Cecil James Sharp (1859-1924) was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early twentieth century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them. 1859 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The following dance categories are closely related to each other: Folk dance Folk dance is a term used to encompass a large number of dances that tend to share the following attributes: They were originally danced in about the 19th century or earlier (or are, in any case, not currently...

Cecil Sharp was a music teacher and composer interested in folk songs and music, who became interested in traditional English dance when he saw a group of Morris dancers at the village of Headington Quarry, just outside Oxford, in 1899. At this time, Morris dancing was almost extinct, and the interest generated by Sharp's notations kept the tradition alive. Jump to: navigation, search Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... A Morris dance is a form of folk dance. ... Jump to: navigation, search Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

The revival of the Morris dances started when Mary Neal, the organiser of the Esperance Girls' Club in London, used Sharp's (then unpublished) notations to teach the traditional dances to the club's members in 1905. Their enthusiasm for the dances persuaded Sharp to publish his notations in the form of his Morris Books, starting in 1907. London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Between 1911 and 1913 he published a three-volume work, The Sword Dances of Northern England, which described the obscure and near-extinct Rapper sword dance of Northumbria and Long Sword dance of Yorkshire. This led to the revival of both traditions in their home areas, and later elsewhere. Jump to: navigation, search 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Rapper sword is a kind of sword dance. ... Jump to: navigation, search Section from Shepherds map of the British Isles about 802 AD showing the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of an Anglian kingdom which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, and of the much smaller earldom which... The Long Sword dance is a hilt-and-point sword_dance from Yorkshire in England. ... Jump to: navigation, search The White Yorkshire rose. ...

Sharp often published versions of the songs he collected, which included a part for piano that Sharp composed himself. It appears that the traditional singers (who always sang a capella) found Sharp's piano parts to be just distracting noise. However, the piano versions did help Sharp in his goal of teaching English folk music to children in schools, thus "reacquainting" them, as he felt, with their national musical heritage.

The schools project perhaps also accounts for Sharp's practice of heavily bowdlerizing the lyrics, which, at least among the English songs, often emphasize sex and violence. Thus, there are often great differences between the songs as recorded in Sharp's field notes and what he published. An extreme case is the song The Keeper, whose original lyrics evidently celebrate rape. Sharp's revised lyrics turn it into a comic hunting song. Thomas Bowdler (July 11, 1754 – February 24, 1825), an English physician, has become (in)famous as the editor of a childrens edition of William Shakespeare, the Family Shakespeare, in which he endeavoured to remove every thing that could give just offence to the religious and virtuous mind. ... See comedian Stand up comedian List of Comedians List of British comedians comics comic book comic strip underground comics alternative comics web comic sprite comics manga graphic novel List of comic characters This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same...

Sharp also helped instigate a period of nationalism in English classical music, the idea being to reinvigorate English composition by grounding it in its national folk music. Among the composers who took up this goal was Ralph Vaughan Williams, who carried out his own field work on folk song. Jump to: navigation, search // Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain political claims based upon that belief; above all, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and... Jump to: navigation, search Classical music is generally thought of as sophisticated and refined; it may stem from a regional tradition, but aspires to universal form of communication. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM (October 12, 1872 – August 26, 1958) was an influential British composer. ...

In 1911 Sharp founded the English Folk Dance Society which promoted the traditional dances through workshops held nationwide, and which later merged with the Folk Song Society in 1932 to form the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). The current London headquarters of EFDSS is named Cecil Sharp House in his honour.

Sharp in America

During the years of the First World War, Sharp found it difficult to support himself through his customary efforts at lecturing and writing, and decided to make an extended visit to the United States. The visit, made with his collaborator Maud Karpeles during the years 1916-1918, was a great success. Large audiences came to hear Sharp lecture about folk music, and Sharp also took the opportunity to do field work on English folk songs that had survived in the more remote regions of the southern Appalachian Mountains, pursuing a line of research pioneered by Olive Dame Campbell. Traveling through the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, Sharp and Karpeles recorded a treasure trove of folk songs, many using the pentatonic scale and many in versions quite different from those Sharp had collected in rural England. Generally, Sharp recorded the tunes, while Karpeles was responsible for the words. Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of... Jump to: navigation, search 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... A rainy day in the Great Smoky Mountains, Western North Carolina The Appalachian Mountains are a system of North American mountains running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. ... Olive Dame Campbell (1882 - 1954) was an American folklorist. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Old Dominion Other U.S. States Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Governor Mark R. Warner (D) Senators John Warner (R) George Allen (R) Official language(s) English Area 110,862 km² (35th)  - Land 102,642 km²  - Water 8,220 km² (7. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Tar Heel State; Old North State Other U.S. States Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Governor Michael Easley (D) Senators Elizabeth Dole (R) Richard Burr (R) Official languages English Area 139,509 km² (28th)  - Land 126,256 km²  - Water 13,227 km² (9. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U.S. States Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) Senators Mitch McConnell (R) Jim Bunning (R) Official languages English Area 104,749 km² (37th)  - Land 102,989 km²  - Water 1,760 km² (1. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: Volunteer State Other U.S. States Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Governor Phil Bredesen (D) Senators Bill Frist (R) Lamar Alexander (R) Official languages English Area 109,247 km² (36th)  - Land 106,846 km²  - Water 2,400 km² (2. ... Jump to: navigation, search In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ...

Sharp was greatly struck by the dignity, courtesy, and natural grace of the people who welcomed him and Karpeles in the Appalachians, and he defended their values and their way of life in print.

Sharp's work in promoting English folk song dance traditions in the USA is carried on by the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS).

Books

Maud Karpeles lived on for many decades after Sharp, and gradually succeeded in converting the collected Sharp manuscript materials into massive, well-organized volumes. These books are now out of print, but can be found in some libraries.

• Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, Oxford University Press, 1974; ISBN 0193131250.

• English folk songs from the southern Appalachians, collected by Cecil J. Sharp; comprising two hundred and seventy-four songs and ballads with nine hundred and sixty-eight tunes, including thirty-nine tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell, edited by Maud Karpeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932.

For a sampling of English folk songs as they emerged from Sharp's editorial pen along with his piano accompaniments, see:

• English folk songs, collected and arranged with pianoforte accompaniment by Cecil J. Sharp, London: Novello (1916). This volume has been reprinted by Dover Publications under ISBN 0486231925 and is in print.

Sharp also wrote up his opinions and theories about folk song in an influential volume: Dover Publications is a book publisher founded in 1941. ...

• English Folk Song: Some Conclusions (originally published 1907. London: Simpkin; Novello). This work has been reprinted a number of times. For the most recent (Charles River Books), see ISBN 0854099298.

The following is a biography of Cecil Sharp:

• Cecil Sharp, by A. H. Fox Strangways in collaboration with Maud Karpeles. London, Oxford University Press, 1933. Reprinted 1980, Da Capo Press; ISBN 0306760193.

External links

• The Morris Book, from Project Gutenberg
• English Folk Dance and Song Society
• Country Dance and Song Society