a world where every voice is heard
Archives & Resources ...
The ‘Living Tradition’
Wren Music is rooted in folk traditions. Wren Music Leaders gather songs, tunes and people and bring them together. We are proud to share the Baring-Gould archive of century old folksongs from Devon and Cornwall, alongside more recently collected and created music, songs and individual stories.
Wren Music Sound Archive
Wren has focused on building a comprehensive archive of music and the oral traditions of Devon in particular. The Wren archives incorporate the Paul Wilson Folk Song Archive.
The Subjects are: Oral History, World, Folk & Traditional Music, mostly folk songs and tunes and contextual information. All Archive Items are now fully digitised. You can arrange an appointment to come and listen to the Archive.
Baring Gould Archive
Wren worked with Heritage Lottery Funding to digitise the papers and documents from the work of the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould who collected the folk songs of Devon and Cornwall during the 1890s. The launch event for the Baring-Gould Folk Song Archive was held in Plymouth Public Library on Feb 3rd 2010.
Wren Music is proud to share the Baring-Gould Archive alongside more recently collected and created music, songs and individual stories.
The Full English
Wren Music is a partner in this ground-breaking nationwide digital archive and learning project from the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). With its partners EFDSS present the world’s largest online collection of English folk manuscripts.
There are 80,000 pages of traditional songs, dances, tunes and customs from the golden age of folk music collecting, within the manuscripts of nineteen of England’s most important late Victorian and Edwardian folk collectors. It is rich in social, family and local history, and provides a snapshot of England’s cultural heritage through voices rarely published and heard before.
For more information see http://www.efdss.org/efdss-the-full-english
How we use the Archives
How do we bring new life and animation to our musical traditions?
- By collecting, curating, then liberating thousands of folk songs and making them available on the internet
- Using traditions to give a sense of identity, belonging and ownership
- Taking from the past to build a music for the future
- Enabling the sharing, borrowing and joint ownership of songs and music
- Encouraging and supporting folk musicians
- Publishing CDs and Books – giving the gift of song back to the mouths of people - if you can hum it, we can work with it
Please visit our shop if you would like to buy CDs and Books
Online Resources
As well as the traditional music that has been collected over the years, we also develop and write new material. Our Music Leaders create new tunes and songs, publishing both the scores and MP3s. These new songs and tunes are made available online to be learnt and played by our choirs and orchestras.
See the Groups page for examples of a score and MP3 file.