Cecil James Sharp (1859-1924) had little experience in collecting folk songs and no involvement in the foundation of the Folk Song Society, yet he is credited with saving the genre. His publication, Book of British Song for Home and School (1902) sought to restore musical heritage as a child’s birthright. This book included several folk songs, pulled from fellow collaborators’ folk song collections and patriotic tunes, such as “God Save the King” and “Rule Britannia.” Sharp adamantly believed instilling patriotism for school children was fundamental. Echoing pastoral language, Sharp ascribed folk melodies to “wildflowers from the very hearts of country men,” which inevitably shall tie England’s youth to its nation as a “truer patriot.” He defined folk songs by three distinct qualities: continuity, variation, and selection. Continuity implies that all folk songs are passed through the oral tradition. Whether by time or accident, variation or improvisation will always occur in subsequent repetitions. In this book, you will be able to explore Sharp’s handpicked collections for the “genuine” folk songs he so valued, which would become the symbol for English nationalism and the basis for England’s public music education curriculum.

Cecil Sharp, English Folk-Song: Some Conclusions (London: Simkin & Co., 1907), 131, 139.