Sam Henry (musicologist)

Samuel Henry (9 May 1878 – 23 May 1952), known as Sam Henry, was an Irish customs officer, pension officer, antiquarian, lecturer, writer, photographer, folklorist, folk-song collector and musician.

Sam Henry
Born
Samuel Henry

(1878-05-09)9 May 1878
Coleraine, Ireland
Died23 May 1952(1952-05-23) (aged 74)
Occupationcustoms officer, pension officer, antiquarian, lecturer, writer, photographer, musician, folklorist, folk-song collector
ChildrenOlive Mary Henry Craig[1]:xix

He is best known for his collection of ballads and songs in Songs of the People, the largest and most comprehensive collection of just under 690 folk-songs from Northern Ireland assembled between the wars (1923–1939), when he was Song Editor for the Northern Constitution, a weekly newspaper in Coleraine.

Early life

Henry was born and educated in Sandleford, Coleraine, Ireland.[2][3] He came from a prominent Coleraine family and was the youngest of five sons: his brother William was town clerk of Coleraine; Robert, principal of the Model School; James, vice principal of the Hon. The Irish Society’s Primary School; and Tom, a civil servant.[4] In 1897, when he was 19, Sam passed two examinations, one as teacher and the other as an exciseman, choosing to follow the latter career.[5]:5

Description

According to his daughter, Mrs Olive Mary Henry Craig, Henry was a "very large man, tall, broad and burly" who weighed over sixteen stone (225 pounds, over 100 kilograms).[1]:xxii He rode a bicycle and also used a car in his travels around the northern counties, as well as the public transport system (bus and train).[1]:xxii Henry described himself as "an ardent amateur naturalist, archaeologist, antiquarian, genealogist, and photographer."[1]:xx He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and could therefore append the letters FRSAI after his name.[1]:xxiii He was also an amateur ornithologist regarded as an authority on the birds of the north of Ireland.[1]:xxiii As a well-known lecturer who communicated his enthusiasm and knowledge of his special hobbies to other people, Henry contributed many articles on such matters to the local papers.[1]:xx

Career

After service as a customs & excise officer in England (1903-4), Henry returned home, where he served mainly around Coleraine.[5]:6 When Lloyd George instituted the Old-Age Pensions Act 1908, Henry was appointed to administer it in his area, while still carrying out his duties for the Inland Revenue.[5]:6

Henry began to assemble his collection of folk songs while he was still a civil servant and continued it after his retirement.[1]:xxiii When he was appointed Pension Officer, Henry's duties included visiting the poor and elderly people in some of the most isolated areas of Northern Ireland, to determine if they were eligible for old age pensions or relief. To overcome the natural reticence of country people in those remote areas, Henry often took his fiddle and tin whistle with him, played a tune and then asked if anyone in the household knew any of the old songs.[1]:xxiii He would then record these songs by writing them down using a basic music notation system called tonic sol-fa.[1]:xxiv

Songs of the People

When he became Song Editor for the Northern Constitution in 1923, Henry used his column to specify what type of old songs he wanted. In return, the readers contributed songs that he published in a weekly series he called Songs of the People: "Let it be our joyful task to search out, conserve, and make known the treasures of the Songs of the People".[1]:xxv In order to motivate the readers, Henry ran weekly song competitions, offering "a weekly prize of a free copy of the Northern Constitution for six months for the best old song submitted."[1]:xxv

The first song in the series, "The Flower of Sweet Dunmull" (Henry number H1)[1]:191 was printed on 17 November 1923,[1]:522 and the last one, "The Lass of Mohee" (H836),[1]:372 on 9 December 1939.[1]:531 A long period of illness caused Henry to suspend his editorship after "Ann O'Drumcroon" (H246)[1]:249 was printed on 28 July 1928,[1]:526 and he resumed his duties on 22 October 1932[1]:526 with the printing of "The Braes of Sweet Kilhoyle" (H464).[1]:167 During his long absence, the Songs of the People series was looked after by other editors[note 1] who published just over 200 articles altogether (numbered 247-463), which therefore do not appear in Henry's scrapbooks.[2] When the series ended on 9 December 1939, Henry had contributed just under 690 songs of high quality,[1]:xxviii many with multiple variants.[note 2] Although the songs were collected in a single district around Coleraine, there is a great amount of diversity, including not only native Irish songs but also songs from Scotland, England and North America.

