Community Music Symposium: Everyone Deserves Music

Community Music -are you involved?

The Sage, Gateshead, Tuesday 29th April - a Symposium 

http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/symposium/

Whittaker and Northumbrian Minstrelsy

In which the 'real' Whittaker goes Back to his Roots

We've blogged about William Gillies Whittaker before - how he was the first joint Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow, and Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. But while we're proudly claiming him as our own, let's not forget he was originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, and something of an authority on Northumbrian minstrelsy.

A 1965 edition of a book on the subject (the much earlier first edition of Northumbrian Minstrelsy was published in 1882) - cites Whittaker's opinions of it. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, ed. J. Collingwood Bruce and John Stokoe, 1882, (and 1965 foreword by A. L. Lloyd), can be read online in pdf here.

Fast forward to the present.   There's a Northumbrian Minstrelsy concert at The Sage, Gateshead, on Sunday 23 June 2013.  Details here.  It's organised by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle.  The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland notified its members in a recent newsletter.  'Whittaker' (latter-day blogger on behalf of the Whittaker Library) decided to connect the circle by attending the concert.  'He' can hardly contain his excitement, and his minstrel jacket will undoubtedly get an airing.

Minstrels are evidently very much alive and well.  (Not that readers of this blog need any reminding of that fact!)

• Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle
• Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 

New Links for Trad Musicians

I've just been checking my Diigo account, and I see I've recently saved several links that our Scottish trad musicians might like:-

• The Archive Project: an Adventure in Traditional Scottish Music - blog about a project to get people using tunes in the School of Scottish Studies Archives:- "Welcome! This is a project from the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin and School of Scottish Studies Archives (funded by Creative Scotland through the Youth Music Initiative) running for a year from June 2012 – June (or beyond!) 2013.  It aims to bring seven young people (aged 15-23) into the Archives and create innovative new traditional music as a result."
• Forthcoming Minstrelsy Concert at The Sage Gateshead -  promoted by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 23 June 8 pm.
• Society of Antiquaries of Scotland - has been studying the history of Scottish culture and archaeology for over 200 years!
• Ronnie Gibson explores the Atholl Collection of Scottish music at Perth's A K Bell Library - blogpost. 
• Archived article about James Scott Skinner, from the Box and Fiddle magazine archives. Scott Skinner was a fabulous Scottish fiddler who also published fiddle music.