Looking ahead: Celtic Connections

A new diary for Christmas?  Get planning!

When you get your new diary, you'll want some dates to put in it. 

• Glasgow's Celtic Connections, 19th Jan - 5th Feb 2012.
• Then Broadford (Skye), for the Celtic Connections Big Top, 23rd-24th March 2012.

More Scottish history - 13th October

On this day ...

Ballad and song-collector William Motherwell was born in Glasgow on 13th October 1797.  To be fair, he was rather more interested in the words than the tunes.  But he did work with the musician R. A. Smith, and enlisted Andrew Blaikie to do some of his song-collecting for him.

Actually, Motherwell is a hugely important name in this field.  Mary Ellen Brown's book, William Motherwell's Cultural Politics is a fascinating read.

So find out more - what are you waiting for?! 
What's in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Whittaker Library on Motherwell?  Three items.  Brown's book, and two editions of Motherwell's book, Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern.  Get details here.

Know your Scottish musical history! On this day, 12th October 1711

William Tytler, Scottish music historian, was born in Edinburgh on 12th October 1711. 

Followers of the WhittakerLive blog will already know about Tytler, of course.  'Whittaker' blogged about him when it was the anniversary of his death on 12th September.  (He died in 1792.)  Remind yourself who he was here.

Also on this date, but many years later, the Scottish song-collector Alexander Campbell was beginning to head home after 3 months of hard toil gathering Hebridean traditional songs.  On 12th October 1815, Sandy arrived in Broadford Bay on 'a heavenly morning' to see fishing boats on a perfectly calm sea.  He admired the morning view before making his way by ferry to Glenelg, where he was going to interview Lieut. Donald MacCrimmon, 'the celebrated performer on the Great Highland Bagpipe'.  He spent the day with MacCrimmon and his family, enjoyed hearing his playing and discussing piping, and then had a night in the pub with Alexander Bruce, the Piper of Glenelg, continuing to increase his knowledge of the manner by which pipers were trained.

• Why not look up "MacCrimmon" in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Library catalogue? - look here.

Piping Live

• Visit The List to find loads of piping events!
• Monday 8th August, 4.30 pm, Noting the Tradition - inauguration of project.
• PipingLive website

On the Day:

the story of the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band

14th August, 3.30 pm

Glasgow Film Theatre

(A movie and a party)