2019-20 (ext. -2021) | English Tunebooks of the Eighteenth Century

'English Tunebooks of the Eighteenth Century'

Knowledge Exchange Fellow:
Dr Alice Little   |   Faculty of Music   |   University of Oxford

Partner Organisation:
English Folk Dance and Song Society

The Knowledge Exchange Fellow will work with EFDSS (the English Folk Dance and Song Society) to study the tunebooks (manuscript music notebooks) in their collection that were made or used in eighteenth-century England. EFDSS will work with the Fellow to research these sources, highlighting key resources in their archive and facilitating networking opportunities.

Together, EFDSS and the Fellow will produce written resources (both academic work and content for public audiences) and EFDSS will support the Fellow to work with musicians including the National Youth Folk Ensemble (based at EFDSS) to see how this material is interpreted and performed today.

Outputs from the partnership include an academic article, online resources, and the performance of tunes from English collections in their archive. Legacy options include ongoing relationships with folk arts practitioners and independent researchers met during the project, the organisation of a conference on 'Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs', and the creation of interpretive text for an exhibition. For the Fellow, research completed as part of this project will feed into long-term plans for a monograph on English tunebooks of the eighteenth century.