Cecil Sharp

Cecil James Sharp was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances, and instrumental music. A central figure in the folk-song revival of the Edwardian period, he gathered over four thousand folk songs from South-West England and the Southern Appalachian region of the US. Sharp's contributions include extensive songbooks, a seminal work 'English Folk Song: Some Conclusions', and the revival of English Morris and country dance. As a co-founder of the English Folk Dance Society, later part of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, his influence permeated English orchestral music and school music education, impacting the British Folk Revival and the Morris dance tradition. He faced debate over his work's implications on nationalism, selectivity, and appropriation.