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The Ballad of Britain Will Hodgkinson

The Ballad of Britain By Will Hodgkinson

The Ballad of Britain by Will Hodgkinson


$17.49
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

In 1903, Victorian composer Cecil Sharp began a decade-long journey to collect folk songs that captured the spirit of Great Britain. A century later, writer, presenter and journalist Will Hodgkinson sets out on a similar journey.

The Ballad of Britain Summary

The Ballad of Britain: How Music Captured The Soul of a Nation by Will Hodgkinson

In 1903, the Victorian composer Cecil Sharp began a decade-long journey to collect folk songs that, he believed, captured the spirit of Great Britain. A century later, with the musical and cultural map of the country transformed, writer and journalist Will Hodgkinson sets out on a similar journey to find the songs that make up modern Britain. He looks at the unique relationship the British have with music, and tries to understand how the country has represented itself through song. He visits remote pubs in the West Country where families have been passing down local songs for generations, monasteries in Oxfordshire where monks use plainsong to commune with God, sits in with Hindu devotional singers in the suburbs of Birmingham and learns an ancient folk tune from a Sussex farmer. Will goes from the heart of the mainstream music scenes to the very fringes as part of his quest, visiting in turn remote musical heartlands and great urban musical cities. London (The Kinks, The Who and Blur), Liverpool (The Teardrop Explodes, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Beatles), Manchester (Joy Division, Stone Roses, Oasis) and Sheffield (Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League, Pulp and more recently, The Arctic Monkeys) all feature prominently as the respective homes of clusters of great bands that have helped shape the British musical landscape. An engaging blend of humour and musical scholarship, The Ballad of Britian is as much a portrait of Britain as an adventure into lyric and melody. The project forced the author into an itinerant life, scouring the length and breadth of the country for singers and songwriters in an attempt to discover whether songs still travel the way they once did, to find out whether folk music still exists in a meaningful sense, and to see how regional variations contribute to a collective musical ''Britishness''.

The Ballad of Britain Reviews

'The Ballad of Britain is an enthusiast's jaunt, frothy armchair ethnomusicology, but Hodgkinson understands what very few music writers seem to: simply that music is about flesh and blood.' The Times

About Will Hodgkinson

Will Hodgkinson was born in Newcastle and now lives in London with his wife and two children. He has written for the Guardian, Mojo, Vogue, Daily Telegraph, the Idler and Wallpaper. He is the author of the highly acclaimed books ''Guitar Man'' and ''Song Man'' (Bloomsbury), and is also the presenter of 'Songbook', Sky TV's popular series that interviews songwriters, asking intimate questions about their work, inspiration and the creative process.

Additional information

GOR002043052
9781906032548
1906032548
The Ballad of Britain: How Music Captured The Soul of a Nation by Will Hodgkinson
Used - Very Good
Paperback
HarperCollins Publishers
20090803
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Ballad of Britain