In Search of Song: the Life and Times of Lucy Broadwood
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IN SEARCH OF SONG: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LUCY BROADWOOD Frontispiece ‘Lucy Etheldred Broadwood’ 9 August 1858–22 August 1929 Source: Copyright of Surrey History Centre. In Search of Song: The Life and Times of Lucy Broadwood DOROTHY DE VAL York University, Canada First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2011 Dorothy de Val Dorothy de Val has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data De Val, Dorothy. In search of song : the life and times of Lucy Broadwood. -- (Music in nineteenth-century Britain) 1. Broadwood, Lucy, 1858-1029. 2. Broadwood, Lucy, 1858-1929--Ethnomusicological collections. 3. Folk Song Society--History. 4. Ethnomusicologists--Great Britain-- Biography. 5. Women folk musicians--Great Britain-- Biography. 6. Folk musicians--Great Britain--Biography. 7. Folk songs, English--Great Britain--19th century. 8. Folk songs, English--Great Britain--20th century. I. Title II. Series 782.4'216221'0092-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data De Val, Dorothy, 1955- In search of song : the life and times of Lucy Broadwood / Dorothy de Val. p. cm. -- (Music in nineteenth-century Britain) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-5408-7 (hardcover) 1. Broadwood, Lucy Etheldred, 1858-1929. 2. Folk musicians--Great Britain--Biography. I. Title. ML420.B7782D4 2011 782.42162'210092--dc22 [B] 2011002916 ISBN 9780754654087 (hbk) ISBN 9781315588131 (ebk) Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix General Editor’s Series Preface xi Introduction 1 1 Lyne 7 2 London 27 3 The Collector 49 4 The Folk-Song Society 71 5 Contemporaries: Some Conclusions 91 6 Collecting in Scotland and Ireland 105 7 The War Years 123 8 The Last Decade 141 Epilogue 155 Appendix 165 Select Bibliography 171 Index 181 This page has been left blank intentionally List of Illustrations Frontispiece ‘Lucy Etheldred Broadwood’ 9 August 1858–22 August 1929 (2185/LEB/ 9/111) ii 1.1 Lyne, photographed by Henry Fowler Broadwood, c. 1865 (SHC 2185/MISC38A 2HFB) 7 1.2 Portrait of Lucy Broadwood, aged 8, 1866 (2185/LEB/9/2) 20 2.1 ‘The Ball’ as seen by Lucy Broadwood (2185/LEB/10/3, no. 1) 32 2.2 Portrait of Lucy Broadwood as a young woman, 1880s (2185/LEB 9/9) 44 2.3 Herbert Birch Reynardson, c. 1889 (2185/LEB/9/36) 48 3.1 Lucy Broadwood with J.A. Fuller Maitland at Abinger Hall, for the Leith Hill Music Festival, 1914 (2185/LEB/9/19) 55 4.1 Sir Richmond Ritchie standing under a portrait of Charles Lamb at the India Office (2185/LEB/9/126) 78 4.2 James Campbell McInnes rehearsing with Lucy Broadwood at 84 Carlisle Mansions, c. 1904 (SHC 2185/LEB/9/113) 82 8.1 Lucy and friends at Greplang Castle, Switzerland. Standing, left to right: Beryl Reeves, Lucy Broadwood, Anne Thackeray, Mary Venables. Seated: Fanny Davies (SHC 2185/LEB/9/12) 146 9.1 Mary Venables, July 1925 (2185/LEB/9/129) 156 This page has been left blank intentionally Acknowledgements My journey to discover more about Lucy Broadwood and her circle has not been made alone. I am grateful to the late Cyril Ehrlich for first making me aware of her diaries some years ago, and for the many fruitful discussions we had about her, her times and on music generally. I have missed his incisive input, wry humour and gentle guidance as I assembled the narrative of this book, but its spirit still owes much to his wit, personality and style. I have long had a connection with the Surrey History Centre, (www.surreycc. gov.uk/surreyhistorycentre) first in its incarnation as the Surrey Record Office, Kingston, where I first became aware of the Broadwood archives through my work on the piano firm for my PhD dissertation, in which Professor Ehrlich also played a vital role. The archive also houses the Broadwood family history, including the diaries of and letters to Lucy Broadwood. I am grateful to all the archivists at the Centre under the leadership of, first, David Robinson and then Maggie Vaughan- Lewis, who were without fail always helpful and insightful. I owe a huge debt to Jenni Waugh, no longer with the Centre, but whose encyclopaedic knowledge of Lucy, her times and, above all, the huge quantity of material in the archive, was invaluable to me. Jenni’s enthusiasm and passion for this period and its many personalities inspired me to continue when the sheer weight of research material threatened to