When publication of the Northern Constitution weekly column ended with the advent of World War II, Henry continued to collect and annotate songs[7][8] and tried to have his collection published in book form. To this end, he assembled two scrapbooks containing most of the material, edited and augmented by his notes of variations, plus other details and corrections of misprints. This material was in the form of cuttings, proof or typescript copies.[2]:3 He also assembled three separate sets of Songs of the People:[5]:1 the Belfast Central Library set, consisting mainly of offprints and cuttings from the Northern Constitution;[5]:2 the National Library of Ireland (Dublin) set,[5]:2 and the Library of Congress (Washington, DC) set, the latter two consisting of three scrapbooks each.[5]:2 All these sets were assembled in varying degrees of completeness.[5]:1 The Belfast set was subsequently copied by the BBC and one of the copies presented to the English Folk Dance and Song Society where it is kept in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House. The BBC also commissioned Sean O'Boyle to create an index intended for internal use.[5]:2 Independently of Henry's efforts, another set had been compiled by A. Albert Campbell, a Belfast solicitor and bibliophile who had corresponded with Henry. Campbell bequeathed his set of eight scrapbooks to the Belfast Linen Hall Library and, although also incomplete at the time, this set was later augmented and any gaps filled with photocopies of the BBC set of Henry's own scrapbooks.[2]:3–4

Legacy

Despite Henry's attempts at publishing his collection of folk songs in book form, this would not happen until 1990, 38 years after his death, when Sam Henry's Songs of the People was published by the University of Georgia Press. This book includes all the songs Henry had published in the Northern Constitution from 17 November 1923 to 28 July 1928 (H1 to H246), and from 28 October 1932 to 9 December 1939 (H464 to H836),[1]:522–531 with all the songs' tunes transcribed from tonic sol-fa to standard staff notation,[1]:xxxii-xxxvi plus extensive appendices, indexes and reference aids developed by the book's editors: Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann and John Moulden.[1]:522–631

Henry's collection was the subject of extensive scholarship by Moulden, yielding several publications[9] and a conference address to the Library of Congress on 2 May 2007.[10][11][12] The collection inspired recordings by folk singers such as Margaret Barry, Paul Brady, Eddie Butcher, Cara Dillon, Joe Heaney, Joe Holmes & Len Graham, Dolores Keane, Paddy Tunney, and many others. Andy Irvine, who first consulted the Dublin set in the mid-1960s,[13]:44 has interpreted an extensive selection of its songs since the early 1970s[14] as a solo artist and with Planxty, Paul Brady, Patrick Street, and Mozaik.

In addition to his collection of songs, Henry left behind a large aggregate of 11,000 items, comprising photographs[15] and documents,[16] donated to the Coleraine Museum by his grandson, Gordon Craig, on 25 August 2011.[17]

A documentary in two episodes on Songs of the People was aired by the BBC, during April 2019.[18]

Publications

Books by Sam Henry
  • A Hank of Yarns (No date)[19]
  • Tales of the Antrim seaboard: Dunluce, Giant's Causeway, Fair Head (c.1930)[20]
  • Rowlock rhymes and Songs of exile (1933)[21]
  • Ulster folk tales: poetry, lore and tradition of the North-East (1939)[22]
  • Songs of the people: collected from traditional sources (3 vol. musical score) (1941?)[23]
  • The Story of St Patrick’s Church, Coleraine (1941?)[24]
  • Dunluce and the Giant’s Causeway (c.1945)[25]

Books about Songs of the People
  • Moulden, John, ed. (1979). Songs of the People: Selections from the Sam Henry collection, Part 1. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. ISBN 0-85640-132-3.
  • Huntington, Gale; Herrmann, Lani; Moulden, John, eds. (1990). Sam Henry's Songs of the People (hardcover) (1st ed.). Athens, GA and London: The University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1258-4.
  • Moulden, John (1994). Thousands are sailing: a brief song history of Irish emigration. Portrush, Northern Ireland: Ulstersongs. ISBN 1-898437-01-7.
  • Huntington, Gale; Herrmann, Lani; Moulden, John, eds. (2010) [First published 1990]. Sam Henry's Songs of the People (softcover) (Reprinted ed.). Athens, GA and London: The University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-3625-4.

Selected discography

The following table shows a selection of songs recorded from Henry's collection.

