Doreen Senior Folk Music Archive

DATE: 1928-1967

LEVEL: Fonds

Doreen Senior served from 1949 as County Music Organiser in Devon. As such she was involved with music work at Dartington Hall and was also associated with the Devon Centre for Further Education at Dartington. This folk music archive is composed of folk music and lyric transcriptions, 5 sound recordings of folk music, correspondence, and notes for books. The bulk of the collection, which was found without original order in The Dartington Hall Trust Archive, consists of lyrics and musical scores of Nova Scotian folk songs. There are several interesting manuscripts in the collection, including a 71 page typescript attributed to Vaughan Williams on 'National Music', Doreen Senior's 'Fantasie on Four Folk Songs Collected in Nova Scotia for String Quartet' with a brief critical note by Williams; and a long account of Doreen's 'First Atlantic Voyage' in 1932.

Doreen Horn Senior studied music and taught music and dance in London. She lived for a time in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and later moved to Devon in 1949, where she became the County Music Organiser. Outside of Devon she was best known for her collaboration with Canadian folklorist Helen Creighton collecting folk songs from the Nova Scotia maritimes. Beginning in the summer of 1932, Creighton and Senior began combing the maritimes of Nova Scotia collecting folk songs. Creighton transcribed the lyrics, and Senior collected the music by dictation. Altogether, Senior spent about five summers working with Creighton in Nova Scotia, until World War II prevented travel. When in England, Doreen Senior shared her research with prominent experts from the English Folk Dance and Song Society including Anne Gilchrist. The results were two books which Creighton and Senior co-authored in 1941 and 1950. While Creighton went on to considerable fame and success in Canada and the United States as a pioneering folklorist, Senior had a successful career as a musician and educator, but did not receive the same degree of recognition.

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
+44 (0)1392 384253
+44 (0)1392 384256
devrec@devon.gov.uk
www.devon.gov.uk/record_office

The following requests should be made direct to the Archives & Records at The Dartington Hall Trust as shown below:
Copies of images as seen on The Dartington Hall Trust online catalogue with appropriate reference number (Ref No.)
Permission to publish or quote from any document held in the Dartington Hall Trust Archive
Former pupils of Dartington Hall School wishing to view their records
Archives & Records
The Dartington Hall Trust
Dartington Hall
Totnes TQ9 6EL
01803 847200
yvonne.widger@dartington.org

This information is copyright The Dartington Hall Trust