Editing Cecil Sharp (section)

==Return to England==
In 1892 Sharp returned to England and on 22 August 1893 at East Clevedon, Somerset, he married Constance Dorothea Birch, also a music lover.<ref name=adb>Sue Tronser, '[http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110593b.htm Sharp, Cecil James (1859–1924)]', ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]'', Vol. 11, [[Melbourne University Press|MUP]], 1988, pp 579–580. Retrieved 17 January 2010.</ref> They had three daughters and a son.<ref name=ODNB/> Also in 1893 he was taken on as a music teacher by [[Ludgrove School]], a preparatory school then in North London. During his seventeen years in the post, he took on a number of other musical jobs.<ref name=Britannica>{{cite web|author=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/538902/Cecil-Sharp |title=Britannica online |publisher=Britannica.com |date=1924-06-23 |access-date=2010-01-31}}</ref> After his marriage in 1893, Sharp became a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] for health reasons and took interest in spiritualism and theosophy.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Harker, David|year=1972|title=Cecil Sharp in Somerset: Some Conclusions|journal=Folk Music Journal|volume=2|issue=3|pages= 220–240|jstor=4521899}}</ref>

From 1896 Sharp was Principal of the [[Hampstead Conservatoire|Hampstead Conservatoire of Music]], a half-time post which provided a house.<ref name=ODNB/> In July 1905 he resigned from this post after a prolonged dispute about payment and his right to take on students for extra tuition. He had to leave the Principal's house, and apart from his position at Ludgrove his income was henceforth derived largely from lecturing and publishing on folk music.<ref name=ODNB>{{cite ODNB|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36040 |title= Sharp, Cecil James |last=Heaney |first=Michael |year=2004 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/36040 }}</ref><ref name="SharifGemie">{{cite web|author=Sharif Gemie|url=https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/oak_acorn.htm|title=The Oak and the Acorn: Music and Political Values in the Work of Cecil Sharp, 2019|website=Musical Traditions}}</ref>

===English folk song and dance===

Sharp was not the first to research folk songs in England, which had already been studied by late-19th century collectors like [[Lucy Broadwood]], [[Frank Kidson]] and [[Sabine Baring-Gould]]. He became aware of English folk music in 1899, when he witnessed a performance by the Headington Quarry Morris dancers just outside Oxford. He approached their musician [[William Kimber]], an expert player of the Anglo-concertina and a skilled dancer, and asked permission to notate some of the dances. Kimber went on to become Sharp's main source for the notation of Cotswold [[Morris dances|Morris Dancing]], gave demonstrations at his lectures, and became a lifelong friend.<ref name="Karpeles"/>

In August 1903, Sharp visited the home of his friend [[Charles Marson]], a Christian Socialist he had met in Adelaide, and by then a vicar in Hambridge, Somerset. There he heard the gardener John England sing the traditional song ''The Seeds of Love''. Although Sharp had already joined the Folk-Song Society in 1901, this was his first experience of folk song in the field, and it set him on a new career path.<ref name="Schofield">{{cite journal |last=Schofield |first=Derek |date=2004 |title=Sowing the Seeds: Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson in Somerset in 1903 |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume= 8|issue=4 |pages=484–512}}</ref> Between 1904 and 1914 he collected more than 1,600 songs in rural Somerset and over 700 songs from elsewhere in England. He published five volumes of Folk Songs from Somerset<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sharp |first1=Cecil |last2=Marson |first2=Charles |date=1904–1906 |title=Folk Songs from Somerset, Series 1-3|location=London |publisher=Simpkin}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sharp |first=Cecil |date=1908–1909 |title=Folk Songs from Somerset, Series 4-5|location=London |publisher=Simpkin}}</ref> and numerous other books, including collections of sea shanties and folk carols, and became a passionate advocate for folk song, giving numerous lectures, and setting out his manifesto in ''English Folk Song: Some Conclusions'' in 1907.

In the years between 1907 and the First World War, Sharp became more focussed on traditional dance. In 1905 he met [[Mary Neal]], the organiser of the Espérance Girls' Club, a philanthropic organisation for working-class young women in London, who was seeking suitable dances for them to perform. This initiated a partnership which, though initially cordial and successful, soured over an ideological disagreement, Sharp's insistence on correct traditional practice coming up against Neal's preference for flamboyance and energy. This developed into a power struggle over control of the Morris dance movement, and finally into a public feud.<ref name="Judge1">{{cite journal |last=Judge |first=Roy|date=1989 |title=Mary Neal and the Esperence Morris |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume= 5|issue=5 |pages=137–163}}</ref><ref name="Judge2">{{cite journal |last=Judge |first=Roy|date=2002 |title=Cecil Sharp and Morris, 1906–1909 |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume= 8|issue=2 |pages=195–228}}</ref><ref name="Boyes"/> Sharp pursued his interest in dance through a teaching post at the new School of Morris Dancing under the auspices of the South West Polytechnic in Chelsea, set up by the Principal, [[Dorette Wilkie]],<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last1=Clarke |first1=Gill |last2=Webb |first2=Ida M. | title= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Wilkie, Dorette|date=2005-09-22 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/63387 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/63387}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Wilkie, Dorette - Cecil Sharp's People |url=https://cecilsharpspeople.org.uk/wilkie-dorette.html |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=cecilsharpspeople.org.uk}}</ref> and stepped up his field collecting efforts, resulting in the publication of his notations over five volumes of ''The Morris Book'' (1907–1913). It has been argued that Sharp emphasised the Cotswold tradition of Morris dancing at the expense of other regional styles,<ref name="Walkowitz">{{cite book |last=Walkowitz |first=Daniel |date=2010 |title=City Folk: English Country Dance and the Politics of the Folk in Modern America |location=New York |publisher=New York University |isbn=9780814794692}}</ref> although he did collect dances in Derbyshire.<ref name="Judge2"/>

Sharp also developed an interest in sword dancing, and between 1911 and 1913 published three volumes of ''The Sword Dances of Northern England'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sharp |first1=Cecil |date=1911–1913 |title=The Sword Dances of Northern England, Parts 1-3|location=London |publisher=Novello}}</ref> which described the obscure and near-extinct [[Rapper sword]] dances of Northumbria and the [[Long Sword dance]]s  of North Yorkshire. This led to the revival of both traditions in their home areas, and later elsewhere.

===Sharp as fieldworker===

[[File:Lucy White -folk singer by Cecil Sharp in c.1905.jpg|thumb|The Somerset folk singer [[Lucy White]] (1848–1923)]]
Sharp, assisted initially by Marson, worked by asking around in rural Somerset communities for people who might sing old songs and located many informants, the sisters Louisa Hooper and Lucy White of Langport amongst the most prolific.<ref name="Schofield"/> Sharp was able to relate well to people of a different social class,<ref name="Gammon"/> and established friendships with several singers; after his death Louisa Hooper wrote of his generosity in terms of payments, gifts and outings.<ref name="Karpeles"/> He also collected a significant number of songs from Gypsies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dow |first=Nick |date=2021 |title=A Secret Stream: Folk Songs collected from English Gypsies |location=London |publisher=Francis Boutle |pages=239 |isbn=9781838092894}}</ref> In the Appalachians Sharp and Maud Karpeles similarly used local knowledge and their own initiative to find singers, and again made lasting friendships.<ref name="Yates"/>
[[File:Sweet Kitty from Lucy White for Cecil Sharp.jpg|left|thumb|"Sweet Kitty" transcribed from [[Lucy White]] by Cecil Sharp in 1906<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lucy White at Vaughan Williams Memorial Library|url=https://www.vwml.org/search?q=Lucy%20White%20Hambridge%20Sharp&is=1|access-date=2020-09-27|website=www.vwml.org}}</ref>]]
Sharp notated songs mostly by ear. He experimented with the new technology of the phonograph, but rejected it on account of a lack of portability and its potential to intimidate.<ref name="Gammon"/> He had assistance in taking down lyrics from Marson in Somerset, and Karpeles in the Appalachians, while making the musical notations himself.<ref name="Schofield"/><ref name="Yates"/> His transcriptions, which included melodic variations, were generally accurate, although some nuances were missed.<ref>Gammon, Vic, 'How Good a Music Transcriber was Cecil Sharp?' in: Proceedings of the English Folk Dance and Song Society Folk Song Conference 2013 / eds. Atkinson, D. and Roud, S. Loomis House Press (2015), pp. 138–156</ref> Sharp was meticulous in noting singers' names, locations, and dates, enabling subsequent biographical research.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cecilsharpspeople.org.uk |title= Cecil Sharp's People |access-date=2022-06-23}}</ref> He made many photographic portraits of singers at their homes or workplaces, providing a valuable record of life amongst rural working people in both South-West England and the Appalachian Mountains.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vwml.org/browse/vwml-browse-cecil-sharps-photo-collection|title=Cecil Sharp's Photo Collection |publisher=Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |access-date=2022-06-30}}</ref>

