British singer and folksong collector
Kate Lee
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Born
| Catharine Anna Spooner
9 March 1859
Rufford, Nottinghamshire
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Died
| 25 July 1904
Stubbings, Maidenhead
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Kate Lee
, born
Catharine Anna Spooner
, (9 March 1859 ? 25 July 1904) was an English singer and folksong collector, one of the founders of the
Folk-Song Society
in 1898.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
She was born in
Rufford
, Nottinghamshire, one of the ten children of Lucius Henry Spooner and Margaret Skottowe Parker Spooner. Her father was a land agent who died in 1874; her mother was from Ireland.
[1]
[2]
Her cousins included
William Archibald Spooner
, who gave his name to the "
spoonerism
".
[3]
Spooner entered the
Royal Academy of Music
in January 1876 with the ambition to become a singer. After marriage and motherhood, Lee resumed her studies at the
Royal College of Music
from 1887 to 1889.
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
Lee had a short but busy professional singing career.
[4]
She sang in a
Drury Lane
production of
Die Walkure
in 1894, and had her debut concert the following year. She also sang at campaign events when her husband ran for a seat in Parliament in 1895. She was described variously as a
contralto
or a
mezzo-soprano
in range. In 1900, she gave her last performance, singing to illustrate her lecture on folk song.
[1]
Lee also collected folksongs, often while bicycling in the countryside, notably from
James and Thomas Copper
. She wrote about them in an 1899 article, "Some Experiences of a Folk-Song Collector". "I shall never forget the delight of hearing the two Mr. Coppers, who gave me the songs," she recalled, "They were so proud of their Sussex songs, and sang them with an enthusiasm grand to hear."
[5]
She was a member of the
Irish Literary Society
, and in 1898 was one of the leading figures in convening the first meetings of the Folk-Song Society.
[1]
[6]
[7]
She became the Society's first secretary,
[8]
but illness soon required that she hand over the work to
Lucy Broadwood
.
[9]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Catharine Anna Spooner married barrister and sugar merchant Arthur Morier Lee (1847?1909) in December 1877.
[10]
She had two sons, Phillip (1879?1914) and Archibald (born 1881). In 1900 she became ill with cancer, and she died at
Stubbings
near
Maidenhead
in 1904.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Bearman, C. J. (1999). "Kate Lee and the Foundation of the Folk-Song Society".
Folk Music Journal
.
7
(5): 627?643.
ISSN
0531-9684
.
JSTOR
4522632
.
- ^
Burke, Bernard; Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1 January 1912).
A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland
. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 552.
- ^
a
b
c
Bearman, C. J. (2006).
"Lee [
nee
Spooner], Catharine Anna [Kate] (1859?1904), singer and folk-song collector"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/70669
. Retrieved
5 March
2020
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
"Miss Holiday and Mrs. Lee's Concert"
.
The Era
. 11 May 1895. p. 15
. Retrieved
5 March
2020
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Lee, Kate (1899). "Some Experiences of a Folk-Song Collector".
Journal of the Folk-Song Society
.
1
(1): 7?25, quote on pp. 10?11.
ISSN
0377-0567
.
JSTOR
4433850
.
- ^
Keel, Frederick (1948). "The Folk Song Society 1898?1948".
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society
.
5
(3): 111?126.
ISSN
0071-0563
.
JSTOR
4521287
.
- ^
"A Folk-Song Function"
.
The Musical Times
: 168?169. 1 March 1899.
- ^
Wilson, A. N. (5 May 2015).
After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World
. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 37.
ISBN
978-1-4668-9370-2
.
- ^
"Annual Report, June 1904"
.
Journal of the Folk-Song Society
. The Society. 1905. p. ix.
- ^
"Summary of Individual : Arthur Morier Lee"
.
Legacies of British Slave-ownership
. Retrieved
5 March
2020
.
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