Norfolk folk songs

Songs, Social and Wine

The speaker/singer at the March meeting of the Old Buckenham Social and Wine Circle was villager Howard Marshall. He has always enjoyed singing throughout his life and has taken a particular interest in folk songs. He based his talk on a visit the Ralph Vaughan Williams made to the local area in 1911. Ralph was 39 years old at the time and, along with George Butterworth, came to the Tibenham and Gissing area to collect the details of folk songs and words direct from local people.
There were no written words and music, all were passed down by hearing other people sing them. So it was a matter of visiting the singers, whether in the local workhouse or pub, and listening to them singing while writing down the tunes and words for later ‘translation’. During this three day trip the pair managed to collect details of 26 songs to take back with them. Vaughan Williams collected around 800 during his lifetime.
To illustrate the talk there were old photos of local buildings and the places that Vaughan Williams had visited along with facsimile copies of the notebooks where the lyrics and notes had been written down. But best of all, the talk was interspersed with renditions of the folk songs themselves by Howard.
There was plenty of discussion afterwards, particularly on the tough and resilient country people of a hundred years ago who were quite likely to end up, through no fault of there own, in the local workhouse living in prison-like conditions.
At the next Social and Wine Circle meeting, John Lee will be talking about the old local cinemas under the title of ‘Let’s go to the movies’. All are welcome to come along to the Church Rooms at 7.45pm on Thursday 14 April.