undermine the whole project. I am also grateful to Robert Simonson for his patience and diligence in helping me choose illustrations for this book. All illustrations are reproduced by permission of the Surrey History Centre. Sincere thanks are also due to Malcolm Taylor and his staff at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, which holds a vast amount of material related mostly to Lucy’s song collecting, as well as the records of the Folk Song Society, of which she was a founder member. There is still much to explore there in the correspondence of Lucy’s contemporaries, such as Cecil Sharp and Anne Geddes Gilchrist among others, but I fear this book would have never reached completion had I attempted to go exhaustively through their material as well. Malcolm’s intimate knowledge of the collection, plus his involvement in the folk music world generally, made him a valuable source of information in the production of this book. Working at the British Library, both in the Music Room and in the general collections, has always been a joy owing to the quiet helpfulness of their staff. Likewise the staff at the Bodleian Library (in particular the Music Room) and the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford, under their former librarian John Wagstaff, were particularly helpful at crucial times of my research: I am indebted to John for constant access to the sprawling Frank Howes collection. In London, x In SEaRCh OF SOng: ThE LIFE anD TIMES OF LUCy BROaDWOOD I have always enjoyed access to the collections at the Royal College of Music, whose archives have been particularly useful, as was their collection of instruments on which I played my first Broadwood piano, dated 1799. Christopher Bornet, Elizabeth Wells, Oliver Davies, Celia Clarke and Peter horton have always been helpful and knowledgeable guides. More recently I have enjoyed the use of the well-stocked library of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, as well as my home library at york University, which yielded some interesting finds. Colleagues have been helpful throughout my time researching this book: Chris Bearman shared his notes and encyclopaedic knowledge with me in the early stages, Rachel Cowgill provided useful material on anne geddes gilchrist, and I have learned much from other writers in this field, such as the late Roy Judge, David gregory, Vic gammon, georgina Boyes and numerous others. I have also been fortunate to meet a host of folksong enthusiasts more recently through my membership of the Country Dance and Song Society and the Toronto English Country Dancers. My students at york University, particularly those in my graduate classes, have always provided insight and a freshness of approach. an award from the Research Development Fund of york University made the final stages of writing this book possible. Above all, I am grateful to my family for their patience and perseverance. My daughter Susanna McCleary has performed many of the songs Lucy collected, even making the effort to learn Scots Gaelic in order to sing the highland songs at two academic conferences. Our joint ventures in this relatively arcane area owe much to the expert guidance of the Toronto Gaelic Learners Association under the leadership of Janice Chan, Kerrie Kennedy and Sharon Brown. Mary Enid Haines brought some of the English songs to a wider public at the first conference of the North American British Music Studies Association in June 2004. There has been little time in my son Mark’s life that has not been dominated by Lucy, so I thank him for tolerating my long sessions at the computer as well as my mutterings in Gaelic; likewise, I cannot begin to repay my husband John McCleary, who now knows Lucy all too well and has brought enthusiasm, patience and well-honed editing skills to this project. Like many others he, too, no doubt will be relieved to see its final coming to fruition, though I will make the usual disclaimer that any errors and faults in the following text are completely and utterly my own. General Editor’s Series Preface Music in nineteenth-century Britain has been studied as a topic of musicology for over two hundred years. It was explored widely in the nineteenth century itself, and in the twentieth century grew into research with strong methodological and theoretical import. Today, the topic has burgeoned into a broad, yet incisive, cultural study with critical potential for scholars in a wide range of disciplines.