A Positive quote from Georgina Boyes
The Singing Englishman also put forward a number of other distinctive approaches to tradition. As might be expected of a performer of Lloyd's ability, his brief commentary on unaccompanied singing is insightful. [3. Percy Grainger's article, 'Collecting with the Phonograph,' Journal of the Folk-Song Society, III:3; No 12 (May 1908), 147-242 offers a far more extensive and detailed discussion of English singers and their music. But, although he discussed the content in Folksong in England (p68) it seems likely Lloyd either discounted or was not aware of Grainger's comments in 1944.] 3 More important for the time, however, was his stance on the value of traditional singing styles. Lloyd didn't just offer positive support for unaccompanied singing, he challenged the contemporary Revival's comfortable acceptance of accompaniment as a necessity, and rejected the unquestioned superiority of folksongs delivered by trained voices. Maud Karpeles, who made the first recordings of Phil Tanner in 1937, referred to him 'as one of the best singers I have ever heard' and this is the only record that Lloyd recommends in The Singing Englishman's 'Short Bibliography'. More typical of establishment attitudes to traditional singing were comments made by some adjudicators at the 1957 'Festival of Folk Music' organised by The English Folk Dance and Song Society at Cecil Sharp House. Witheringly unsympathetic to traditional styles, they criticised the diction, voice production and absence of eye contact by elderly singers who had been invited to take part in this competitive event. Observers - Lloyd among them - were disturbed by 'the various rude things said by Dr Sydney Northcote to some of Britain's finest traditional singers, venerable old gentlemen who should have been treated with more respect'. 'It looked at one time,' wrote Eric Winter who was also present, 'as if Dr Northcote was going to rap on his glass as if to say he would take the other five or so verses as read'. Summing up this unpleasantly instructive experience, Lloyd concluded 'when listening to folk song performers, genuine or revival, adjudicators have to be looking for a different set of artistic virtues from those immediately recognised by the singing teacher' [4. See Georgina Boyes, The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology and the English Folk Revival (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), pp219-220 for further discussion of this event based on A L Lloyd, Eric Winter and Fred Dallas, 'Made in Britain,' Sing IV:4-5 (Dec 1957), 52;57 and Norma Waterson, personal communication. (More in Note below)] 4 Although as recently as the early 1990s, I heard complaints from some English Folk Dance and Song Society members that 'untrained singers' were performing at Sidmouth International Festival, subsequently, general appreciation did begin to change. Through The Singing Englishman, Lloyd makes a much needed contribution to the development of awareness of the qualities of traditional singing styles.
The Singing Englishman
An Introduction and Commentary by Georgina Boyes