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ChOral History
Date: 21 September 2007 - 18 May 2008
Location: Worcestershire County Museum: Hartlebury Castle
Commemorating the life and work of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Singworks received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and the first broadcast of radio-ballads by folk musician Ewan MacColl (1958).
Vaughan Williams' lifetime (1872-1958) coincided with dramatic changes in English rural and urban life. Vaughan Williams was concerned that these changes would result in the loss of cultural traditions, in particular, the singing of folk song. He aimed to preserve traditional music by notating songs which had previously been passed orally from one generation to another.
Ewan MacColl kept folk music alive by performing new music in a traditional style. He composed a series of Radio-Ballads for the BBC. These were a tapestry of sound, interweaving the spoken word, sound effects and song, exploring themes such as the building of the M1, and the fishing industry.
Working with workshop leaders from Discover History, children in five Wyre Forest Primary Schools researched five areas of life in the Wyre Forest that changed considerably during the lifetime of Vaughan Williams: the railway, the canal, the carpet industry, rural life and family life. A musician and writer worked with the children in five primary schools to create new radio-ballads on these themes. Alongside spoken role-play and sound effects, these contained songs originally collected by Vaughan Williams, with lyrics written by the children, illustrating the themes they have researched. We gavetwo live performances of the new radio-ballads in Kidderminster Town Hall with the children, the Carnival Band, two actors and Wyre Forest Young Voices. We recorded the radio ballads on CD. We also produced an exhibition to accompany the CD, which will be displayed at Worcestershire's County Museum and toured across the region. Visitors are able to listen to the CD and view the exhibition at the same time. We will also held a 'come and sing traditional music' family workshop at Worcestershire County Museum, and in the process of producing a resource for teachers explaining how they can make radio-ballads with other groups of children.
FILE DOWNLOADS
ChOral History
PDF File [397.38
K] DOWNLOAD
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An explanation of how we created the Radio-Ballads, designed to help teachers and their classes make their own Ballads
PDF File [59.43
K] DOWNLOAD
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