Amongst all the recent excitement I haven’t nominated a ‘Website of the Month’ for some weeks – so I’ll mention two.
John Baxter, who has been assisting us technically with the Zoom meetings, has an excellent website which he describes as ‘a work in progress’, but is actually very useful. It is called Folk Song and Music Hall, and it is a collection of music hall songs that have been sung within the tradition and the revival. Lots to look at and enjoy.
The other site that I have enjoyed looking at this month is The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams which contains transcripts of more than 5,000 items of correspondence. If you use the search term ‘folk’ then a number of interesting items can be read, which throw light on Vaughan Williams views and concerns. The first item that comes up, for example, is RVW’s response in 1955 to the assertion by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Raymond Evershed, that ‘the activity or “art” (if it is properly so called) of folk dancing and singing is not in any sense creative.’ This was in the context of an appeal by EFDSS for an exemption from rates on the grounds that it was an organisation engaged in the fine arts. A lot of other interesting stuff on this site.
