Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs: History and Transmission

Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs: History and Transmission

Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs: History and Transmission

The English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Elphinstone Institute are organising a ground-breaking conference on Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs: History and Transmission. At Cecil Sharp House, London, on Friday, 6 October – Saturday, 7 October 2017, 9am–5pm.

Researchers have long been fascinated by the recurrence of tunes in all manner of musical styles and genres, performance contexts, levels of society, historical periods, and geographical locations. But how are we to understand this phenomenon? This two-day conference brings together those researching into ‘traditional’ and ‘popular’ tunes, their history and variation in performance, composition, musical perception, and memory.

The organisers have been delighted by the fantastic response to the call for papers. The result is a vibrant programme covering topics such as

  • Tunebooks
  • Composers, arrangers and collectors
  • Song tune histories
  • Texts, tunes and meaning
  • Dance tunes, and much more

Download the provisional programme (please note that this may be subject to changes)

Picture Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk https://wellcomecollection.org A blind fiddler plays to a family audience. Coloured engraving by J. Burnet after D. Wilkie, 1806. 1806: By: David Wilkie after: John Burnet Published: 6 January 1877

Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/