{"id":2169,"date":"2015-07-20T15:39:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T19:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/?p=2169"},"modified":"2015-07-20T15:39:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T19:39:03","slug":"cecil-sharp-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/2015\/07\/20\/cecil-sharp-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Cecil Sharp in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the collections of the Isham Memorial Library, a special library adjunct to the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, may be found Ms. Coll. 131<\/a>, a huge file of lively correspondence between Richard Aldrich, chief music critic of the New York Times <\/em>from 1902 to 1923, and his friends, editors and fellow critics. Aldrich graduated from Harvard University and his personal library, donated posthumously by his son in 1955, was an important early gift to the Loeb Music Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One particularly thick folder is that of letters to Aldrich from the folk music collector and editor Cecil Sharp. The correspondence chiefly concerned Sharp\u2019s desire to investigate traditional English music as it was performed in the United States and Canada. Sharp’s\u00a0research would result in the two-volume work English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians <\/em>(1932). Grove music online <\/em>credits Sharp with giving \u201cimpetus to American efforts, subsequently taken up by American universities, to collect and publish their traditional ballads and songs, both English and indigenous, and to conserve their other traditional arts\u201d (but see also The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology, and the English Folk Revival<\/em>, by Georgina Boyes<\/a>, for a more nuanced interpretation).<\/p>\n

In these letters we see Sharp tentatively exploring his relationship to the United States and its traditional music.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The file begins with a formal acknowledgement of Aldrich\u2019s invitation to lunch at the Algonquin Club on January 22nd<\/sup>, 1915. Then there is an excited and much more familiar letter of September 29th<\/sup> of that year containing a copy of a letter Sharp had received from a prospective collaborator in Asheville, North Carolina named John C. Campbell (\u201cI feel that it may be possible for me to open many doors to you by accompanying you, should you wish, to certain centres, and at other times by introducing you in other ways to mountain friends\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a>

Letter from Sharp to Aldrich, Sept. 29, 1915, Ms. Coll. 131 (120)<\/p><\/div>\n

An anxious dispatch\u00a0comes that winter of Sharp\u2019s attempt to secure funding for his research in the United States and then there is a triumphant declaration in January: \u201cI am sailing for America by the Nieuw Amsterdam on February 7th<\/sup>.\u201d These last two are stamped \u201cOPENED BY CENSOR\u201d as Great Britain was then at war.<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a>

Letter from Sharp to Aldrich, Jan. 21, 1916, Ms. Coll. 131 (127)<\/p><\/div>\n

Once in Asheville, Sharp wrote several long letters to Aldrich in which he reported on his findings. \u201cThe people talk 18. cent English,\u201d he observed; \u201cthe tunes are extraordinarily beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a>

Letter from Sharp to Aldrich, Aug. 17, 1916, Ms. Coll. 131 (131)<\/p><\/div>\n

Tucked into a letter from May 10th<\/sup>, 1917 is this \u201cperfect little gem\u201d \u201cwhich you may care to teach your children,\u201d on which Sharp has noted, \u201cSung by Mrs. Mary Wilson at Pineville, Ky., May 2, 1917.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a>

Letter from Sharp to Aldrich, May 10, 1917, Ms. Coll. 131 (136)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ms.<\/a>

Ms. transcription of folk song “I gave my love a cherry”; accompanied letter from Sharp to Aldrich, May 10, 1917, Ms. Coll. 131 (136)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sharp and Aldrich kept up their correspondence until shortly before the former\u2019s death in 1924. In one of his last communications to his friend, Sharp included this photograph from one of his vacation schools of folk music, a tradition that continues to this day at Cecil Sharp House.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo from the Cheltenham Summer School of Folk Song and Dance which accompanied letter from Sharp to Aldrich, Nov. 30, 1920, Ms. Coll. 131 (141)<\/p><\/div>\n

The 158 items in the Richard Aldrich collection of correspondence also include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • A letter from a staff member at \u201cthe Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison\u201d: \u201cYou will remember that when Mr. Edison visited you a few days ago, he promised to send you one of his phonographs with 50 recreations. It is intended to deliver this to you by one of our trucks, and is now ready.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Several letters from Edmund Fellowes in which he and Aldrich concoct a scheme (unsuccesful) to convince Henry Clay Folger to allow them to prepare an edition of his unique copy of Thomas Morley\u2019s First booke of ayres or little short songs<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  • Negotiations with Walter Willson Cobbett, editor of Cobbett\u2019s Cyclopedia of Chamber Music<\/em>, who wished that \u201creferences to the influences of his madness may be toned down\u201d in Aldrich\u2019s article on Robert Schumann.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Contributed by Christina Linklater, Keeper of the Isham Memorial Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Among the collections of the Isham Memorial Library, a special library adjunct to the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, may be found Ms. Coll. 131, a huge file of lively correspondence between Richard Aldrich, chief music critic of the New York Times from 1902 to 1923, and his friends, editors and fellow critics. Aldrich graduated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15748],"tags":[122902,122903],"class_list":["post-2169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isham-memorial-library","tag-ethnomusicology","tag-letters","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6lSEF-yZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2211,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}