English Dance and Song Spring 2021
This article appears in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts.
Contribute to the world’s first crowdsourced English tunebook
Dr Alice Little, the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Knowledge Exchange partner from Oxford University, has been studying the collection of 18th century English tunebooks in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. During March, she invites you to contribute to an online English tunebook for the 21st century.
In the past, many collectors of what we would today call ‘folk tunes’ organised their tunes by nationality: Scottish tunes, English tunes, Irish tunes, Welsh tunes, and so on.
But what defines the nationality of a tune? You tell us!
To take part, simply upload to social media a video of yourself playing a tune and tag it #EnglishTunebook. If you want to, you can say in the caption or in your video why this tune is ‘English’. Is it because you learnt it in England, or from an English person, or because it was recorded in a historic manuscript written in England? Is it because it sounds English, or looks English, or is played on English instruments? There are no wrong answers.
Alternatively, you could play a tune that everyone thinks is English but isn’t – and, as part of the video or in the caption, explain the reason why it’s not. Or, you could play a tune that you think isn’t English but play it in an English style. Alice would welcome contributions from all over the world – don’t forget to mention where you’re from.
You can tag Alice @littleamiss on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or TikTok – or send her a link to your post, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Alice will publish her favourites at the end of March at torch.ox.ac.uk/mapping-english-national-music-of-the-eighteenth-century. Here, you will also find links to a new podcast series about folk tunes and their ‘Englishness’, and further information about Alice’s research.
