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2012 Festival
Break Forth
Village Carols 2nd Ed 2011
Plygain Singing
The Bells of Paradise
Brightest and Best
Come Sing For The Season
On This Delightful Morn
Hark Hark
Peace o'er the World
A Song for the Time
To Celebrate Christmas
While Shepherds Watched
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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:

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interviewing carol singers about their traditions and recording the actual singing (preferably, in the correct context);
 

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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 1994, 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. The 2002 Festival featured the Glen Rock Carolers from Pennsylvania, USA at Grenoside on Saturday 30 November 2002. See the Report and the Pictures.

The 2012 Festival was on Saturday 1 December 2012 in the Grenoside Community Centre

This year we welcomed back as our guests the Glen Rock Carolers from York County, Pennsylvania, and the Hathersage Carollers from Derbyshire. At the Festival the new Derbyshire Book of Village Carols was introduced, and several pieces from it us as part of the day's singing. Details below

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The Derbyshire Book of Village Carols
is now published!

edited by Ian Russell


 
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It contains 85 carols, many of which have not previously published, from
10 different villages. They are presented in full score with a piano
reduction with an illustrated introduction, notes on the carols,
bibliography and index. It forms a companion volume to /The Sheffield
Book of Village Carols/.

 
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The paperback edition is £15 and the hardback is £25.

 
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Details and Order Form, (as PDF file) etc., here

 

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The Sheffield Book of Village Carols
edited by Ian Russell

New Edition is now available
Details and Order Form, etc., here

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Currently available recordings and publications:

Break Forth in Song!
Village Carols from the Blue Ball Inn, Worrall

Village Carols CD VC011

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

English Village Carols  -  CD
SFW CD 40476

Brightest and Best  -  CD and Tape Set (both available)
Hark, Hark, What News - CD and Tape Set (both now available)

Newly released on CD:

On This Delightful Morn:
Village Carols from Foolow in the Peak District
CD VC007

Books

Of the three collections of carols, only the first Festival book is still available, but all the South Yorkshire carols are available in the Sheffield Book of Village Carols, edited by Ian Russell.

A major new Derbyshire collection of carols is in preparation and should be available for Christmas 2012.

We regret that copies of all other publications and recordings are now unavailable due to the demand for them.

 

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Download Order Form for Cassettes, CDs and Music Books:  pdf   Word  rtf

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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

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SITE INDEX

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About Village Carols

 
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Working with tradition

 
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Publications
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Village Carols Publications

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Cassettes

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Cds

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Music Books

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Latest Carol Book

 
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Break Forth in Song
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New CD from The Blue Ball

 

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2012 Festival

 
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Past Festivals
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Carols at Grenoside in 2002 and links to the Glen Rock Carolers

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Grenoside pictures 2002

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Festival of Carols 2004

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Festival of Carols in 2006

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Pictures of Carols in 2006

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Festival of Carols 2008

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Festival of Carols 2010

 

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Other traditional Groups
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The Kilmore Traditional Carol Singers from County Wexford, Ireland

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Plygain singing from Parti Bronheulog,Wales

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The Copper Family from East Sussex

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The Odcombe Carollers

 

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Location Maps

 
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Words and music indexes of the Sheffield carols
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Carol words - Index of first lines with links to words

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Tune Names - Index of tune names with links to words

 

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Links

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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 createda new web site for Local Carols in South Yorks. and North Derbyshire at  http://www.localcarols.org.ukCheck back for  
                               updates as and when available.

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:    

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