CLICK HERE FOR SPRING 2023 NEWSLETTER!
Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project News
There is now a separate Vaughan Williams’ Folk header on the main drop down menu and through that you can access the different sections of the project – some events have already taken place but there are reports and photographs as well as podcasts and films to view. Resources are also now starting to be uploaded with thanks to numerous researchers making available their work and findings where publications are now out of date. There are also a number of excellent publications that are available to still buy and we will be creating a list of these over the coming months.
Here is a report of the project thus far by Project Co-ordinator, Nicky Stockman:
Following on from our Project Launch [read the report HERE] with Potiphar’s Apprentices in October, the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project is hurtling forwards with increasing momentum, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
If you want to find out more about the Essex Song Collections then the film from the Potiphar’s Apprentices has now been uploaded to the EATMT YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irwPKNL3J50&t=665s. Be sure to sign up to the follow the channel to keep up to date with our project events and resources.
A few weeks ago, the Vaughan Williams In East Anglia Conference brought folk song researchers from across the region together to examine the current status of Vaughan Williams’ folk song collections in the region and to collate up to date knowledge of the work done to date. This will inform later work to create a resource bank of material and to make it more accessible to the public via the EATMT website. The event took place on Saturday 26th November 2022 in Stowmarket Scout Centre and was well attended with participants travelling from as far away as Gloucestershire, despite many people cancelling their tickets due to the train strike and illness. The most prominent researchers from each of the 4 counties presented their research. Steve Roud (creator of the Roud Folk Song Index) chaired a session on folk song collecting, indexing and disseminating and the county experts presented future plans for disseminating their research materials. There was a live music presentation of tunes Vaughan Williams collected in the Norfolk Broads by Alan Helsdon (a prominent researcher from Norfolk) and Alex Bartholomew, Project Manager. We had stalls and displays from EATMT, The Vaughan Williams Society, The Traditional Song Forum, Veteran Records plus books, CDs and research material being sold by individual researchers.
The presentations from each County were filmed by Jake Lee Savage and will be placed on the Trust YouTube Channel after Christmas. Further details from the presentations will be placed on the EATMT website in due course. We’ll update you through our newsletters and social media channels as we upload material.
The Conference was also a platform to bring together our 9 young showcase musicians for the first time. These 9 young musicians will work together over the next 8 months to create a Showcase of Vaughan Williams’ collections at FolkEast 2023 and East Anglian Traditional Music Day (Sept 2nd 2023), mentored by Finn Collinson and Emma Beach. 7 of the 9 musicians attended, despite the train strike meaning very complicated arrangements to get there. We’ll be updating you with how they are getting on during the Spring and Summer of 2023.
In the meantime we are busy bringing together manuscripts and transcriptions of Vaughan Williams’ folk songs and tunes from the 4 Counties and will be uploading as much material to the EATMT website as possible as we create new Vaughan Williams Resources sections on the site. We are also in the process of contacting schools and community groups to perform the material.
Tilney All Saints Primary School (near Kings Lynn) will be performing the song Green Bushes and dancing to some of the tunes collected in their village as part of their Plough Monday Celebrations at Tilney All Saints Church on Monday January 9th at 10.30am. If you are in the area, please join them for the Church Service. Watch this space for details of more community performances!
‘The Beginning‘ is the latest podcast made by Jake Lee-Savage available to listen to.
Vaughan Williams’ Folk – Young Musicians’ Showcases
Applications for Young Musicians to be part of our Vaughan Williams’ Folk project closed at the end of October and the Project Team consisting of Alex from EATMT, Nicky Stockman -Project Co-ordinator, Becky Marshall-Potter – FolkEast Director, Finn Collinson and Emma Beach – Musicians and Mentors for the Young Musicians met to select 9 of the applicants to take part in this project during 2023.
The successful musicians are as follows and we are really excited to be working with them all next year:
Lauren Peck, Cambridgeshire – saxophone and recorders
Leila Hooton, Norfolk – flute and vocals
Peter McAuley, Norfolk – guitar, songwriter and vocals
Anna Treutler, Norfolk – fiddle, guitar and vocals
Oliver Thompson, Suffolk – whistle, tune writer
Sarah Stock, Suffolk – guitar & vocals
Heather Moss, Suffolk – flute
Elye Cuthbertson, London – melodeon
Abbey Thomas, Cornwall/Leeds – banjo, guitar, vocals
The train strikes in November prevented them all from meeting at the Conference but they will be meeting up together for a full day of workshops led by Finn and Emma with a guest tutor in February with the focus on Folk Songs and tunes collected by Vaughan Williams in East Anglia.
