The website for Dr Martin Shaw OBE FRCM (1875 –1958)

"I am off tomorrow folk-songing... if you have any advice to offer will you send me a card"

Ralph Vaughan Williams to Martin Shaw

 

 

Cartoon of Isadora Duncan with holograph text by Martin Shaw

 

Archive material relating to Martin Shaw

 

 

The British Library

The Principal Archive Holder of Martin Shaw's Music, Papers and Manuscripts

Department of Music Manuscripts
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 1DB

Shaw was friends with the leading artists, musicians and poets of his day. This substantial archive was not to be made public until 50 years after Shaw's death. It includes major correspondence from Ralph Vaughan Williams, Maude Royden and John Ireland .

For an overview of the Archive see: An Introduction to Martin Shaw...

 

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Letters from TS Eliot concerning his collaborations with Martin Shaw 1933-47

Harvard College Library,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
02138 USA

The Rock, a series of choruses by T.S Eliot was originally a pageant with music by Martin Shaw, performed by 300 singers at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in May 1934. Shaw's anthem for double choir The Greater Light is taken from it.

Manuscript music for The Rock is held at the British Library.

 

Biblioteque Nationale de France

The Craig Archives contain Martin Shaw's letters to Craig 1899 -1958 and material relating to the Purcell Operatic Society (founded by Shaw in 1899).

Theatre Department
Department of Performing Arts/Departments de Spectacles
Biblioteque Nationale de France
Paris, France

To contact the curator via email: patrick.le-boeuf@bnf.fr

 

Harry Ransom Center

Craig material forming part of his son Edward A Craig's archive was aquired by the Harry Ransom Center in 1978

Harry Ransom Center
University of Texas at Austin
United States of America

The material includes Craig's letters to Martin Shaw (1899 - 1958), which were bought from Shaw's widow in 1968 by Craig's son Edward A. Craig.

 

Eton College Archives

Craig Archive material containing Shaw's letters not in the Biblioteque Nationale or the Harry Ransom Center is available to researchers by appointment.

The College Archives
Eton College Library
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 6DW

contact via email: collections@etoncollege.org.uk

 

Greshams School Holt

Lectures and plays by Shaw performed at Gresham's School, Holt: 1909 - 1920

The School Archivist, Gresham's School
Gresham's School
Cromer Road
Holt
Norfolk
NR25 6EA

contact the school archivist Liz Larby via email: llarby@greshams.com

Benjamin Britten was a former pupil at Greshams. Prior to his time there, both Martin and his brother Geoffrey Shaw were instrumental in setting the standard for the school Music Department. Copies of Shaw's lectures given to the boys at Greshams along with plays first performed there are available to view by appointment.

 

The Julia Ramos (Langford Grove School) Collection

One of the pictures in this collection is The House of Dr. Martin Shaw

The Julia Ramos Collection now forms part of the National Arts Education Archive

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
West Bretton,

Wakefield
WF4 4GL

Telephone: +44 (0)1924 832690

To view by appointment, contact Leonard Bartle, leonard.bartle@ysp.co.uk

 

Langford Grove was a progressive school for girls in Essex. Its headmistress and founder, Elizabeth Curtis, was a friend of Martin Shaw's during the 1930s, he dedicated his SATB version of Come Away Death to her.

The curriculum emphasized the creative arts: painting and drawing, dancing (eurythmics), and physical exercise.

Although Langford Grove was already in the country, its proximity to London caused the school to be evacuated to Dorset, once in 1938 and again in 1939, when Shaw's daughter Mary Elizabeth attended it briefly.

The House of Dr. Martin Shaw shows the Shaw's house, Brick House Farm, set in the wheat fields of Essex.

 

Martin Shaw MUSIC ARCHIVE

Martin Shaw's music library, correspondence from Shaw's daughter Mary Elizabeth (1923 -1977) and archive material on Joan Cobbold and her family are available to researchers by contacting Isobel Montgomery Campbell