In Oxford: Seminar Series: Instruments of the 18th Century

Instruments of the Eighteenth Century
Seminars run 1-2pm at the Bate Collection of
Musical Instruments, Faculty of Music, St Aldates

Should you find yourself in or near Oxford on a Wednesday lunchtime, these might be very interesting indeed! See the events programme here.

Of Interest to All Singers: How To Breathe (and Other 18th century Stuff)

Thursday 18th January, 5.15 pm, University of Glasgow

Here's an interesting event which may appeal to people concerned with historical performance and authenticity.  It's run by EAERN, the Eighteenth-Century Arts Education Research Network based at the University of Glasgow.

"In the fourth EAERN workshop we welcome Mhairi Lawson who will be presenting 'How to breathe and other stuff from the late 18th century'. Joining Mhairi will be two singers: David Lee and Sarah Short. The workshop will take place on Thursday, 18 January at 5:15pm in Rm 2, 14 University Gardens.

"Wine and refreshments will be available. Please do consider coming along.

"We also have posted a blog reflecting on the first year of the project and we encourage you to head to our website and read what we have been up to: https://eaern.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/2017-round-up/https://eaern.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/2017-round-up/ "

Music and Gender in the 18th Century: a Call for Papers for a Musicology Conference in Germany:

Call for Papers

Enlightenment! Music and Gender in the 18th Century

Organizer: PD Dr. Katharina Hottmann and Cornelia Bartsch on behalf of the research unit Womens’ and Gender Studies of the German Society for Music Research

Place: Institute of Historical Musicology at the University of Hamburg

Date: 24.–27. May 2018

Deadline: 15 May 2017

What do you know about Women and Education in the Long Eighteenth Century? Thursday 8th Sept 2016 ...

A Workshop was hosted by Glasgow Women's Library on Thursday 8th September 2016:-

Women and Education in the Long Eighteenth Century*

Organised by two recent PhD graduates from the University of Glasgow, a wide variety of topics is being covered, including a look at what instructional music was used by the young (and maybe not so young) ladies of St Andrews. 

Watch to see what transpires next!  Here's a report on the University of Glasgow's Music Research blog ...

• WELEC website 

* The "long eighteenth century" is just a way of describing the whole century plus the overlapping bits at either end! 

224 years ago, this is what German Children Sang!

 Please Meet Placidus Partsch!

 We're attacking our cataloguing piles today!  Karen assigned herself a big pile of collected editions and rolled her sleeves up. At the bottom of the heap was Liedersammlung fur Kinder und Kinderfreunde am Clavier: Fruhlingslieder and Winterlieder, dating from 1791.  The introduction explains that the collection was compiled for children to sing, or for older children and adults to sing to younger ones.  So - this is intended as nursery repertoire, 1791-style!

It's fascinating!  The very first song is one set by Mozart - not the only one - and you might recognise the names of Vanhal and Hoffmann.  (The others are no longer exactly mainstream.)  The compiler, a man with the enviable name of Placidus Partsch, set himself the task of assembling 30 songs for each season, but only the spring and winter volumes survive.

You can find them in our catalogue HERE, and they're shelved as part of the Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era series, vol.95, published by A-R Editions.

• AR Editions book details
• Whittaker Library catalogue entry

Actors - get in Character with some 18th Century London Riots

BBC iPlayer features "Voices from the Old Bailey":

'Ordinary Londoners caught up in violence on the streets tell their story, and rioters argue their case in court, desperately attempting to avoid the noose.'

Be quick!  iPlayer recordings don't last forever.  Might provide useful context if you're acting in a play set in 18th century London.

Early Scottish, Irish and Welsh tunes for flute (or fiddle)

Karen's rather excited about this new acquisition for the library.  Published around 1730, the original book has been brought out in a new modern edition with great contextual notes by the editor, Andreas Habert.

Unaccompanied tunes - raw material for you to play however you think most fitting!

Aria di Camera

Find it in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - here.

Scotch Does Not Necessarily Mean Scottish

Find out what happens when a music librarian's alter ego - the musicologist - goes to town on an old Scots song collection - 

Thirty Favourite Scots Songs Untainted by the Caledonian Muse

Ballet and Sauvagerie - Bibliolore blogs about 18th century ballet

Our ballet students are probably blissfully unaware of the 18th/19th century interest in 'savage', or primitive cultures.  So too, in all probability, are our music students of this cultural trend to highlight the exotic - not to mention the underlying reasons for the interest.  (Mind you, I have been known to mention these ideas to Scottish music students, who need to know some of the impulses behind European interest in our own Highland music.  But that's another culture, a different issue, and not really part of the present posting.)

Bibliolore briefly and bravely introduces the concept of Sauvagerie in today's blogpost about Rameau's Les Indes galantes ballet, which you can read here.

Caledonian Pocket Companion just THERE, on my laptop!

Whittaker is getting over-excited.  The National Library of Scotland's Digital Gallery is that good!

Right now, he has found the Caledonian Pocket Companion - all the notes, nice and clear, for a multitude of 18th century famous Scottish tunes.  What's not to love?!  And you can download the whole thing.

Here's 'The lass of Patie's Mill'

And here's the whole Digitized Gallery Special Collections of Printed Music.  If you need historic Scottish music, this is a fabulous place to start.  It's really useful for our AHRC Bass Culture project, too.)

Un-making things: clothing in the 18th century

Here's an interesting post about making clothes in the 18th century.  It's on a blog called Un-making things, and it's from the Royal College of Art

The posting about 18th century clothes is called, CLOTHING CONSTRUCTION, CONFIDENTIALITY AND THE BODY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - here's the direct link to the posting.

Bagpipes from hell - how did we miss this CD?!

Absolutely NOT the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.  'Bagpipes from Hell' is Vittorio Ghielmi and Luca Pianca playing 17th and 18th century music for viola da gamba, lyra-viol and liuto, ceterone.

And we have it in the Whittaker Library.  Form an orderly queue!

Late 18th century hymns and psalms

You never know what'll turn up next ...

A donation of two old bound volumes is proving very interesting.  The first is a collection of late 18th century hymns and psalm tune publications - and an abbreviated Messiah for pianoforte or organ and voices!  Published in Dublin, who knows where they've spent the past 212 years or so before ending up in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland?
Before 'Whittaker' gets over-excited, he's off to have a quick coffee, then it'll be time to catalogue the second volume.

The idea of Scottish music (Matthew Gelbart new article)

ALLAN RAMSAY, THE IDEA OF ‘SCOTTISH MUSIC’ AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ‘NATIONAL MUSIC’ IN EUROPE

New article on 18th Century Scottish music:-

Matthew Gelbart
Eighteenth-Century Music, Volume 9, Issue 01, March 2012, pp 81 - 108
Published Online on 27th January 2012
[ abstract ]

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can read this article here.