to see it again you will be pleased to hear that it has been released as a DVD and Blu-Ray disk. The film will come with additional … Read more
ona and Peter Opie were seminal figures in the British folklore scene for many years, but are mostly remembered for their work on children’s folklore from the 1950s to the 1990s. Their huge manuscript collection is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and a project has been underway to digitise the materials, catalogue them, … Read more
The Belfast meeting was a great success, with over 70 members and visitors attending. While the majority were from Ireland we were glad that so many members from England chose to make the journey. It was much appreciated by our Irish colleagues and the exchange of information (and songs!) was of real interest and value. … Read more
Plans for events in 2020 are coming along nicely. Our first meeting of the year will be held on 25 April 2020 in Swindon, on the doorstep of the Great Western Railway Works where Alfred Williams operated a steam hammer, and which was the centre for his forays around the Upper Thames Valley. Williams will, … Read more
This has been another good year for the Traditional Song Forum. We have weathered the storm of GDPR, and the loss of members that we had as a result has been more than made up by the number of new people who have signed up since. This has been helped by the decision to stop … Read more
There has been a very interesting discussion taking place on the ‘Tradsong’ group about Gapped Scales and modality in folk tunes. I thought that Members might like to have access to the conversation as an ‘omnibus’ document. You can download it here.