Whilst in Cardiff, 'Whittaker' visited Ty Cerdd, the Welsh music information centre, in the Wales Millenium Centre. (Did you expect holiday snaps? Oh, fie!)
And of course, collected one of 14 Excellence Awards on behalf of the Whittaker Library - all very exciting! Here's a quick picture to tide us over until we have the certificate framed and displayed.
Returning to the reality of daily life in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Whittaker discovered that inanimate objects can now speak. The plants had 'I am not thirsty' notes attached, and one of the books had decided that retirement was long overdue. It's nowhere near 67 yet, but it really looks past its best, so we can understand its self-promotion to the 'Library in the sky'.
If you're curious what Karen was talking about, down in Cardiff, do take a look at her powerpoint presentation on Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard. Not content with her researches into the Scotish Minstrel (sic!), she now knows a fair bit about his Welsh cousins ...
Welsh songbook update
‘Whittaker’ is checking out 19th Century Welsh song collections to see how they compare with Scottish and Irish. A magic carpet to Wales would be nice, but this isn’t really feasible. In the absence of the carpet, we’re trying crowdsourcing. If a songbook has paratext, and particularly if it’s early, it must be seen! Whittaker is very grateful indeed to the Welsh librarians who have offered to help here. Looking forward to what 2012 will bring!
Three cheers for COPAC, Mendeley and Twitter!
I'm also using PBWorks as a wiki: Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard.
In terms of what Whittaker has seen/ not seen:-
SEEN
- Jones, Edward - Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 1794
- Jones, Edward - The Bardic Museum, 1802
- Thomson, George (and Haydn) - A Select Collection of Original Welsh Airs, 1809-17
- Williams, Maria Jane - Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg, 1844
- Richards, Brinley, The Songs of Wales, 1879 (4th ed)
- Parry, Joseph et al, Cambrian Minstrelsie, 6 vols, 1893-5
UNSEEN
- Jones, Edward - Hen Ganiadau Cymru = Cambro-British Melodies, 1820
- Parry, John - Cambrian Harmony, 1809
- Parry, John - A Selection of Welsh Melodies, 1809 & new ed., 1821/2
- Parry, John - A Collection of Welsh Airs, 1810
- Parry, John - A Third Volume of Welsh Melodies, 1829
- Parry, John - The Welsh Harper, 1839, 1848
- Thomas, John, Merthyr Tydfil - Y Caniedydd Cymreig =The Cambrian Minstrel, 1845
- Alaw, Owain (John Owen) - Twelve Popular Welsh National Songs, 1859
- Thomas, John, Thomas Oliphant and; John Jones, Welsh Melodies, 1860
- Owen, John (Owain Alaw, Pencerdd) - Gems of Welsh Melody, 2 vols, 1860
- Hulse, Henry, The beaties of Cambrian Melodies, 1863
Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard
PROJECT INTRODUCTION: We are examining late 18th and 19th century Welsh songbooks to see what their prefaces etc tell us about their cultural background. In literary terms, all the introductory matter is called the paratext. So, we're looking for minstrels, bards, harps and other symbols of a Celtic Welsh past; also for metaphors which give away clues about what mattered to the compilers of these songbooks, and the audiences they were intended for.
PROJECT LEADER: Dr Karen McAulay, Music & Academic Services Librarian at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
PROJECT MEMBERS: currently, we're a handful of librarians, but interested literary scholars and librarians would be very welcome to join us.
There are also two Tiki-toki timelines:-
Help is needed locating digital copies please. Some are on Internet Archive (see the wiki resource bar), but others remain to be found.
Subsequent to my "appearance" at the IAML 2011 Conference in Dublin, I've been asked to speak at IAML (UK and Irl) Annual Study Weekend in 2012, and my talk will hopefully have a Welsh flavour. (Any jokers about Welsh rarebit can stop right there, thanks!)
I'd like to combine the Welsh song aspect with a social networking idea that I've been contemplating. I've put together a Tiki-Toki presentation to explain what I mean.
If there are any librarians or Celtic song scholars who think they might be able to help, or would like to join in, then the prime requirement is to be able to access some of the early Welsh songbooks that I'm interested in. I'm putting together a Mendeley list which I'll be happy to share in the next few days.
Many thanks - I look forward to hearing from you!
Dr Karen McAulay
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Whilst in Cardiff, 'Whittaker' visited Ty Cerdd, the Welsh music information centre, in the Wales Millenium Centre. (Did you expect holiday snaps? Oh, fie!)
If you're curious what Karen was talking about, down in Cardiff, do take a look at her powerpoint presentation on Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard. Not content with her researches into the Scotish Minstrel (sic!), she now knows a fair bit about his Welsh cousins ...
