Traditional Fiddle Music of the Scottish Borders

We got another new book!  Karen heard the compiler and editor, Peter Shepheard, give a talk about it at the recent Scottish Fiddle Festival in Edinburgh.

Traditional fiddle music of the Scottish Borders, from the playing of Tom Hughes of Jedburgh: a player's guide to regional style bowing techniques, repertoire and dances

 Here's where you find it in the Whittaker Library.

A Sense of Place: Border Ballads set in Context by Lucy Macrae

Border ballad scholar Lucy Macrae, of Edinburgh University, has just posted an interesting article about Walter Scott and the sense of place, in Border balladry.

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‘The Peculiar Charm of Locality’: Sites of Memory in Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

 

Musicians studying Border ballads, or indeed Scottish traditional song, will find very much the same kind of thing in early Victorian collections of songs 'with their airs', ie, music collections.

Walter Scott - 241 years old today!

 Happy Birthday, Sir!

It's Walter Scott's birthday today - he was born 15 August 1771 in Edinburgh. 

Yes, this is a performing arts blog.  And Sir Walter Scott was a novelist, true.  But he was also a ballad-collector (and writer), and despite protesting that he wasn't musical, he had a keen interest in Scottish and Borders folk-music.

Why else should musicians care?  Well, here are a few reasons!

From Britainexpress.com - with thanks

• He effectively created the image of Scotland that has drawn tourists and visitors ever since. 
• His novels provided inspiration for any number of operatic and other pieces of classical music.
• He encouraged impoverished professional musicians like Alexander Campbell (of Albyn's Anthology fame) - and wealthy amateurs like the Maclean-Clephane sisters of Torloisk, on the Isle of Mull, not to mention his own daughter.
• He published the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and one edition had some tunes at the back.
• He was friendly with James Hogg, another novelist, songwriter and ballad-collector.
• I searched our library catalogue.  The Whittaker Library has plenty concerning Sir Walter Scott and his contribution to our culture.  Check the catalogue here!

There - is that enough to encourage you to raise a glass to Sir Walter Scott today?!

On this day, 21 November 1835

_______________________________________

Borders Songwriter James Hogg,

'The Ettrick Shepherd',

died 21 November 1835.

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• Primarily remembered today for his Jacobite song collection, the 2-volume Jacobite Relics,
• - and his novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
• Friendly with Sir Walter Scott

However, researchers into Scottish music and literature regard his contribution as significant, to say the least.

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Why not take a look at what we have in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland?  Here's a list from our catalogue.  (Tip: you can always save the results of a search by copying the hyperlink at the top of the results screen.)

• The University of Stirling is the UK centre for Hogg research - here's their James Hogg website.
• Dr Kirsteen McCue at the University of Glasgow's School of Critical Studies is working on an edition of Hogg's songs with Janette Currie from Stirling University.

'On this day...' : a series of Whittaker Live blogposts about Scottish musical history

NB Picture is from a website of high resolution antiquarian images - many thanks to Graven Image.

Denholm, Teviotdale - birthplace of scholar, poet & scholar John Leyden

ON THIS DAY, 200 years ago ...
Poet, scholar and song-collector John Leyden died in Java, on 27th August 1811.  He was from the village of Denholm in Teviotdale, in the Scottish Borders, and helped Sir Walter Scott in his ballad collecting.  His 18th century cottage still stands to this day. 

To celebrate the bicentenary of Leyden's death, a wreath is being laid by Lord Minto at the Leyden monument in Denholm tomorrow, 28th August 2011, and the local television company may be there. 

• Denholm village website - find out more about Leyden and other famous names!

• BorderReivers.co.uk website also has a brief bio of Leyden.  This picture of his monument comes from the Border Reivers page, with thanks.
• Click on the "ballads" label below, to find a recent blogpost about Child ballads.