Cecil Sharp
An Edwardian gentleman who became England's most urgent folk song archaeologist, rescuing centuries of rural melody from oblivion.
1859–1924 (age 65)·English folklorist and song collector·Birthday: November 22
Biography
Cecil Sharp was not a man of the soil, but a Cambridge-educated music teacher who experienced a conversion. It happened in 1903, when he overheard a gardener singing 'The Seeds of Love' in rural Somerset. Struck by the song's modal strangeness and emotional depth, Sharp embarked on a mission. He saw England's ancient folk song tradition, passed down orally for generations, dying with its last rural carriers. Armed with a notebook, he traveled the countryside, transcribing tunes from farmers, laborers, and elderly villagers, often noting the singer's name and village. His work was feverish and polemical; he believed these songs represented a pure, uncorrupted English musical spirit. He co-founded the English Folk Dance Society and published vast collections that became the bedrock of the early 20th-century folk revival. While later scholars would critique his romanticized and sometimes selective approach, there is no doubt that without Sharp's obsessive fieldwork, a vast repository of English cultural heritage would have been lost forever.
#1 When Cecil Was Born
The biggest hits of 1859
Cecil's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1859Born
1864Started school
President: Abraham Lincoln
1872Became a teenager
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1877Could vote
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1880Turned 21
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1889Turned 30
Eiffel Tower opens in Paris
President: Benjamin Harrison
1899Turned 40
President: William McKinley
1909Turned 50
Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole
President: William Howard Taft
1919Turned 60
Treaty of Versailles signed; Prohibition ratified
President: Woodrow Wilson
1924Died at 65
First Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
President: Calvin Coolidge"It Had to Be You" — Isham Jones
Key Achievements
- Collected and published thousands of English folk songs and dances, including the seminal 'Folk Songs from Somerset' (1904-1909).
- Co-founded the English Folk Dance Society in 1911, which later merged to become the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
- His published collections provided the core repertoire for the early 20th-century folk music revival in England and North America.
- Documented Appalachian folk music during visits to the United States between 1916 and 1918, noting their English origins.
Did You Know?
He served as the music master at Ludgrove School, a preparatory school, early in his career.
His first folk dance notation was of the 'Headington Quarry Morris Dance', which he saw performed on Boxing Day in 1899.
He believed that folk songs were best taught to children to preserve them, influencing music education.
He was a critic of the phonograph, preferring to transcribe songs by ear in the moment rather than rely on early recordings.
“Folk song is not a fixed thing; it is a living, growing thing, constantly changing.”