Recordings from Sam Henry's Songs of the People
  • Title – the title of the song (this column is sortable)
  • No. – the song's Henry number (Hxxx) (this column is sortable)
  • Singer – the name of the singer on the recording (this column is sortable)
  • Album – the title of the album featuring the recorded song (this column is sortable)
  • Year – the year the album was released (this column is sortable)
  • Notes – a reference about the song and/or its recording (this column is not sortable).
Title No. Singer Album Year Notes
"Blackwater Side" H811 Cara Dillon Wanderer 2017 [1]:461
"Bonny Bonny" H75b Cara Dillon Sweet Liberty 2003 [1]:199
"Bonny Brown Jane" H613 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:396
"Bonny Woodha'" H476 Dick Gaughan The Bonny Pit Laddie 1975 [1]:84
Andy Irvine Andy Irvine/Paul Brady 1976 [1]:84
"Boston Burglar" H202 Margaret Barry Ireland's Own 1976 [1]:119
"Bright Morning Star" H146 Cara Dillon A Thousand Hearts 2014 [1]:180
"Captain Co(u)lston" H562 Paddy Tunney The Flowery Vale 1976 [1]:113
Andy Irvine Parallel Lines 1982 [1]:113
"Carrowclare" H169 Andy Irvine All in Good Time 1993 [1]:298
"Coleraine Regatta" H36 Paul Brady The Barley Corn 1969 [1]:74
Eddie Butcher I Once Was A Daysman 1975 [1]:74
"Come With Me Over The Mountain" H61b Andy Irvine Rain on the Roof 1996 [1]:459
"Dark-Eyed Gipsy" H124 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:509
"Donald of Glencoe" H655 Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:319
"Éirigh Suas a Stóirín" H42a Cara Dillon A Thousand Hearts 2014 [1]:147
"Farewell To Balleymoney" H615 Andy Irvine Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams 1980 [1]:343
"Farewell To Old Ireland" H743 Andy Irvine Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams 1980 [1]:200
"Flora" H637 Eddie Butcher I Once Was A Daysman 1975 [1]:385
"Going To Mass Last Sunday" H625 Margaret Barry I Sang Through The Fairs 1998 [1]:342
"Grá Mo Croi" H204 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:388
"Green Grows the Laurel" H165b Andy Irvine Street Life 1997 [1]:260
Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:260
"Green Grows the Rashes" H165a Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:260
"Her Mantle So Green" H76 Margaret Barry Street Songs and Fiddle Tunes 1957 [1]:314
Andy Irvine Made in Cork 1997 [1]:314
"I Am A Youth That's Inclined To Ramble" H788 Paul Brady Welcome Here Kind Stranger 1978 [1]:300
Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:300
"Jack Tar" H779 Andy Irvine Live at Foxrock Folk Club 1971 [1]:54
"Jacket So Blue" H644 Cara Dillon A Thousand Hearts 2014 [1]:367
"John Mitchell" H179ab Joe Heaney Irish Songs In Gaelic And English 1965 [1]:125
Paddy Tunney Ireland Her Own 1966 [1]:125
"Johnny and Molly" H755 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:297
"Kellswater" H695 Andy Irvine The Woman I Loved So Well 1980 [1]:442
"Loughinsholin" H176 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:146
"Lovely Derry on the Banks of the Foyle" H813 Margaret Barry Ireland's Queen Of The Tinkers Sings 1960 [1]:468
"Lovely Glenshesk" H28a Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:194
"Mary and the Soldier" H782 Paul Brady Andy Irvine/Paul Brady 1976 [1]:473
"Moorlough Mary" H173 Cara Dillon A Thousand Hearts 2014 [1]:250
"Molly Bawn" H114 Seamus Ennis World Library: Volume I - Ireland 1955 [1]:143
Mick Hanly The 5th Irish Folk Festival 1978 [1]:143
"My Love Nell" H49 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:200
"Nights in Carrowclare" H169 Andy Irvine Changing Trains 2008 [1]:298
"Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore" H192 Paul Brady Welcome Here Kind Stranger 1978 [1]:101
Dolores Keane Farewell To Éirinn 1980 [1]:101
"Pat Reilly" H574 Eddie Butcher Shamrock, Rose and Thistle project 1966 [1]:80
Andy Irvine The Well Below the Valley 1973 [1]:80
