|

SITE INDEX
Village Carols is a non-profitmaking organisation which exists to record and
promote local carol singing traditions. Its main roles are undertaking fieldwork
and research, organising the collection of source material, and promoting local
carol singing traditions.
Fieldwork and research
This takes two main forms:
 |
interviewing carol singers about their traditions and recording the actual
singing (preferably, in the correct context); |
 |
investigating record offices, libraries and archives for relevant
references to local singing and music manuscripts. |
Organising the collection of source material
The hundreds of tape recordings and manuscripts are steadily being indexed
and organised into a usable archive for which there is public access. The
recordings of the carols are being copied and the copies placed in the National
Sound Archive (British Library) and in the Archives of Cultural Tradition at the
University of Sheffield.
Promoting local carol singing traditions
This is largely done through the production of the cassette/CD and book
series. To date, there are ten sets. For details, please see
Village
Carols publications. An order
form is also downloadable on that page.
Ian Russell describes his
approach to research, recording, documentation and publication in a paper
written for the Folklore Journal in 2006, and reproduced
here.
Festival of Village Carols
The Festival of
Village Carols is held every two years to celebrate the remarkable carol
singing traditions that flourish in the villages near Sheffield, and elsewhere.
The first Festival was in 1992, and, apart from the year 2000, has always
been held at the Community Centre in Grenoside.
To mark the Millennium, the Festival took place on Saturday 2 December 2000 at the Cutlers'
Hall, Sheffield, and the 2002 Festival featured the Glen Rock Carolers from
Pennsylvania, USA at Grenoside on 29th and
30th November 2002. See the
Report
and the Pictures.
The 2012
Festival will be on Saturday 1 December 2012 in the Grenoside
Community Centre
As usual,
booking forms will be available on this site from Monday 1 October 2012.
When further
details are available, they will be
published here

The Sheffield Book of Village Carols
edited by Ian Russell
Second Edition is now
available
Details and Order Form, etc., here

Currently available recordings and publications:
Downloadable Flyer and Order Form - Break Forth in Song ! [1458 kB] - pdf There are also two accompanying booklets for the CD, which are downloadable.

Brightest and Best
- CD and Tape Set (both available) Hark, Hark, What News - CD and Tape Set (both now
available)
Books
The first
Festival book
only is now only
available, but all the carols are available in the
Sheffield Book of Village Carols,
edited by Ian Russell, but this is now temporarily out of print.
We regret that copies of all other
publications and recordings are now unavailable due to the demand for them.

Download
Order Form for Cassettes,
CDs and Music Books:
pdf
Word
rtf 
Village Carols is directed by Ian Russell. He is
Director of the Elphinstone
Institute at the University of Aberdeen, and can be contacted by email via
ianrussell@abdn.ac.uk.
Formerly a primary headteacher, he was the Editor of
Folk Music Journal
from 1980 to 1993. Link
here to read a little more about Dr. Ian
Russell's work at Aberdeen and elsewhere.
Contact Address: Village Carols, PO Box 2099, Sheffield S35 0XU

 |
Publications
|
 |
Break Forth in Song
|
 |
2012 Festival |
 |
Words and music indexes of the
Sheffield carols
 |
Carol words
- Index of first lines with links to words |
 |
Tune Names
- Index of tune names with links to words |
|
 |
Links 
|
Malcolm Douglas, who
ran the Carols section of the
South Riding Folk Arts
Network website, sadly died in 2010.
Pat Malham and
Frazer Jarvis have taken up his mantle, and have created
a new web site for Local Carols in South Yorks. and
North Derbyshire at
http://www.localcarols.org.uk
Check back for updates as and when available.
You are Visitor No.

Web Page Counter
since
September 23rd, 2005
Site maintained for Village
Carols on behalf of the
West Gallery Music Association
by Edwin Macadam Shelwin
Music,
30 Eynsham Road, Botley, Oxford, OX2 9BP. Tel: 01865
865773 Email Address:
|