Sydney Carter

Born on 6 May 1915 in Camden, London, England, and passing away on 13 March 2004 in the same city, Sydney Carter had hoped for a career at the BBC or in cinema. Instead the Oxford graduate pursued teaching and served as history master at Frensham Heights School in Farnham, Surrey. Already a poet, he began writing songs only after the Second World War, during which he had served with the Friends Ambulance Unit in the Middle East and Greece. The music he encountered there prompted him to visit London folk clubs, where he first heard Ewan MacColl; he soon joined the English Folk Dance and Song Society, began performing himself, and supplied lyrics for Donald Swann on several West End revues as well as Swann’s children’s musical Lucy And The Hunter.

In the 1960s Carter produced material for Christian Aid, having earlier supplied religious and protest songs for the Aldermaston marches. His debut album, Putting Out The Dustbin, appeared in 1962 with actress Sheila Hancock; Hallelujah included contributions from Martin Carthy and Isla Cameron. The former record contained the minor hit “My Last Cigarette.” Probably his best-known composition, “Lord Of The Dance,” an adaptation of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” featured on the 1965 EP of the same title and became a staple among schoolchildren. Its ambiguous text drew on both Christian and pagan sources, appealing equally to believers and non-believers.

Religious themes recur throughout Carter’s output. Westminster Abbey marked his eightieth birthday in 1995. Nadia Cattouse performed “Judas And Mary” at the First International Festival of Music in Seville (Unda Sevilla), Spain, in 1967; more than twenty countries participated and the song received the Gold Medal Award (Premio Unda Sevilla). Another widely used piece, “One More Step,” is now recognised as the song most frequently requested for collective worship. The lines “It’s God they ought to crucify / Instead of you and me” from “Friday Morning” led Conservative politician Enoch Powell to demand its suppression.

Carter maintained that rhythm and feel mattered more to him than technical proficiency, yet his songs reached a broad range of interpreters including Rolf Harris, Jackson Browne, Julie Felix, the Spinners, Judy Collins and Pete Seeger. His anti-war lullaby “Crow On The Cradle” was revived at the 1979 No Nukes concert, generating unexpected royalties. Although Alzheimer’s disease marked his final years, Carter’s compositions continue to be sung and enjoyed by succeeding generations.