Sam Henry (musicologist)
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Samuel Henry (9 May 1878 – 23 May 1952) was an Irish customs officer, pension officer,
antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...
, lecturer, writer, photographer,
folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...
, folk-song collector and musician. He is best known for his collection of ballads and songs in ''Songs of the People'', the largest and most comprehensive collection of just under 690 folk-songs from
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
assembled between the wars (1923–1939), when he was song editor for the ''
Northern Constitution The ''Northern Constitution'' is a weekly newspaper in Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, ci ...
'', a weekly newspaper in
Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...
.


Early life

Henry was born and educated in Sandleford,
Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...
, Ireland. He came from a prominent Coleraine family and was the youngest of five sons: his brother William was town clerk of Coleraine; Robert, principal of the Model School; James, vice principal of
The Honourable The Irish Society The Honourable The Irish SocietyIn full, the "Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, of the New Plantation in Ulster, within the Realm of Ireland". is a consortium of livery companies of the City of London established during the Plantati ...
's Primary School; and Tom, a civil servant. Retrieved on 11 December 2016. In 1897, when he was 19, Sam passed two examinations, one as teacher and the other as an
exciseman A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations on behalf of a government. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns or work for a revenue agency. Tax collector ...
, choosing to follow the latter career.


Description

According to his daughter, Mrs Olive Mary Henry Craig, Henry was a "very large man, tall, broad and burly" who weighed over sixteen stone (225 pounds, over 100 kilograms). He rode a bicycle and also used a car in his travels around the northern counties, as well as the public transport system (bus and train). Henry described himself as "an ardent amateur naturalist, archaeologist, antiquarian, genealogist, and photographer." He was a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is an Irish learned society whose aims are "to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquities, langua ...
and could therefore append the letters FRSAI after his name. He was also an amateur ornithologist regarded as an authority on the birds of the north of Ireland. As a well-known lecturer who communicated his enthusiasm and knowledge of his special hobbies to other people, Henry contributed many articles on such matters to the local papers.


Career

After service as a customs & excise officer in England (1903-4), Henry returned home, where he served mainly around Coleraine. When
Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
instituted the
Old Age Pensions Act 1908 The Old Age Pensions Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. 40) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, passed in 1908. The act is one of the foundations of modern soci ...
, Henry was appointed to administer it in his area, while still carrying out his duties for the
Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...
. Henry began to assemble his collection of folk songs while he was still a civil servant and continued it after his retirement. When he was appointed Pension Officer, Henry's duties included visiting the poor and elderly people in some of the most isolated areas of Northern Ireland, to determine if they were eligible for old age pensions or relief. To overcome the natural reticence of country people in those remote areas, Henry often took his
fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...
and
tin whistle The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, a class of instrument which also includes the recorder and Native American flute. A tin whistle player is called a whistl ...
with him, played a tune and then asked if anyone in the household knew any of the old songs. He would then record these songs by writing them down using a basic music notation system called
tonic sol-fa Tonic sol-fa (or tonic sol-fah) is a pedagogical technique for teaching sight-singing, invented by Sarah Anna Glover (1786–1867) of Norwich, England and popularised by John Curwen, who adapted it from a number of earlier musical systems. It u ...
.


''Songs of the People''

When he became song editor for the ''
Northern Constitution The ''Northern Constitution'' is a weekly newspaper in Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, ci ...
'' in 1923, Henry used his column to specify what type of old songs he wanted. In return, the readers contributed songs that he published in a weekly series he called ''Songs of the People'': "Let it be our joyful task to search out, conserve, and make known the treasures of the Songs of the People". In order to motivate the readers, Henry ran weekly song competitions, offering "a weekly prize of a free copy of the ''Northern Constitution'' for six months for the best old song submitted." The first song in the series, "The Flower of Sweet Dunmull" (Henry number H1) was printed on 17 November 1923, and the last one, "The Lass of Mohee" (H836), on 9 December 1939. A long period of illness caused Henry to suspend his editorship after "Ann O'Drumcroon" (H246) was printed on 28 July 1928, and he resumed his duties on 22 October 1932 with the printing of "The Braes of Sweet Kilhoyle" (H464). During his long absence, the ''Songs of the People'' series was looked after by other editors who published just over 200 articles altogether (numbered 247-463), which therefore do not appear in Henry's scrapbooks. When the series ended on 9 December 1939, Henry had contributed just under 690 songs of high quality, many with multiple variants. Although the songs were collected in a single district around Coleraine, there is a great amount of diversity, including not only native Irish songs but also songs from Scotland, England and North America. When publication of the ''Northern Constitution'' weekly column ended with the advent of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Henry continued to collect and annotate songs after his retirementFolk Music Journal (English Folk Dance and Song Society), Vol. 3 No. 3, 1977 and tried to have his collection published in book form. To this end, he assembled two scrapbooks containing most of the material, edited and augmented by his notes of variations, plus other details and corrections of misprints. This material was in the form of cuttings, proof or typescript copies. He also assembled three separate sets of ''Songs of the People'': the
Belfast Central Library Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland. A competition for the design of the building was won by architect Will ...
set, consisting mainly of offprints and cuttings from the ''Northern Constitution''; the
National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ) is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the ...
(Dublin) set, and the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
(Washington, DC) set, the latter two consisting of three scrapbooks each. All these sets were assembled in varying degrees of completeness. The Belfast set was subsequently copied by the BBC and one of the copies presented to the
English Folk Dance and Song Society The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS, or pronounced 'EFF-diss') is an organisation that promotes English folk music and folk dance. EFDSS was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dan ...
where it is kept in the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodi ...
at Cecil Sharp House. The BBC also commissioned Sean O'Boyle to create an index intended for internal use. Independently of Henry's efforts, another set had been compiled by A. Albert Campbell, a Belfast solicitor and bibliophile who had corresponded with Henry. Campbell bequeathed his set of eight scrapbooks to the Belfast
Linen Hall Library The Linen Hall Library is located at 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Northern Ireland. The Library is physically in the centre of Belfast, and more g ...
and, although also incomplete at the time, this set was later augmented and any gaps filled with photocopies of the BBC set of Henry's own scrapbooks.


