Chapter 24
Back to British Balladry

With their new interpretations Williams, Butterworth, Grainger and White were the modernisers of British folk music, as were Fairport Convention, Lindisfarne and Steeleye Span. The folklorist carried out a necessary, loving act of national conservation and they are to whom all music lovers owe a debt of gratitude, for without their work and dedication England’s catalogue of folk songs, carols and shanties would most likely have vanished completely by the mid twentieth century. They assembled their finds of a culture that was slowly expiring, but framed them in either their own tidied up, romantic vision or one fenced by dogma. In their view, the songs were ancient and precious artefacts of a time past and were to be preserved and protected from the violation change. Either way, it was looking back not forward.