English folk music on the margin - Cecil Sharp's gypsies.

Abstract

Cecil Sharp is the only English or even British collector who can be compared with such European giants as Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, compsers and collectors who undertook extnsive fieldwork documenting the folk music of indigenous cultures including many Romani gypsy singers and musicians. Cecil Sharp only occasionally referred to collecting from gypsy singers. This paper identifis and examines Sharp's encouters with the gypsy community revealing singers, recordings and photographs previously unidentified.