NYOS Concerts - and an intriguing tune

From the NYOS website, with due acknowledgment

The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland is about to begin its annual summer tour.  Details here.

A highlight of the programme will be Nicola Benedetti playing the Bruch Fantasia on Scottish Folksongs. 

This favourite piece includes a tune called 'I'm a' doun for lack of Johnnie'.  The tune first appeared in a mid-19th century Scottish songbook called Songs of Scotland.  The commentary tells us it was a Highland melody, probably not very old, found and arranged by Finlay Dun.  It had never been published before.

Does this mean Bruch had a copy of Songs of Scotland? Or did someone else pass the tune on to him? We can only speculate.

The Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is glad they've got copies of the songbook, in any case! 

Vol.1, Songs of Scotland: Finlay Dun's setting

The Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate Melodies, arranged with Pianoforte Accompaniments by G. F. Graham, T. M. Mudie, J. T. Surenne, H. E. Dibdin, Finlay Dun with historical, biographical, and critical notices by G. F. Graham, etc ... See catalogue entry ...

On this day: Finlay Dun, one of Scotland's forgotten musical heroes

On this day (24^th February, 1794)

On this day, Finlay Dun was born in Aberdeen – his father was a dancing teacher.  Dun played fiddle for his Dad’s dance lessons. 

He was also involved in some of the best-known and most popular Scottish song collections of the mid-nineteenth century.

See what we have here in the Whittaker Library.  And there are more books by Dun in other academic libraries – check Copac.  Notably, Dun arranged a famous collection of Scottish songs for Lady Carolina Nairne;  also a Gaelic song collection; moreover, he was involved in arranging a collection of pipe-tunes, and writing a scholarly introduction for Dauney’s Ancient Scottish Melodies.  And entertained Mendelssohn when he came on his Scottish tour (cue the Hebrides Overture!)

  Dun arranged everything for piano, with or without voice.  (You value your iPod now – the piano was as covetable then.)

Why does it matter?  Because it’s interesting to see the Scottish music that people were buying, playing and enjoying 150 years ago.

On this day: George Farquhar Graham

On this day, 28th December 1789, Scottish music journalist, historian and arranger George Farquhar Graham was born. Graham (1789-1867) was originally destined for law, but became what we would now call a musicologist instead. At some stage in his early adulthood, he had lessons with Beethoven on the Continent.

G F Graham - Songs of Scotland, 1st ed., 1848
















His major accomplishment was the three-volume anthology of Scottish songs he edited for publisher John Muir Wood - The Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies. He arranged some of the songs himself, wrote all the commentary, and coordinated the efforts of the other arrangers - Mudie, Surenne, H. E. Dibdin and Edinburgh-based Highlander Finlay Dun.



Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland, 1908



Because Wood was the publisher, the collection was also known as Wood’s Edition of the Songs of Scotland.

Why is this interesting today? Because the collection was one of the most respected Scottish song anthologies for the next sixty years, meaning that countless households over several generations would have encountered their Scottish heritage in the version presented to them by George Farquhar Graham and John Muir Wood - good, middle-of-the road arrangements, playable by a competent amateur, and bringing together some of the background to each song, as it had accumulated over the previous half-century or more.


The title changed slightly over the years, with the different editions:-

• 1848-1849 The Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies (Mudie, Surenne, H. E. Dibdin, and Dun were also named on title-page). Also known as Wood’s Edition of the Songs of Scotland - see illustration of open copy
• 1887 Revised as The Popular Songs of Scotland with their appropriate Melodies; with additional airs and notes (J. Muir Wood and Co.);
• 1908 Revised as The Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland, with the addition of many airs and notes by J. Muir Wood, notes by Graham and arranged by A. C. Mackenzie [et al] (London: Bayley and Ferguson). ‘The Balmoral Edition’ is the green copy illustrated here.

It only remains to be said - happy 222nd birthday, George! Cheers!

• Check our holdings in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland here;
• Check other libraries' holdings in COPAC here.
• Click the 'On this day' label below to see other blogposts in this series.
• 'Charlie is my darling', arranged by G F Graham

On this day in 1853: Finlay Dun

On 28th November 1853

Scottish musician Finlay Dun died aged 58.

"I've never even HEARD of Finlay Dun!", I hear you cry.

Why he matters? 

Although he's now largely forgotten, Dun was much respected in his time, as performer, scholar and arranger.  It's interesting to see what activities occupied a Scottish Victorian musician's career - and find out more about the circles in which he moved.

Finlay Dun (1795-1853) was born in Aberdeen, attended grammar school in Perth, and spent most of his adult life in Edinburgh.  His father was a dancing master, and the young violinist Finlay joined his father in this.  He attended Edinburgh University from 1815-16 and is on record as having taught dancing to Elizabeth Grant of Rochiemurchus in December 1816.  He studied violin in Paris and then in Milan (1820-25), where he also learned counterpoint, composition and singing, and played viola in the royal theatre of San Carlo.

Back in Edinburgh, he became leader of the Edinburgh Professional Society of Musicians’ concerts in 1827, and worked as a music teacher.  Although Dun applied for the Reid Chair at Edinburgh University in 1841, he was unsuccessful. 

Dun married in 1828.  In 1829, Mendelssohn dined with the Duns on 28 July, and went to the triennial highland pipers’ competition with Dun the next day.

Amongst other works, his notable output in the field of Scottish music includes:-

• 1830   A Selection of Celtic Melodies
• 1836-8 Vocal Melodies of Scotland
• 1838   Appendix no.1 in William Dauney’s Ancient Scotish Melodies.  (Dun was encouraged to write this Appendix, on the grounds it would be good for his CV.)
• 1846   Oliphant, Carolina (Lady Nairne), Lays of Strathearn: arranged with symphonies and accompaniments for the piano-forte by Finlay Dun. 
• 1848   Orain na h-Albam: a Collection of Gaelic songs
• 1848-9 George Farquhar Graham, Songs of Scotland. Edinburgh: Wood, 1848-9.  (Dun contributed 26 arrangements – only two less than Graham himself.)

Check the Whittaker Library catalogue to see what the Royal Conservatoire of Library has available.

Visit Copac (the union catalogue of British university and national libraries) for a more comprehensive list.

This blogpost is one of Whittaker Live's On this day series of Scottish musical history posts.