Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw was born March 9th, 1875 in Kennington, London. He was brought up into a very musical family, as he was the son of James Shaw who was a church organist and Charlotte Shaw, who was a trained pianist. Shaw attended the Royal College of Music, where he met Ralph Vaughan Williams whom became a life-long friend of Shaw’s. Shaw became dissatisfied with the state of English music and wrote “During the whole of my college career, I felt vaguely dissatisfied. I knew that something I instinctively wanted was not there, though it was not till long afterwards that I discovered what it was. I will borrow from The Times critic a word which describes it most adequately: 'Englishness'". From this point forward it was a goal of Shaw’s to revive English music traditions, and through the course of his career he has written over 300 works [1].
Cuckoo
With the help of Percy Dearmer, who was an English priest who had a large influence on the music of the church, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the trio worked together on the revival and spread of traditional and medieval musical forms in The English Carol Book and numerous editions of "Songs of Praise". Projects like this allowed Shaw to collaborate with fellow English revivalist, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was convinced of the future of hymnody by Shaw’s hymns. These songbooks reflected the folk revival that was occurring in London at the time, which was led by Cecil Sharp. Shaw’s aim was to take this “national” music to the English people, in theatres, schools and churches [1].
Cuckoo by Martin Shaw is published by J. Curwen & Sons Ltd., under the Curwen edition. The company was exclusively known to publish vocal, choral, and sacred music for the home, school, and church [2]. The piece is dedicated to Percy Dearmer and the words are listed as traditional on the front cover. This shows Shaw's efforts to revive English music traditions and bring them into the homes of the English people.
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Works Cited:
[1] “Music & Song.” An Introduction to Martin Shaw, www.martinshawmusic.com/articles/introduction_art.html. Accessed 27 Oct. 2017.
[2] “J. Curwen & Sons.” J. Curwen & Sons - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music, imslp.org/wiki/J._Curwen_%26_Sons. Accessed 27 Oct. 2017.