The
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is the library and archive of the
English Folk Dance and Song SocietyThe English Folk Dance and Song Society formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society formed by Cecil Sharp in 1911....
(EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodicals, audio-visual materials, photographic images and sound recordings, as well as manuscripts, field notes, transcriptions etc of a number of the most distinguished collectors of
folk musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
and dance traditions in the
British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
.
The
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library is the library and archive of the
English Folk Dance and Song SocietyThe English Folk Dance and Song Society formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society formed by Cecil Sharp in 1911....
(EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodicals, audio-visual materials, photographic images and sound recordings, as well as manuscripts, field notes, transcriptions etc of a number of the most distinguished collectors of
folk musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
and dance traditions in the
British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
. According to
A Dictionary of English Folklore, "... by a gradual process of professionalization the VWML has become the most important concentration of material on traditional song, dance, and music in the country." It is named after
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
, the composer, collector and past president of the EFDSS, who died in 1958.
Prior to that it was the Cecil Sharp Library, since his books comprised the bulk of the holdings, but over the years the library has added literature, sound and manuscript collections of other eminent folklorists and collectors such as
Lucy BroadwoodLucy Etheldred Broadwood was principally an English folksong collector and researcher during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As one of the founder members of the Folk-Song Society and Editor of the Folk Song Journal, she was one of the main influences of the English folk revival of that...
,
Janet BluntJanet Blunt was a folklorist.Daughter of a British general, she spent her first thirty years in India. She then moved to Adderbury in Oxfordshire where she became interested in local folk traditions. Her primary contribution to folklore is her preservation of the Adderbury traditions of folk song...
,
Anne GilchristAnne Gilchrist OBE FSA was a folk-song collector.Anne Geddes Gilchrist was born in Manchester, to Scottish parents. She had a musical upbringing and was related to Rev Neil Livingston, who compiled a psalter. After meeting Sabine Baring-Gould she became involved with folk music and joined the...
,
George ButterworthGeorge Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for his tone poem The Banks of Green Willow and his settings of A. E. Housman's poems.- Early years :...
, the Hammond brothers and
George GardinerGeorge Gardiner may refer to:*George Gardiner , recipient of the Victoria Cross*George Gardiner , British Conservative politician*George Gardiner , Irish-American boxer...
. It also contains copies of the papers and notebooks of
Sabine Baring-GouldThe Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould was an English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar. His bibliography lists more than 1240 separate publications, though this list continues to grow. His family home, Lew Trenchard Manor near Okehampton, Devon, has been preserved as he rebuilt...
,
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
, Alfred Williams and
James Madison CarpenterJames Madison Carpenter, born in Blacklands, Mississippi in 1888, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his bachelor and masters of arts degrees from the University of Mississippi, and a PhD from Harvard in 1929. He is most known for his substantial...
; and the field recordings of
Percy GraingerGeorge Percy Grainger was an Australian-born composer, and pianist, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.-Early life and career :Percy Grainger was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria...
, Mike Yates and the BBC Folk Music Archive.
Subjects covered include: Folk/traditional/popular song,
Child BalladsThe Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
,
Broadside balladsA broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America...
, Industrial/occupational songs, sea songs/shanties, singing games, Nursery rhymes, Street cries, Carols/hymns,
RoundsA round is a musical composition in which two or more voices sing exactly the same melody , but with each voice beginning at different times so that different parts of the melody coincide in the different voices, but nevertheless fit harmoniously together...
/
glees/part songsA glee is a part song, usually scored for at least three solo voices, and normally sung unaccompanied. Glees were traditionally drinking songs and songs that expressed idyllic or fraternal sentiments...
,
Music hallMusic hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, Ritual/ceremonial dance,
Morris danceA morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers...
/
sword danceSword dances are recorded from throughout world history. There are various traditions of solo and mock battle sword dances from Greece, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Scotland and Japan, of the while all known linked...
and a great deal more.
In May 2006, VWML Online was launched which hosts a number of the library's indexes to manuscript collections, together with its index to mummers' plays and the Roud Folk Song and Broadside Indexes, the largest of their kind in the English language.
External links