"Roger O'Hehir" H486 Andy Irvine The Woman I Loved So Well 1980 [1]:121
"She's Like the Swallow" H683 Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:393
"She Moves Through the Fair" H141 Margaret Barry Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady 1956 [1]:395
"Spanking Maggie From The Ross" H516 Andy Irvine Made in Cork 1997 [1]:35
"Streets of Derry" H705 Andy Irvine Andy Irvine/Paul Brady 1976 [1]:132
Cara Dillon After the Morning 2005 [1]:132
"Sweet Bann Water" H722 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:343
Andy Irvine (Live at Róisín Dubh, Galway) 2001
"The Banks of the Foyle" H2 Cara Dillon Wanderer 2017 [1]:215
"The Bonny Light Horseman" H122a Andy Irvine High Kings of Tara 1980 [1]:88
"The Emigrant's Farewell" H743 Cara Dillon Sweet Liberty 2003 [1]:200
"The Factory Girl" H127 Margaret Barry Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady 1956 [1]:368
"The Faughan Side" H621 Eddie Butcher Shamrock, Rose and Thistle project 1966 [1]:191
Cara Dillon Wanderer 2017 [1]:191
"The Flower of Gortade" H178 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:233
"The Flower of Sweet Strabane" H224 Margaret Barry Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady 1956 [1]:390
"The Galway Shawl" H652 Margaret Barry Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady 1956 [1]:269
Ged Foley On the Fly 2007 [1]:269
"The Girl I Left Behind" H118 Andy Irvine Way Out Yonder 2000 [1]:401
"The Green Fields of Amerikay" H743 Len Graham Wind And Water 1977 [1]:200
"The Green Fields of Canada" H743 Paddy Tunney The Man Of Songs 1962 [1]:200
Andy Irvine Cold Blow and the Rainy Night 1974 [1]:200
"The Hare's Lament" H12 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:31
"The Hills of Donegal" H196 Margaret Barry Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady 1956 [1]:210
"The Kilgrain Hare" H12 Andy Irvine Cornerboys 1996 [1]:31
"The Lakes Of Pontchartrain" H619 Paul Brady Cold Blow and the Rainy Night 1976 [1]:373
"The Lass of Glenshee" H590 Cara Dillon Hill of Thieves 2009 [1]:486
"The Lion's Den" H474 Eddie Butcher I Once Was A Daysman 1975 [1]:488
"The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" H637 Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:385
"The Longford Weaver" H745 Andy Irvine Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams 1980 [1]:47
"The Maid of Culmore" H687 Cara Dillon Cara Dillon 2001 [1]:302
"The Maid of Mourne Shore" H27a Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:371
"The Mountain Road" H515 Margaret Barry The Blarney Stone 1961 [1]:273
"The Mountain Streams" H32 Eddie Butcher I Once Was A Daysman 1975 [1]:269
"The Parting Glass" H769 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 After Dawning 1979 [1]:65
"The Rambling Siúler" H183 Andy Irvine After the Break 1979 [1]:268
"The Rocks of Bawn" H139 Seamus Ennis World Library: Volume I - Ireland 1955 [1]:42
Joe Heaney Irish Music in London Pubs 1965 [1]:42
Paul Brady The Given Note 1995 [1]:42
"The Thatchers of Gleanrea" H186 Dick Gaughan No More Forever 1972 [1]:46
"The Verdant Braes of Skreen" H593 Cara Dillon Hill of Thieves 2009 [1]:389
"The Wild Colonial Boy" H750 Margaret Barry Street Songs and Fiddle Tunes 1957 [1]:120
"The Yellow Bittern" H830 Joe Heaney Come All Ye Gallant Irishmen 1975 [1]:64
Paddy Tunney The Stone Fiddle 1982 [1]:64
"Thousands Are Sailing" N/A Eddie Butcher I Once Was A Daysman 1975 [27]:4–5
Andy Irvine Words & Music 1983 [27]:4–5
"Three Huntsmen" H185 Johnny Moynihan Sweeney's Men 1968 [1]:128
Andy Irvine Abocurragh 2010 [1]:128
"True Lover John" H722 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:343
"Tumbling through the Hay" H697 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:278
"When I Was a Bachelor" H694 Joe Holmes and
Len Graham		 Chaste Muses, Bards And Sages 1976 [1]:503

