Mike performs in Cumbrian electric Ceilidh band Striding Edge, and also runs the Furness Tradition Festival Community Dance band, he's involved in this project and I suggested he might come along to source some material.
We asked Librarian Nick Wall if the Library could find some relevant material in advance and they provided a wealth of journals, recordings, notes, sheet music and correspondence which kept us busy all day. One of the highlights for me was reading Percy Grainger's notes on cylinder recording in a bound edition of the Folk Song Society journal for 1908. As well as making the case for recording as a means of preservation Grainger describes the value if vari-speed playback when transcribing. Given that each cylinder could record just a couple of minutes, he became conscious if the importance of the silent pauses his singers made between verses, and was careful to make these aspects of the performance as evident as the song. Grainger is an engaging writer, and his eye and ear for detail come out in his notes on the differing approaches of the singers and their pleasure in harmonising with their own recordings.
Mike worked through a couple of boxes of material from the early 20c Westmorland Song Competition and the collection of Dalton's JS Lawrence, and it was nice to see Furness Morris's Les Ord represented in there too.It was a very enjoyable and valuable day, we are both grateful to Nick and the staff
for all their help and for creating such a nice atmosphere to work in.
You can explore the Library's online archive here, but there's no substitute for a visit.
https://www.vwml.org/
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