Sowing the Seeds: Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson in Somerset in 1903
2004; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2056-6166
Autores Tópico(s)Theater, Performance, and Music History
Resumo2003 marks the centenary of Cecil Sharp's first folk-song collecting, in the village of Hambridge in Somerset, with the assistance of the local clergyman Charles Marson. The first song collected, from John England, was 'The Seeds of Love', which Sharp heard him sing in the vicarage garden on 22 August 1903. Although the event is frequently seen as the introduction to Sharp's subsequent collecting and promotion of folk songs, little has been written about the circumstances which caused Sharp to be in the vicarage garden. This present study examines some of Sharp's musical interests in the decade before 1903, including his period as a music teacher at Ludgrove School; his knowledge of folk song at that time; the publication of his song collection A Book of British Song for Home and School; his possible motives for starting his song collecting; his first collecting experiences and the immediate aftermath including his lecture on folk song in Hampstead in November 1903. Introduction Cecil Sharp collected his first folk song, 'The Seeds of Love', when he overheard John England singing in the garden of Hambridge Vicarage. The story of the collection of that first folk song has often been told, (1) and the event is part of the creation story of the folk revival. He collected a further forty-one songs and a dance tune on that first collecting trip, with the aid of his friend, Charles Marson, the perpetual curate of Hambridge. Sharp was not, of course, the first of the late-Victorian and Edwardian folk-song collectors: Sabine Baring-Gould, Lucy Broadwood, Frank Kidson and others all collected and published songs before Cecil Sharp, but the level, depth and subsequent impact of Sharp's folk-song collecting distinguished him from his contemporaries. Cecil James Sharp The biographies of Cecil Sharp by Fox Strangways and Karpeles celebrated his life and work, with little critical comment. (2) Since the 1970s, other writers such as Boyes and especially Harker have been less adulatory, (3) but in recent years there has been a more sympathetic approach to Sharp's achievements in folk song, especially in the work of Bearman, who has also challenged Harker's research. (4) A full and balanced biography has still to be written. In August 1903 Cecil Sharp was forty-three years old, married with four children aged eight, six, five and one. As a child he had attended Uppingham School, one of the few public schools that encouraged music, and there he became interested in school songs and the school choir. (5) He read mathematics at Clare College, Cambridge and graduated in 1882, at which time his father told him to seek his fortune in the colonies. For the following ten years Sharp lived and worked in Adelaide in Australia, where he also pursued his passion for music, finally working as co-director and teacher of singing and music theory at the Adelaide College of Music. (6) Back in England in 1892, Sharp spent some time teaching music privately and lecturing on Wagner, before securing a position as part-time music teacher at the newly established Ludgrove School, then located in Cockfosters in Hertfordshire. He also taught at the Metropolitan College in Holloway, and was conductor of the Finsbury Choral Association. In 1896, he became Principal of the Hampstead Conservatoire, whilst continuing his part-time post at Ludgrove. (7) After some success in Australia with his composition 'Sylvia', (8) Sharp continued to compose music in England, but with little success. For someone with a passion for music and for pursuing a musical career, music teaching must have featured as a strong option. Music in Schools Gordon Cox has described the history of music education between 1872 and 1928, emphasising the importance of the three successive Inspectors of Music, John Hullah (1872-82), John Stainer (1882-1901) and Arthur Somervell (1901-28). (9) Although he did not work in the elementary school sector (Ludgrove was a preparatory school for Eton, catering for boys aged eight to thirteen) Sharp would probably have been aware of the situation concerning music education in elementary schools (10)--not that music in the public and preparatory schools was necessarily better than in the elementary schools at this time. …
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