Legacy

Despite Henry's attempts to have his collection of folk songs published in book form, this would not happen until 1990, 38 years after his death, when ''Sam Henry's Songs of the People'' was published by the
University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and a me ...
. This book includes all the songs Henry had published in the ''Northern Constitution'' from 17 November 1923 to 28 July 1928 (H1 to H246), and from 28 October 1932 to 9 December 1939 (H464 to H836), with all the songs' tunes transcribed from
tonic sol-fa Tonic sol-fa (or tonic sol-fah) is a pedagogical technique for teaching sight-singing, invented by Sarah Anna Glover (1786–1867) of Norwich, England and popularised by John Curwen, who adapted it from a number of earlier musical systems. It u ...
to standard
staff notation In Western musical notation, the staff"staff" in the Collins English Di ...
, plus extensive appendices, indexes and reference aids developed by the book's editors: Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann and John Moulden. Henry's collection was the subject of extensive scholarship by Moulden, yielding several publications and a conference address to the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
on 2 May 2007. The collection inspired recordings by folk singers such as
Margaret Barry Margaret Barry (1917–1989) was an Irish Traveller, traditional singer and banjo player. Biography Born Margaret Cleary in Cork into a family of Travellers and street singers, she taught herself how to play the zither banjo and the fiddle ...
,
Paul Brady Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. Initially popular for playing ...
,
Eddie Butcher Eddie Butcher (8 May 1900 – 8 September 1980) was an Irish traditional singer, folk-song collector and songwriter from Magilligan, County Londonderry. He had an extensive repertoire of songs that he performed in a sturdy, earthy style. I ...
,
Cara Dillon Cara Elizabeth Dillon (born 21 July 1975, in Dungiven, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish folk singer. In 1995, she joined the folk supergroup Equation and signed a record deal with Warners Music Group. After leaving t ...
,
Joe Heaney Joe Heaney (AKA Joe Éinniú; Irish: Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) (1 October 1919 – 1 May 1984) was an Irish traditional ( sean nós) singer from Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland an ...
,
Joe Holmes Joe Holmes (born June 11, 1963) is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for his stint with Ozzy Osbourne between 1995 and 2001. He has also played with Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth and the L.A. band Lizzy Borden in addition to le ...
& Len Graham,
Dolores Keane Dolores Keane (born 26 September 1953) is an Irish folk singer. She was a founding member of the group De Dannan following which she pursued a solo recording and touring career. Background Keane was born in a small village called Sylane (near ...
,
Paddy Tunney Paddy Tunney (28 January 1921 – 7 December 2002) was an Irish traditional singer, poet, writer, raconteur, lilter and songwriter. He was affectionately known as the ''Man of Songs''. From Glasgow to Garvery Tunney was born in Glasgow to I ...
, and many others. Andy Irvine, who first consulted the Dublin set in the mid-1960s, has interpreted an extensive selection of its songs since the early 1970s as a solo artist and with
Planxty Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, gu ...
, Paul Brady,
Patrick Street Patrick Street is an Irish folk group founded by Kevin Burke (formerly of The Bothy Band) on fiddle, Andy Irvine ( Sweeney's Men, Planxty) on mandolin, bouzouki, harmonica and vocals, Jackie Daly (De Dannan) on button accordion, and Arty Mc ...
, and Mozaik. In addition to his collection of songs, Henry left behind a large aggregate of 11,000 items, comprising photographs and documents, donated to the Coleraine Museum by his grandson, Gordon Craig, on 25 August 2011. A documentary in two episodes on ''Songs of the People'' was aired by the BBC, during April 2019.


Publications


Books by Sam Henry

* ''A Hank of Yarns'' (No date) * ''Tales of the Antrim seaboard: Dunluce, Giant's Causeway, Fair Head'' (1930) * ''Rowlock rhymes and Songs of exile'' (1933) * ''Ulster folk tales: poetry, lore and tradition of the North-East'' (1939) * ''Songs of the people: collected from traditional sources'' (3 vol. musical score) (1941?) * ''The Story of St. Patrick's Church, Coleraine'' (1941?) * ''Dunluce and the Giant’s Causeway'' (1945)


Books about ''Songs of the People''

* * * *


Selected discography

The following table shows a selection of songs recorded from Henry's collection. * Title – the title of the song (this column is sortable) * No. – the song's Henry number (Hxxx) (this column is sortable) * Singer – the name of the singer on the recording (this column is sortable) * Album – the title of the album featuring the recorded song (this column is sortable) * Year – the year the album was released (this column is sortable) * Notes – a reference about the song and/or its recording (this column is not sortable).


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Sam 1878 births 1952 deaths Civil servants from Northern Ireland Irish antiquarians Male fiddlers from Northern Ireland Folk-song collectors from Northern Ireland Journalists from Northern Ireland 20th-century photographers from Northern Ireland Tin whistle players from Northern Ireland Musicians from County Londonderry People from Coleraine, County Londonderry Male flautists from Northern Ireland 1920s in Irish music 1930s in Irish music 1940s in Irish music 1950s in Irish music