Old American music manuscript contains Scots and Gaelic airs!

Our colleagues at RILM recently posted on Bibliolore about a fabulous new American music manuscript resource.  Here is is:-

• American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca. 1730-1910

Now, we weren't sure how many of our readers would rush to this website, so we thought we'd look for something that would interest them.  Easy, we thought.  Let's look up Skye.  (Karen has been looking at Highland repertoire over the weekend!)

Just look what we found!  

Click here!  This is an old manuscript book of Scottish songs, compiled during the nineteenth century.  And bear in mind this is just one document of many.

From the American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca. 1730-1910:-

"Handwritten music manuscripts by common Americans contain primary and direct evidence of their musical preferences during a particular time and in a particular place. To see, play from, or study one of these old manuscripts brings us as close to that person’s musical life as history allows. Laborious inscriptions of a tune, hymn, or song – made by musicians of the music they played, loved, or wanted to learn – are precious and unique windows into music-making, acknowledging that this music mattered to them and, thus, matters to us!

"Search the entire collection with keywords or Search only Song/Tune titles.

"American Vernacular Music Manuscripts, ca. 1730-1910: Digital Collections from the American Antiquarian Society and the Center for Popular Music" has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities..."