Iseabail T. Macdonald (NicDhomhnaill), tradition-bearer from South Uist

We are very excited to hear that Iseabail will be working with our Scottish music students this year.  She has written extensively for Gaelic TV and radio.  For example, Seachd: the inaccessible Pinnacle, or the BBC Gaelic programme, A' Choille.  She's regarded as a tradition-bearer in Gaelic song. She has contributed content to Education Scotland's website, Scotland's Songs.

Iseabail has also catalogued Gaelic material for Tobar an Dualchais.

Iseabail's full Gaelic name is Iseabail T. NicDhòmhnaill.  (In Gaelic, 'Nic' means 'daughter', so Iseabail's name means 'daughter of Donald'.)

Gaelic Song and Dance - Partick, tomorrow night

"SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8th
Dé Sathairn, 8ú Nollaig

****COIS TINE / TAIGH CÈILIDH******
An evening of music, song, story and dance!
Oíche le Ceol, Amhrán, Scéal agus damhsa!

Location: St Peters Hall, 46-60 Hyndland Street, Partick, G11 5PS
Time: 8pm / Cost: £3 /BYOB"

 Full details

Gaelic singer Kenna Campbell on BBC Radio Scotland

Broadcaster James Black alerted me to this broadcast of my Royal Conservatoire of Scotland colleague Kenna Campbell talking about Willie Mathieson.  Here.  Be quick, before the link disappears!

Kenna Campbell was on latest Scotland Inspired re Rev W. Matheson, Carmina Gadelica & her family

National Theatre of Scotland has a Gaelic Associate Artist

Neatly combining the interests of our BA Scottish Music and BA Drama students, did you know that National Theatre of Scotland has a Gaelic Associate Artist?

Image from Fiona's homepage

Fiona J. Mackenzie is a highly esteemed Gaelic singer.  Read more about her latest appointment here.

Monday 25th June.  Those lovely, kind people at Greentrax have just sent the Whittaker Library a copy of Fiona's latest CD, Archipelago!  It'll be catalogued and added to stock tomorrow - how fortuitous.  (Don't you love these happy coincidences?)

Fiona's earlier Greentrax albums?

• Deagh Dheis Aodaich (A Good Suit Of Clothes)
• Duan Nollaig (A Gaelic Christmas)

How far can a song travel?

This evening, I've been reading a new library book - The Fiddletree, by Cape Breton fiddle-maker, Otis A. Tomas.  He made a number of string instruments from an old sugar maple tree.  As well as describing the making of the instruments, he provides the music for a number of tunes he has written, and an accompanying CD.

Here I sit in Scotland, enjoying music written and recorded in Cape Breton.  Nothing very unusual about that, today.

Torloisk, Mull. Now a holiday home

How much more unusual, though, is the idea that some well-born sisters on the Isle of Mull in the early 1800s should enjoy playing Hindu airs on the pianoforte?  The Maclean-Clephane's manuscript music collection is now in Trinity College Dublin, because the first part of the manuscript consists of transcriptions of harp tunes by the Irish Carolan.  However, I was able to see photocopies of the entire manuscript in the National Library of Scotland.

(If you're interested, the references are:- Trinity College Dublin, TCD MS 10615 and National Library of Scotland,MS 14949a-c)

Apart from the Irish harp tunes, the rest of the manuscript is mainly Gaelic song, but there are a few exotic imports.  Such as these intriguing entries:-

A Hindustani Air

A Hindostanee Air

A Malay Tune

East Indian Dancing Girl's Air

When I indexed the manuscript a few years ago, I hadn't time to transcribe the airs, but there's every chance they came from late 18th century English transcriptions of Indian tunes, such as the often-cited Twelve Hindoo Airs with English Words Adapted to them, ultimately published by Biggs c.1805, to words by Amelia Opie.  One day, I'll have to go back to Edinburgh and identify them!

It is incredible to imagine the effort that went into transcribing such tunes, and making the difficult journey back from the colonies to England, to  get words set to them, and then have the book published.  The Maclean-Clephanes visited Edinburgh and London often enough, so they probably bought a piano book on one of these trips, or copied the tunes from a friend's copy.  There was much interest in what would have been considered exotic oriental music around this time; some people even speculated about links between Scottish and Oriental scales in early musical history.  

The eldest sister, Margaret, married the Marquess of Compton and spent the rest of her days between Northampton and Europe, so we can only conjecture whether this particular manuscript went with her, or stayed with one of her sisters.  It was by no means the only song collection in their possession.  How lucky that it survives to this day!

Incidentally, this posting was inspired by Bibliolore's blogpost, Hindustani Harpsichord Music.
Further proof of the exciting possibilities offered by social networking, because neither would have happened before the advent of Web 2.0!

Copyright Dr Karen E McAulay

Music and Academic Services Librarian

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  23 May 2012. 

Reminder: Tobar An Dualchais

Tobar An Dualchais

Kist o' Riches

In Tobar's own words, it contains,

"over 26,000 oral recordings made in Scotland and further afield, from the 1930s onwards. The items you can listen to include stories, songs, music, poetry and factual information."

Tobar An Dualchais (Kist o Riches) also has a Gaelic website here.

The resource was tweeted today by Chris Holme @HistoryCompany:-

"What Alan Lomax @librarycongress @TobarDualchais and Pete Seeger helped build in Scotland: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/"

(Chris Holme's History Company is effectively a consultancy - find out more here:- http://historycompany.co.uk/)

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 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.

On this day ... 22nd November 1930

Marjory Kennedy Fraser may not be to everyone's taste today - her Gaelic song settings are now seen by traditionalists as decidedly "fake" and inauthentic.  Certainly, they're art-songs, and occasionally with a hint of Debussy in the accompaniment.

Nonetheless, her songs were on everyone's pianos in the early to mid 20th century, and RSAMD alumna Lisa Milne did a great recording not so long ago.

On the date she died, 22nd November, why not take a fresh look at her contribution to Scottish musical history?  Here's what we have in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Whittaker Library.  Check the "Collection" links in the library catalogue, to see what printed music, recorded songs and music books we have.

Know your Scottish musical history

On this day ... 1st October, 1857, Singer-songwriter and collector Marjory Kennedy-Fraser was born.  Her Hebridean song-settings are disdained by many 'traditional' singers nowadays, but they were hugely popular in their time, and are still very atmospheric early-20th century song settings.  Just not direct transcriptions of simple Gaelic melodies!

• Marjory Kennedy-Fraser's publications in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
• Marjory's books (as opposed to music) in the Whittaker Library

• Land of Heart's Desire - an album by RSAMD alumna Lisa Milne - Whittaker Library CD / Amazon.co.uk link

On a different tack, it's less commonly known that on 29th September 1817, another songwriter and collector, Highlander Alexander Campbell wrote to Walter Scott, thanking him for his financial assistance and for employing him as music teacher to Scott's daughters.