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EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC

12 Dec 09 - 01:12 PM (#2786976)
Subject: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield

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


12 Dec 09 - 03:43 PM (#2787046)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman

cripes.


12 Dec 09 - 04:00 PM (#2787059)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: RTim

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

Tim Radford


12 Dec 09 - 04:04 PM (#2787060)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

Were there any revelations on any canoodlings with Maudie?


12 Dec 09 - 04:16 PM (#2787067)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Bonnie Shaljean

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

Clickety - CLICK


12 Dec 09 - 04:40 PM (#2787077)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman

yes ,thanks for the clicky too.


14 Dec 09 - 08:12 AM (#2787951)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield

refresh


14 Dec 09 - 02:51 PM (#2788239)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: open mike

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


14 Dec 09 - 02:59 PM (#2788245)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Goose Gander

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


10 Jan 10 - 06:42 AM (#2808113)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Mike Yates

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.


10 Jan 10 - 07:43 AM (#2808143)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Fidjit

Yeah. Brilliant. Makes you want to go there.

Where's my Maudie?

Chas


10 Jan 10 - 07:44 AM (#2808144)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

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


10 Jan 10 - 08:39 AM (#2808175)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: GUEST,Mike Yates

Sorry Lizzie. There was no "canoodlings".


10 Jan 10 - 09:47 AM (#2808231)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

;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!!


10 Jan 10 - 01:59 PM (#2808431)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman

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."


11 Jan 10 - 07:34 AM (#2808930)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Paul Davenport

"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!)


11 Jan 10 - 07:51 AM (#2808946)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: The Sandman

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.


11 Jan 10 - 08:31 AM (#2808970)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: johnadams

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!


11 Jan 10 - 03:35 PM (#2809340)
Subject: RE: EFDSS Cecil Sharp Diaries on BBC
From: Paul Davenport

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