2005 song workshops

We have been following the trail of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ folk-song collecting earlier in the century and found that there were many singers from the Harleston and Diss area, from Acle and Hickling and the Kings Lynn area. Chris Coe, who worked with us on the songs collected by Vaughan Williams in Southwold in Suffolk, continued her own East Anglian odyssey and ran workshops in Harleston and Kings Lynn this Spring, based on Vaughan Williams’ collections of songs.

Playback Song Workshop in King's Lynn

This one-off workshop took place in True’s Yard Museum in the attractive North End area of the town on Saturday 14th May. The material included folk-songs collected by Vaughan Williams and others in this very area of King's Lynn, and the workshop offered a chance to have a go at singing these songs in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

During the day there was an opportunity to see the Playback exhibition and visit the fishermen's museum, and there was an EATMT information stand, live music, and an exhibition of traditional and contemporary crafts in St Nicholas' Chapel, next door to the Museum. The Museum has a lovely cafe, and is a stone's throw from the historic Tuesday Market Place and the River Nene.

Vaughan Williams visited King's Lynn in 1905, so this year marks the centenary of that event, which was one of his earliest and most prolific song-collecting trips. He visited the fishermen, and found many older singers in the Union (workhouse) including James 'Duggie' Carter, who sang rare songs such as 'The Captain's Apprentice', and 'Ward the Pirate'. This year also saw the final events (including a concert of Vaughan William's music in March 2005) in the celebrations to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the signing the King John Charter on 14th September 1204 - see www.800years.com  for further information.

Harleston & Waveney Song Workshops

In this project we offered the opportunity to work in depth towards a group performance in a series of workshops on Saturdays April 16th, 23rd,& 30th and May 7th. These took place at the United Reformed Church Hall on Mendham Lane in Harleston in south Norfolk from 11am to 1pm. On May 7th, the workshop was followed by a short informal performance for the Harleston & Waveney Festival. There was no charge for attending these workshops, which are supported by South Norfolk District Council.

In these workshops, Chris Coe investigated the songs collected by Vaughan Williams in the villages around Diss, and also folk-songs collected more recently along the Waveney valley.

Chris Coe is well-known on the folk scene for her solo work and with Bandoggs, New Victory Band, English Country Blues Band and most recently Ryburn Three Step. Other projects include work for the National Theatre and Northern Ballet. Chris is also a voice tutor for Salford University and regularly leads workshops and choirs. Her solo CD ‘A Wiser Fool’ is acclaimed as a classic.

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