===Folk song in schools===
In 1902, at a time when state-sponsored mass public schooling was in its infancy, Sharp, then a music teacher, compiled a song book for use in schools.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharp |first=Cecil |date=1902 |title= A Book of British Song for Home and School |location=London |publisher= John Murray |pages=183}}</ref> This contained a mixture of patriotic 'National Songs' (''The British Grenadiers'', ''Rule Britannia'', etc.) and folk material. As his knowledge of folk song grew, he rejected the 'National Songs', which were absent from the 1906 collection ''English Folk Songs for Schools'', co-written with Baring-Gould and using Sharp's piano arrangements.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baring-Gould |first1=Sabine |last2=Sharp |first2=Cecil |date=1906 |title= English Folk Songs for Schools |location=London |publisher= Curwen |pages=183 }}</ref> Sharp was determined that folk song should be at the heart of the curriculum, and fought the Board of Education in 1905 over their list of songs recommended for schools, which included many 'National Songs'. His colleagues [[Frank Kidson]] and [[Lucy Broadwood]], did not share his view, however, and the committee of the Folk-Song Society voted to approve the Board's list, causing a rift with Sharp.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Knevett |first=Arthur |date=2018 |title=Folk Songs for Schools: Cecil Sharp, Patriotism and ''The National Song Book'' |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume= 11|issue=3 |pages=47–71}}</ref>

===Sharp's theories===
After his struggle with the Board of Education, Sharp published ''English Folk Song: Some Conclusions'',<ref name="EFSSC"/> in which he pursued his ideas about folk songs in schools. His main aim was to expound a theory for the development of folk song, based on Darwinian evolution and oral transmission - the passage of songs down the generations by word of mouth. Sharp put forward three principles: ''Continuity'' – individual songs had survived recognisably over centuries; ''Variation'' – songs existed in multiple versions as singers altered them; and ''Selection'' – a community would choose the most pleasing version.<ref name="Roud"/> This implied that songs had no individual composer, since they had evolved to their present form "as the pebble on the sea shore is rounded and polished by the action of the waves".<ref name="EFSSC"/> However, some in the folk song movement, such as Kidson, were sceptical of this theory.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Francmanis |first=John |date=2001 |title=The Roving Artist: Frank Kidson, Pioneer Song Collector |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=41–66}}</ref>

Sharp argued that folk songs expressed Englishness, and it was vital that they should be taught in schools to inculcate a sense of national identity. He also suggested that their melodies should form the basis of a new English movement in art music, in competition with the musical hegemony of Germany, a belief shared by Vaughan Williams and other composers.

===Bowdlerisation===
Sharp and Marson [[bowdlerisation|bowdlerised]] some of their song texts, especially those containing references to sexual intercourse. Given the prudery of the Edwardian era, these could never have been published in full (especially in a school textbook), but Sharp did note such lyrics accurately in his field notebooks, thus preserving them for posterity. A good example of the transformation of a formerly erotic song into one suitable for all audiences is ''Gently Johnny My Jingalo''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharp |first=Cecil |date=1916  |title=One Hundred English Folk Songs |location=Boston |publisher=Ditson }}</ref> The immediate goal of Sharp's project – disseminating the distinctive, and hitherto little known ''melodies'' of these songs through music education – might also explain why he considered the song texts less important.

===English Folk Dance Society, afterwards English Folk Dance and Song Society===
In 1911 Sharp co-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 the EFDSS is named [[Cecil Sharp House]] in his honour.

===Influence on English classical music===
Sharp's work coincided with a period of [[nationalism]] in [[classical music]], the idea being to reinvigorate and give distinctiveness to English classical composition by grounding it in the characteristic melodic patterns and recognisable tone intervals and ornaments of its national folk music. Among the composers who took up this goal was [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], who incorporated many melodies from Sharp's collections into his compositions, as well as a number from his own fieldwork in England.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Harvey |first=Adam |date=2012 |title=English Folk Songs and Other Traditional Tunes in the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams |journal=Journal of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society |volume=54 |pages=192–218}}</ref>