James Abbott
It is with great sadness that we report the sudden death of our stepdancing friend James Abbott. We have recently published an article on our Musician Profiles pages on the website with thanks to contributions from his friends. He will be greatly missed.
2023 Events to look forward to
More Than Melodeons is back at Wingfield Barns on Saturday May 27th and we are delighted to welcome Andy Cutting and James Delarre as two of our tutors. As well as a day of workshops, we will also be treated to an Evening Tutor Concert in the Barn. A full line up of tutors will be announced in the coming weeks and tickets will be on sale in March.
Stepdance Day takes place on Sunday 16th July. Further details to be confirmed.
We are delighted to see regular sessions around Cambridgeshire following our 2022 Stepdance Day. Thanks to Angela Peacock, Sue Gwynne, Erin Watson and Nicky Stockman for forging ahead with this! The next event is on Sunday 29th January:
FolkEast join us at your super local festival where we will have our usual stall, be involved with Stepdance workshops and the now annual FolkEast Stepdance Competition and also there’s a chance to see the first of our two Youth Showcases as part of our Vaughan Williams’ Folk project. August 17th -20th 2023.
Traditional Music Day on Saturday 2nd September in Stowmarket. More details on the eagerly awaited return of this event will be released on the coming months but we anticipate much of the plans for 2022 will be moved to the 2023 event.
INSTRUMENTS FOR HIRE
It’s been a fabulous couple of years for our instrument hire. Our bank of instruments has been added to and the majority of our instruments are currently out on hire giving the Trust a regular small income. A big shout out to Mike Acott Concertinas who has recently stepped in to help provide some of his sale concertinas as a trial before you buy, with proceeds going to EATMT for the trial period and some post sale donations being made to us too.
If learning a traditional folk instrument is one of your New Year resolutions, then do get in touch! We still also have a small selection of instruments for sale which are detailed on our web page – For Hire.
FRIENDS of EATMT
For £15 per year, you can help support the Trust and benefit from cheaper ticket sales. Volunteer Shirley Harry is our Friends’ Secretary and she’d be delighted to add you to our Friends list. Our Friends’ supporters traditionally contribute to a third of our income and it’s been vital over the last few difficult years.
Find a Friends’ Membership Form HERE.
Can You Help?
We are very keen to hear from you if you are interested in volunteering. In particular we are looking for volunteers at Traditional Music Day and also as part of our Vaughan Williams Folk Project particularly regarding digitising our resources, arranging tunes for various voices/instruments. We will be sending out a specific call for help in the next few weeks but in the meantime, if you think you can help, please get in touch.
Our new working friendship with local auctioneers Bishop and Miller is going well! Following their Music Memorabilia Sale in November, EATMT received a welcomed payment from the sale of some of our books, music and instruments that have been donated over the last few years. They run a few of these themed sale events over the year and we will still have some items featuring in the next one – we’ll keep you updated with the next sale information.
Articles
As well as James Abbott’s Musician Profile added to the website, there is also a full tribute to EATMT co founder and Director John Howson as well as news from Rumburgh Morris.
If you have an idea for an article to be included on our website, please do get in touch. It is always interesting for our readers and followers to read other news from around East Anglia whether it is an event report or a piece of local research. Do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.
The latest Journal of Folk Music publication from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and published by EFDSS is well worth trying to hold a copy of. Not only is there an obituary of John Howson (which you can read on our Tribute to John), but young American scholar Nora (Eleanor) Rodes who spent a few weeks with Alex in Suffolk during the summer has had an article published in this journal: Eloise Hubbard Linscott – The People’s Collector.
John Howson’s article for the journal which is also published by EFDSS (Edward Rushton – Radical Liverpool Poet and Ballad Maker) appeared in the Journal for 2022 – Volume 12 Number 2. For more details about how to access this journal see EFDSS’s website.
Funding
We are grateful to the support given to us via our Friends’ Membership Scheme – it is a vital income to the charity. In addition we are grateful for the continued support from both Stowmarket Town Council and Mid Suffolk District Council which enables us to help put on events in the area. We are this year delighted in being funded for the Vaughan Williams’ Folk Project by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – it helps EATMT keep those our musical heritage alive and accessible for all.
Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2023. See you at one of our events this year we hope!
Alex and the EATMT Team