Content provided in partnership with

Cecil Sharp in Somerset: some reflections on the work of David Harker

Folklore, April, 2002 by C.J. Bearman

<< Page 1 Continued from page 4. Previous | Next

If Harker's argument is a simple matter of arithmetic--that Sharp tried to present a more "rural" image by publishing more songs attributed to villages than to towns--these points illustrate the ignorance, false assumptions, and doubtful methods which lie behind his statistics. But we cannot even trust Harker's arithmetic. Here is a passage from Fakesong:

   In the first four parts of Folk Songs from Somerset, Sharp and Marson
   published 20% of the 146 songs collected in the village of Hambridge, but
   only 9% of the 129 from the town of Bridgwater. They used 10% of the songs
   collected in Somerton, but the only piece found in tiny High Ham. From the
   large village of Cannington they used 5% of the 43 pieces they had
   collected, while from the smaller East Harptree they used 17% of the 40
   items they found ... Sharp and Marson published 25% of Louie and Lucy's
   [i.e. Lucy White's and Louisa Hooper's] 100 songs ... Five of William
   King's 11 songs went into print ... (Harker 1985, 195).

By twenty per cent of 146, Harker presumably means 29. Twenty-four songs and one tune from Hambridge were published in the four parts of Folk Songs from Somerset he analysed. Nineteen of these songs and the one tune were attributed to Louisa Hooper and Lucy White, not the 25 which Harker's figure suggests. By seventeen per cent of 40, Harker presumably means seven. Only four songs and one set of words were attributed to East Harptree. William King sang these four songs, not five, and the set of words came from another singer. To get four sets of figures wrong in the same half-paragraph must be some sort of record. It is also an interesting variety of mistake which so consistently produces errors in favour of the argument being presented. [5]

Harker's analysis is not only unsound in its methods and inaccurate in its figures and statistics, it also demonstrates a fundamental ignorance about the nature of the material being analysed. Harker changed Sharp's emphasis on the number of tunes he collected into his own emphasis on the number of songs because he wanted, for his own reasons, to discuss the songs in terms of their texts. But he never considered the implications for his analysis. Harker says that Sharp collected 1,099 songs (Harker 1985, 189-90) but there were not 1,099 separate texts. What he overlooked was the fact that some songs were more popular than others, and were collected more than once. Sharp collected the most popular time and again, from many singers and in many different places. Amongst other things, this means that the analysis Harker offered of districts and of "urban" against "rural" publication is meaningless. For example, Sharp collected "The Outlandish Knight" fourteen times in twelve locations across the length and breadth of Somerset--at Curry Rivel, Langport, West Harptree, Holford, Haselbury Plucknett, Priddy, Bridgwater, Huish Episcopi, North Petherton, Ubley, Chew Stoke, and Axbridge. He published the version collected in Bridgwater, but it would be ridiculous to say that "The Outlandish Knight"--a version of a folk tale found right across Europe--came from Bridgwater and therefore in some way reflected "urban" rather than "rural" or "industrial" values. If the supposed "urban" and "industrial" districts of Somerset had been producing a different type of song from the "rural" districts, and if Sharp had neglected these, Harker's analysis would have some point. In the same way, if Sharp had selected song A, which was unique to village X, in preference to song B, which was unique to town Y, Harker's allegations of ruralist bias would be justified. But if both song A and song B are found in both village X and in town Y--and, for good measure, in hamlet Z as well--it hardly matters where the published version comes from.

Cecil Sharp in Somerset: some reflections on the work of David Harker

Folklore, April, 2002 by C.J. Bearman

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference