http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/939 ... save-them/
this is spot-on, I think
John Rutter - artcle in The Spectator
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blackthorn fairy
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Re: John Rutter - artcle in The Spectator
Yes - he's also written in a similar vein in the current Church Music Quarterly (Coda - page 49).
Re: John Rutter - artcle in The Spectator
A very pertinent article.
I have just 'acquired' a choir: Fifteen or so women who joined in when someone decided we should have a 'community choir' in our local library. As a folk and church musician I went along to see what was happening, and found they had no one to lead or accompany, so I am now their animator. All but two of them, with ages ranging from 40s to 80+, have not sung since school. To me, as a very old folkie, that does not bear thinking about.
Then I discover that at our grandson's school carol event, it is mostly new songs with backing tracks. Too clever, and tradition undermined again. However, some of us in Gloucestershire have collated county carols and wassails and put them on an easy access website, Glos Christmas, along with their history, and we hope to keep that bit of tradition alive. This will expand with a larger lottery funded project, now in progress, with a thousand or more Glos songs, transcribed from Cecil Sharp and other manuscripts as well as field recordings. One of the Christmas ones is the well known 'The Holly and the Ivy' collected in early C20th by Cecil Sharp. There is such a tradition of singing that we must keep alive.
I wish we could sing in church with the joy and enthusiasm of 45 of us at Cheltenham folk song club raising the roof with spontaneous harmony.
Totally life enhancing!
I have just 'acquired' a choir: Fifteen or so women who joined in when someone decided we should have a 'community choir' in our local library. As a folk and church musician I went along to see what was happening, and found they had no one to lead or accompany, so I am now their animator. All but two of them, with ages ranging from 40s to 80+, have not sung since school. To me, as a very old folkie, that does not bear thinking about.
Then I discover that at our grandson's school carol event, it is mostly new songs with backing tracks. Too clever, and tradition undermined again. However, some of us in Gloucestershire have collated county carols and wassails and put them on an easy access website, Glos Christmas, along with their history, and we hope to keep that bit of tradition alive. This will expand with a larger lottery funded project, now in progress, with a thousand or more Glos songs, transcribed from Cecil Sharp and other manuscripts as well as field recordings. One of the Christmas ones is the well known 'The Holly and the Ivy' collected in early C20th by Cecil Sharp. There is such a tradition of singing that we must keep alive.
I wish we could sing in church with the joy and enthusiasm of 45 of us at Cheltenham folk song club raising the roof with spontaneous harmony.
Totally life enhancing!