Folk from the Halls

Songs sung in the Music Hall that became folk songs.

Songs that were written, usually by a known author, that were sung in music hall, and later have entered the folksong tradition. My criteria for “becoming a folksong” is that the song has been collected from one or more recognised source singers as recorded in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library. A smaller selection focusing only on the best known songs is given under the Folk or Music Hall? song theme.

[I did start by trying to distinguish between songs traditional singers perform knowing they come from the Halls, and those they perform unknowingly. This may be a useful distinction to explore in future, but for now I’m putting it one side.]