Working with tradition: towards a partnership model of fieldwork

The raising of public awareness of these traditions is seen by members of all the groups as a positive outcome of their feeling of empowerment. Examples of the higher profile they now enjoy include the regular support of two Members of Parliament (one a minister of state) for the singing events in one village; in another, the Mayor had formally launched the first carol singing outing in 1999; and in a third, the carollers were recognised as "official cultural ambassadors" by being invited to sing at the opening of the new Town Hall in December 1999. [16]

Another outcome of this sense of empowerment has been the effectiveness of some groups in attracting new members and thereby increasing their overall numbers: "Every year it was a real struggle to ring round and try to get people to turn up and sing ... I have no worries now." The success of some groups in this respect is, however, acknowledged as a cause for concern: "Some of the places (pubs) are packed solid and one has nearly to camp out to be guaranteed a place." There is, thus, a recognition of the connection between "wider knowledge" and "people now travelling a distance to attend"; and the cautionary conclusion from one correspondent was that "over publicity will have a detrimental effect on the tradition."

Although a request for advocacy in a legalistic context has fortunately not yet arisen, this situation may alter, however, as a result of recent changes to the Licensing Laws. [17] In relation to folklorists, Steven Zeitlin has commented: "our advocacy often takes the form of ensuring that traditional culture and the artistic expression of ordinary people are not ignored" (Zeitlin, 2000, 5). In this sense, advocacy is at the centre of all our interests and research activities as folklorists (Russell 1997, 88-9; 1999, 8; 2004), although I suggest that the late Alan Dundes in his controversial address referred to earlier would have had difficulty squaring this priority with that of faithful and accurate reporting (Dundes 2005). Many formal music associations and authorities would, however, consider the phenomenon of local carolling traditions not only unworthy of study (Sharp 1907, 125), but virtually even invisible or non-existent (Routley 1958). In a small but significant way, the situation is changing, to the extent that fifteen of the three hundred settings in The New Oxford Book of Carols (Keyte and Parrott 1992) are from the "village" carols repertoires (Russell 1993), while the West Gallery Music Association, founded in 1990, has enthusiastically taken up the cause of this vernacular music through performance activities and publications (Ashman and Ashman 1998). Debora Kodish notes that her folklore teacher, the late Americo Paredes, promoted a social activist stance that helped to define the field of folklore (1993, 193)--"[it] documents, interprets, presents, and advocates for forms of cultural expression that are underacknowledged or undervalued by the academy and the mainstream media" (my italics) (Zeitlin 2000, 5).