Conference of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, English Folk Dance and Song Society
Saturday 20 July and Sunday 21 July 2024
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’s 2024 conference
For over two hundred years, and for a variety of reasons, ‘folk’ song and music enthusiasts have ventured into the field and become collectors – gatherers of material which has greatly enhanced our understanding of the vernacular culture of the past.
Their activities have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, and to mark the centenary of the deaths of two key figures – Cecil Sharp and Sabine Baring Gould – and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ella Mary Leather, we are organising a wide-ranging assessment of the collectors’ lives and works, with a major two-day conference.
We will investigate collectors as individuals and networks, their achievements and failures, motives, methods, strengths and weaknesses, social and political context, the contemporary collector, and the underlying ethics of collecting itself.
The focus will be on collecting in Britain and Ireland, but we would also be pleased to hear from researchers in countries with strong historical folk cultural ties to these islands.
Ticketing details to be confirmed.