The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

and

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

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,

periodicals Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

, audio-visual materials, photographic images and

sound recordings Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

, as well as

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

, field notes, transcriptions etc. of a number of collectors of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

and dance traditions in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. According to ''A Dictionary of English Folklore'', "... by a gradual process of

professionalization Professionalization or professionalisation is a social process by which any tradesman, trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often ...

the VWML has become the most important concentration of material on traditional song, dance, and music in the country." Subjects covered include: Folk/traditional/popular song,

Child Ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ...

Broadside ballads A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the ...

, Industrial/occupational songs, sea songs/shanties, singing games, Nursery rhymes, Street cries, Carols/

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

, Rounds/ glees/part songs,

Music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

, Ritual/ceremonial dance,

Morris dance Morris dancing is a form of English folklore, English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers in costume, usually wearing bell pads on their shins, their shoes or both. A ban ...

/ sword dance and a great deal more. VWML regularly features a variety of conferences and events, including Broadside Day, Library Lectures, the Folk Song Conference, and Special Conferences. VWML has also published resources, including the Folk Music Journal.

History

VWML was originally founded as the

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...

Library in 1930. Sharp's books constituted the bulk of the original library holdings. The first librarian was Joan, Sharp's daughter. In 1940, four bombs hit the Cecil Sharp House during World War II, but the library remained intact. When Ralph Vaughan Williams,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, collector and past president of the EFDSS, died in 1958, the library was renamed in his honor. The building continued to be designated as the Cecil Sharp House. Over the years the library has added

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, sound and manuscript collections of other

folklorists 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 ...

and collectors, such as Lucy Broadwood, Janet Blunt, Anne Gilchrist,

George Butterworth George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC (12 July 18855 August 1916) was an English composer who was best known for the orchestral idyll '' The Banks of Green Willow'' and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from '' A Shropshire Lad''. He wa ...

, the Hammond brothers and George Gardiner. It also contains copies of the papers and notebooks of Sabine Baring-Gould, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alfred Williams and James Madison Carpenter; and the field recordings of Percy Grainger, Mike Yates and the BBC Folk Music Archive. From 1979 to 2012, Malcolm Taylor served as the librarian, and then Director, of VWML. In 2010, VWML received an excellence award by the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) and in 2011 received designated status by the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and a registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, Library, libraries, and archives. ...

(MLA). In 2017, the library was renovated for the first time since the 1940s.

Online Archive

In May 2006, VWML Online was launched which hosts a number of the library's indexes to manuscript collections, together with its index to mummers' plays and the Roud Folk Song and Broadside Indexes, the largest of their kind in the English language. The online material has been extended with the addition of a catalogue of the collection of books bequeathed by eminent folk music scholar Leslie Shepard. In addition, both Cecil Sharp's Appalachian diaries from 1915-1918 (in manuscript and transcript form) and over 300 images taken from his photographic collection are available for viewing on-line. The latter are largely portraits of contributors to his music collections from North America and England. In 2007, EFDSS was awarded a grant, which led to the creation of the Take 6 archive. This archive features of six of the most prominent folk song collections of EFDSS, including the Janet Blunt Collection, the George Butterworth Collection, the Francis Collinson Collection, the George Gardiner Collection, the Anne G. Gilchrist Collection, and the Hammond Collection. In 2014, EFDSS partnered with English museums and cultural heritage institutions and launched The Full English Archive, the largest online archive in the world of English folk manuscripts. The Full English is currently integrated into the online archives of VWML. The Take 6 archive was also integrated into The Full English. From 2017 to 2018, folk works collected by James Madison Carpenter were digitized from 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 ...

and added to the VWML archives as the Carpenter Folk Online. In 2019, the Folk Song Subject Index went live, which features an "online subject index for folk songs along with a thesaurus of keywords" and is an ongoing project of the VWML.

References

External links

Vaughan Williams Memorial LibraryVWML Online
{{Authority control English folk music Libraries in the London Borough of Camden Music archives in the United Kingdom Ralph Vaughan Williams