FOLK SINGERS & SONGS

It is now over 50 years ago when I first learned songs collected by BG. In the years since, my repertoire has grown and I have discovered much about the man himself, his family, his interests and achievements.

But, it is the songs he collected between 1888 and 1903 that he referred to as 'being the most important achievement of my life', that have held my interest, resulting in my continued research of them.

Now, through my pod cast series I am able to tell the story of how he was the first person to collect the folk songs of his native Devon.

A pioneer in the preservation of Devon's musical heritage.

As a very successful author of novels popular with England's middle classes, BG no doubt saw the the place for his song book on the pianos of the middle class drawing rooms of England.

BG was right as 'Songs and Ballads of the West' was printed in 4 parts between 1889 and 1891 and was published in one volume in 1892 with a further six additional reprints over the next thirty or so years.

Songs with lyrics he considered to be indelicate due to their sexual nature he rewrote. If they were to be included in 'Songs and Ballads of the West'?

His rewritting of unprintable lyrics was strongly criticised by his fellow collectors and has been by folk enthusiasts ever since.

His critics failed to realise that his rewrites helped keep the songs alive by being included in 'Songs and Ballads of the West' which was bought by the middle classes of Victorian and Edwardian England. Who played them on their pianos and sung them in their drawing rooms. Not to be left in a manuscript book collecting dust in a musician's library.

Two valid points he made to answer his critics.

First, in his autobiography Further Reminiscences he wrote.

Our objective was not to furnish a volume for consultation by the musical antiquary alone, but to resuscitate and to popularise the traditional music of the English people. As however to the antiquary everything is important, exactly as obtained, uncleansed from rust or polish.

Second, a part of his letter to The Western Morning News in January 1900

I have deposited a copy of the songs & ballads with their music exactly as taken down for reference in the Municipal free library Plymouth.

The original lyrics to the songs he cleaned up, he often termed as being, 'unfit for Christian ears to hear or Christian lips to utter', were kept safe in the Plymouth library.

Where I found them in 1993.