Cecil Sharp, in full Cecil James Sharp (born Nov. 22, 1859, London, Eng.—died June 23, 1924, London), English musician noted for his work as a collector of English folk song and dance.
Sharp was educated at Uppingham School and the University of Cambridge. In 1882 he emigrated to Australia, where he practiced law and became associate to the chief justice of South Australia. In 1889 he changed his career from law to music and became assistant organist of Adelaide Cathedral and codirector of the Adelaide College of Music. In 1892 he returned to England and was music master at Ludgrove Preparatory School (1893–1910) and principal of the Hampstead Conservatory (1896–1905).
In 1903 Sharp discovered that an unsuspected wealth of native folk song survived in England. Although work in this field had already begun, the publication of Sharp’s collection of five series of Folk Songs from Somerset (1904–09) and of his study English Folk Song: Some Conclusions (1907) led to a new, widespread interest in English folk music. In 1905 he began also to collect English folk dances. In 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society (later to be amalgamated with the Folk-Song Society), and he initiated the teaching of folk song and dance in English schools.
Between 1916 and 1918 Sharp three times visited the Appalachian Mountains in the United States to collect songs of English origin. His other published works include English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians, with Olive Dame Campbell (1917); English Folk Songs (1921); The Morris Book (5 parts; 1907–13); The Country Dance Book (6 parts; 1909–22); and Sword Dances of Northern England (5 parts; 1911–13). Cecil Sharp House was established in London in 1930 as a centre for the preservation of folk song and dance.