Notes
  1. "The Songs of the People series in the Northern Constitution weekly newspaper of Coleraine, County Londonderry was initiated by Sam Henry in 1923 and continued until 1939. From a date in 1928 until a date in 1932 the series, numbers 247-463, was edited, not by Sam Henry but principally by two others, James Moore and William Devine, Moore for about 8 months and Devine for around three years, with occasional interventions by three others."[6]
  2. "A Henry number is assigned to each item, corresponding to the number of the original column and preceded by a letter "H". If the column contains two or more items, the Henry number is followed by a lowercase letter of the alphabet, in alphabetical order. A separate letter is assigned to each variant; for example, two texts that share a tune, or two tunes with the same text, are listed as two items. The purpose here is to give a unique differentiating label to each variant combination."[1]:xxxi
gollark: Making them yourself is valid, as I explained.
gollark: You could have a "game night" or something instead of buying random trinkets for each other.
gollark: To which I say bee you do something less consumerist.
gollark: Anyway, despite being economically bad (unless you can give special things not available on the open market), you may object that gifting is still good because it forms social bonds.
gollark: Well, if it would actually be better for them than the equivalent money try and convince them so.

References
  1. Huntington, Gale; Herrmann, Lani; Moulden, John, eds. (1990). Sam Henry's Songs of the People. Athens, GA and London: The University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1258-4.
  2. Moulden, John (3 March 1977), "The 'Songs of the People' collection", Slow Air, 1: 3–6
  3. Newmann, Kate (2016). "Dictionary of Ulster Biography". newulsterbiography.co.uk. Ulster History Circle. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  4. "The Sam Henry Collection". niarchive.org (PDF). Northern Ireland Community Archive. (Section: "Click here for a brief overview of the project findings."). Retrieved on 11 December 2016.
  5. Moulden, John, ed. (1979). Songs of the People: Selections from the Sam Henry collection, Part 1. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. ISBN 0-85640-132-3.
  6. Moulden, John (16 April 2010). Details on Northern Constitution song editors (1928-1932) (Website). State College, PA, USA: The Mudcat Café. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  7. Huntington, Gale; Herrmann, Lani; Moulden, John, eds. (2010). "Introduction to Sam Henry's Songs of the People". books.google.com. Athens, GA and London: The University of Georgia Press. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  8. Folk Music Journal (English Folk Dance and Song Society), Vol. 3 No. 3, 1977
  9. Moulden, John (2010). "Most widely held works by John Moulden". worldcat.org. Dublin, OH: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  10. "John Moulden : North American Influence on a North Irish Song Collection". loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  11. Moulden, John (Speaker) (2 May 2007). North American Influence on a North Ireland Song Collection (Webcast; sound only). Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  12. "Rediscovering Northern Ireland". loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  13. O'Toole, Leagues (2006). The Humours of Planxty. Ireland: Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-83796-9.
  14. Irvine, Andy (1988). Aiming for the Heart (1st ed.). Germany: Heupferd Musik Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-923445-01-1.
  15. "Rathlin through the Lens: Photographs from the Sam Henry Collection" (PDF). niarchive.org. Northern Ireland Community Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  16. "Sam Henry: Revealing History Through Objects Toolkit" (PDF). niarchive.org. Northern Ireland Community Archive. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. "New lease of life for the Sam Henry collection". causewaycoastandglens.gov.uk. Coleraine: Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  18. McTear, Ian (21 April 2019). "A life of song: How Sam Henry saved the people's music". Sam Henry – Songs of the People. Episode 1. BBC Two Arts. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  19. Henry, Sam. "A Hank of Yarns". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  20. Henry, Sam (1930). "Tales of the Antrim seaboard: Dunluce, Giant's Causeway, Fair Head". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  21. Henry, Sam (1933). "Rowlock rhymes and Songs of exile". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  22. Henry, Sam (1939). "Ulster folk tales: poetry, lore and tradition of the North-East". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  23. Henry, Sam (1941). "Songs of the people: collected from traditional sources". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  24. Henry, Sam (1941). "The Story of St Patrick's Church, Coleraine". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  25. Henry, Sam (1945). "Dunluce and the Giant's Causeway". nli.ie. Dublin: National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  26. Irvine, Andy (2001). Sweet Bann Water (Video clip). Live at Róisín Dubh, Galway: YouTube. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  27. Moulden, John (1994). Thousands are sailing: a brief song history of Irish emigration. Portrush, Northern Ireland: Ulstersongs. ISBN 1-898437-01-7.
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