On this day, 25th September 1824

Revd Patrick Macdonald died.  He was responsible for publishing an early collection of Gaelic melodies, Highland Vocal Airs, which he and his younger brother Joseph had collected.  Patrick also published Joseph's bagpipe tutor, the first-ever comprehensive instructions on playing the highland pipes.

Facsimile edition of Highland Vocal Airs in the Whittaker Library at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Modern edition of Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe.

(Things you didn't know about early Scottish music publications!)

Iain MacInnes plays Jig and Stumpie, from Highland Vocal Airs (1784)

© National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

Just one demonstration of why Scran.ac.uk is such an excellent resource!  Accessible to anyone associated with a subscribing institution.  (Like the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, for example.)

Cleric saved strathspeys as well as souls - Patrick Mcdonald

Still famous today!

Patrick Mcdonald died 25 September 1824. Ages ago, but think on this - his Highland Vocal Airs, first published in 1784, is still considered an important collection of Highland fiddle tunes, two and a quarter centuries later.

In actual fact, much of Patrick’s collection came from his brother Joseph’s manuscript of tunes left behind in Scotland when he emigrated. Joseph died young, but Patrick lived to a ripe old age.

The Mcdonald brothers’ collection was reissued in a new edition by Taigh na Teud in 2000. You can find it in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow.

• Taigh na Teud website homepage http://www.scotlandsmusic.com/
• Purchase score from Taigh na Teud

Yes, posted 2 hours early ... "Whittaker" is extraordinarily enthusiastic about "his" Victorian Scottish song collectors!