EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC

Subject: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 01:12 PM

The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library of the EFDSS has recently digitised the first part of Sharp's diaries written while he was in the Appalachians. You can see the diaries on the EFDSS website, www.efds.org
The BBC have put together an audio and photo slideshow on the diaries here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8400711.stm

well worth watching.

Derek

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 03:43 PM

cripes.

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: RTim
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:00 PM

It was all very good, well done to the whole team, etc.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:04 PM

Were there any revelations on any canoodlings with Maudie?

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:16 PM

WOW Derek, that was brilliant. Made my evening. Cheers, mate. Think I'll do a special blue Thank You clickie:

Clickety - CLICK

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:40 PM

yes ,thanks for the clicky too.

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:12 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: open mike
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 02:51 PM

For those who are not familiar with Cecil Sharp...
he collected songs like Alan Lomax. Here is more info
on the man and his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Sharp bio with info on UK, OZ, & US

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm collecting in Appalachia

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/538902/Cecil-Sharp encyclo.

http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Cecil:Sharp.htm moe info

http://ashleyhutchings.tripod.com/anhourwith.html w/ Ashley Hutchings

http://www.efdss.org/this_wk.htm English folk Dance and Song Society

http://www.efdss.org/csh_events.htm#events Cecil Sharp house..

http://www.experiencefestival.com/cecil_sharp_-_sharp_in_america

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Goose Gander
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 02:59 PM

Direct link to diaries . . . Cecil Sharp's Appalachian Diaries 1915-1918

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 06:42 AM

Sorry, anyone looking for "canoodlings with Maudie" will be out of luck. Having read through the diaries many times over several years, I can say that anyone looking for impropriety will be disapointed. But, if you want to know what sort of remarkable man Cecil Sharp really was, then this is the place to start.

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Fidjit
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 07:43 AM

Yeah. Brilliant. Makes you want to go there.

Where's my Maudie?

Chas

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 07:44 AM

I expect he wrote about his canoodlings in code... ;0)

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 08:39 AM

Sorry Lizzie. There was no "canoodlings".

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 09:47 AM

;0)

Ha! I bet Cecil, underneath his formal suits, hats, socks and his 'I have no interest in sex at all' expression, was really a hot blooded folkie who sang to Maudie whilst she took her bath in 'We are so Not Amused' bubbles..

I think 'The Hidden Diaries of Cecil and Maudie' would be a far more interesting read!

I mean...look at the body language here...
Maudie, looking all giggly at Cecil....

Oh! Maudie!!

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 01:59 PM

Cecil Sharp had his failings,for those who are interested, googling who was Mary Neal reveals quite a lot about Sharp.
Here is a brief extract,
"Having started on a common path, however, Mary Neal and Sharp's views diverged. Influenced by his experience in the folk song collecting, Sharp was keen to preserve the dances untainted, to keep them in the form that "was an expression of their enthusiasms, based on the incidents of a common life and common work." In 1907, the magazine Punch published a cartoon of three male morris dancers and three female morris dancers, led by Mr Punch. Mary Neal saw this as a positive step, advertising their plans to set up a national movement for folk dances. However Sharp saw this as a threat, of the morris dance being sucked in to the ethos of "Merrie England" which presented a saccharine view of the past, and being changed beyond recognition.

In addition, Mary Neal was also developing a political interest. She was at the first meeting of the Women's Social and Political Union, taking the minutes of meeting. Although she was not active herself, the Esperance club danced at many of the Suffragette events. Sharp was unhappy with the suffrage movement (his sister Evelyn was also active and had been arrested on one occasion) and felt that it was not appropriate.

Attempts to set up a national movement failed, mainly because Sharp tried to put too many on how it would operate. During this time Sharp began collecting the morris dances on his own, and published the second volume without reference to the Esperance club. There began an acrimonious relationship between then, with Mary Neal having a more relaxed approach to the dance, to learn from the traditional dancers and pass on both the steps and the spirit of the dance, whereas Sharp felt it needed to be more disciplined, with people trained to teach the dance uniformly. At one point he declined to let the traditional dancers participate in the training of teachers because they were doing it differently from the way he had collected it."

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Paul Davenport
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 07:34 AM

"At one point he declined to let the traditional dancers participate in the training of teachers because they were doing it differently from the way he had collected it."
It seems to have gone beyond this at Flamborough where I discovered that the dance pre-Sharp had marked differences to that post-Sharp. Mary Cross told me that she taught it the way 'Mr.Sharp' said it should be done. (This despite her knowing better!)

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 07:51 AM

yes , I dont want to denigrate Sharp, he collected an enormous amount of both song and dance ,but that attitude is one that fossilises the song/dance.

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: johnadams
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 08:31 AM

One Boxing Day early morning a few years ago Chris Coe and I sat in a bar room in Flamborough watching the late Trevor Stone 'refreshing' that years sword team's collective memory about how the dance should go.

Trevor commented that that year's version, for better or worse, was down to him!

It's probably more important that these things continue to be enacted rather than get too bound up in the details of how they are enacted, interesting though these details may be.

The value of the work done by Sharp and modern collectors like Trevor Stone, Doc Rowe and Paul Davenport is that the detail is recorded for the people who own the traditions to refer to if they feel inclined.

Great work by the EFDSS in getting even more stuff accessible on the web! Bring it on!

Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Paul Davenport
Date: 11 Jan 10 - 03:35 PM

'Great work by the EFDSS in getting even more stuff accessible on the web! Bring it on!'
Yes, yes and yes!