Description
M.Phil. study, based on fieldwork carried out between 1966 and 1968 (with some additional reference to material collected subsequently, in 1969), which relates songs, singing and singers to their social environment, and as such reflects an essentially functional and synchronic approach. The Upper Thames is here defined broadly as the area between Oxford and Swindon, Banbury and Abingdon. The study looks at how far song content correlates with the life, work and attitudes of individuals and of a community; how far changes in lifestyle affect the survival of songs; and how far direct experience and a sense of personal involvement are vital for continued transmission.
The Introduction describes the aims of the study and the collector's approach to fieldwork. The following chapter discusses the meaning of folk song, with sections on terminological problems, definitions and origins and transmission. Chapter Three describes the Upper Thames Valley region and sub-regions. The fourth chapter looks in detail at the song material of the area, and divides the songs by subject (historical material relating to war, trades and occupations, drink and drinking, love - courtship, marriage). Chapter Five discusses individual singers and their songs, and some common features of their repertoires, singing style and performance. The final chapter discusses Upper Thames Valley song in the context of social and cultural change, with sections on singer migration and the state of traditional song in the region in the late 1970s.
The study's appendices contain an alphabetical Index of Villages and Informants, a Title Catalogue of Individual Singer's Repertoires and a Key to Field Recordings on Tape. The study also contains thirty-five photographs (photocopies) of the landscape, geographical features, villages and informants from the region, taken by the collector in the period January-March 1969.
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