The Fellowship of Song: Popular Singing Traditions in East Suffolk

Originally published in 1980. Song is perhaps the strongest form of traditional culture. Its vigour and energy represent the power of the community from which it springs. This book focuses on traditional singing in two small English villages. It studies in detail an activity which goes to the core of the communal life in any village and demonstrates how song becomes the lifeblood of the traditions of rural life.

In many ways traditional singing is highly subversive because its practice is an...