Musica Scotica 14th Annual Conference Registration Opens

Musica Scotica 14th Annual Conference Friday 3 - Sunday 5 May 2019 Tolbooth, Stirling Registration for the Musica Scotica conference is now open. It is posted on Musica Scotica's Facebook page:- https://www.facebook.com/events/374235653379262/

Musica Scotica homepage: http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/

British Horns and Scottish CDs

We've been having a bit of a blitz on the CD cataloguing today!  A couple of themes have emerged, partly through serendipity!

For a start, we were recently given some *actual CDs* from British Horn Society festivals. Check out our catalogue - you probably won't find these in electronic format! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=British+horn+society …

After that, came a flurry of CDs with Scottish content or connections:-

• A Scottish CD with alumni involved! Just catalogued, here's Barluath, At Dawn of Day (Ainsley Hamill, Alistair Iain Paterson, Eilidh Firth, Luc McNally, Colin Greeves, Eddie Seaman & guests Stewart Wilson and Signy Jakobsdottir) https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99422 …
• RCS alumna Anne Chaurand, guitar ... https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100148&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20anne%20chaurand …
• Have you heard Erik Chisholm's violin concerto? https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99549 … 
•  Really pleased to have just added alumnus Richard Craig's new CD to library stock! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100149 …
•  Another CD with RCS alumni represented: The Macmath Collective (Aaron Jones, Alison Burns, Claire Mann, Emily Smith, Jamie McClennan, Robyn Stapleton, Wendy Stewart) perform Macmath: the silent page https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99436 …
•  A CD by our very own Les Sirenes! There is no rose - copy now in the library, https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100147 … 
•  Staffa. Nice to focus on new Scottish material! https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99563  
•   Alumna Robyn Stapleton's new CD - https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=99435 …
•  We've got a new CD, Bare Knuckle, by two of our alumni, Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal. https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=100006&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20bare%20knuckle

It goes without saying that we're happy to tweet about alumni's recordings. Do tell us about them! 

Happy Birthday to Rare Tunes Scottish Archive!

rareTunes - an archive of Scottish sound, is celebrating ten years as an independent internet sound archive of Scottish traditional music.

Do take a look - the website describes itself like this: "A curated audio scrapbook of recordings that range from near-studio quality to crowded and noisy house sessions, from digital media to old bits of tape, vinyl and obscure 78s."  And there are even some videos amongst the audio!

Traditional Music Forum invite you to a Consultation, 14 October 2017

Trad Music Education - A New Approach

There's a Traditional Music Forum meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday 14th October.  It's a consultation about building a 'framework for good practice, quality assurance, professional development or career-long learning opportunities'.  (Quoting from an article in Box and Fiddle magazine, September 2017, p.19.)

Click on the link above to visit the Eventbrite booking site!

Finding Scottish Fiddle Music in the Whittaker Library

RECOMMENDED COLLECTIONS

All our collections are in our catalogue, and they all live together on the shelves at M1450.  (It's the number for dance tunes).  We have loads of Scottish music, and the following collections are some that our RCS tutors recommend.   Numbers of copies are correct at the time of writing (17 November 2016).  If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then please do ask! 

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Don’t forget the Digital!

There are some key websites where you’ll find masses of material:-

• HMS.Scot
• National Library of Scotland Digital Gallery
• Highland Music Trust
• Archive.org
• (And don’t forget IMSLP – sometimes things turn up there too.) 

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Real Paper Copies

1. Athole Collection 1 & 2 (we have 5 lending sets and one in special collections) 
2. Simon Fraser Collection (5 copies) (also online at IMSLP)
3. Fiddle Music of Scotland (Hunter) (3 copies and ordering a fourth)
4. Harp & Claymore (Skinner)  (3 copies)
5. Highland Collections (5 copies)
6. Patrick MacDonald Highland Vocal Airs  (2 copies + a photocopy. Ordering 2 more.)
7. Gow’s Repository (1 copy) (also online at HMS.Scot AND NLS Digital Gallery)
8. The Marshall Collections (William Marshall) (4 copies)
9. Mackintosh Collections (Robert  Mackintosh) (4 copies) (also online at Highland Music Trust)
10. Skye Collection / Gesto Collection   (1 copy, ordering 3 more).  (Also online at Archive.org)
11. Gesto Collection – We’re ordering 3 new copies.  (Also online at NLS Digital Gallery)
12. Standard Settings of Pipe Music / Scots Guards (We have 1 and 2, and we’re ordering 2 copies of book 3)

Focus: Scottish Traditional Music (by Simon McKerrell, RCS Alumnus)

We were proud to add a new book to the Whittaker Library stock today:-

Focus: Scottish Traditional Music, by Simon McKerrell (2016)

Simon got his PhD at RSAMD (as we were in 2005); he has since taught at RSAMD, then Sheffield, and now the University of Newcastle, where he is Head of Music.

• Simon McKerrell's University of Newcastle page

Storify is Great for Collating Stories, such as our new Whittaker Library Exhibition

Have you come across Storify?  If you have a lot of weblinks and social media clips that you want to collate and share, then this simple application can do the job for you with minimal effort on your part!

We have just curated an exhibition of Scottish music and works authored by RCS staff.  To ensure that we don't lose all the buzz when the exhibition is pulled down, we've kept some of the tweets and photos to share later.

The Storify collated story has been added to the side-bar of this blog, so you can either read it there, or click on this Storify link to visit it on a full Storify page.

Talking about Scottish Music, or Composer in Scotland? This is for You!

The Musica Scotica conference is in sunny Stirling this year – the 23^rd and 24^th April.  Our call for papers has been out for some weeks, but just in case you missed it/weren’t aware of it/ hadn’t thought about going, we thought we’d share the CFP again today.  The deadline for abstracts (papers or briefer poster session) is strictly speaking this Sunday.  A couple of extra days won’t make much difference, but don’t leave it too long!

Here are all the details you need before you write/submit that abstract!  http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/conferences.shtml

Adding New Scottish Music to Library Stock

An interesting pile is growing in the library office - music from Scotland, both traditional and modern classical.  

We have a new book of tunes by Marie Fielding, and another by Judi Nicolson.  Add to that The Tom Richardson Collection, John Cowan's The Music of a Galloway Fiddle Player, Traditional Folk Reels arranged for wind ensemble by William McConnell, Frank and Ronald Jamieson's Vidlin Voe, Leveneep Head, and Muckle Ayre (Shetland music) ... 

Not to mention John Wallace's Quiraing for solo clarinet, and Chosen Vale for three trumpets.  John was Principal of The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland until just a year ago.

You can always see what's new in the Whittaker Library by clicking on the link that you'll find on the catalogue homepage.  Click to see New Additions to the Catalogue!

(Now, shall we have haggis or a wee dram to accompany it?)

Our Scottish Music Graded Exams (not sold by the Library, but here's the Link!)

We're regularly asked whether the Whittaker Library sells the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Scottish Music Graded Exam music.  Actually, we don't, but "we know a man who can ...."

Visit the RCS website for the Scottish Music exams here, and you'll find a link to the suppliers.

https://www.rcs.ac.uk/traditional-music-graded-exams/

Alumna Robyn Stapleton to sing on Dundee's Frigate Unicorn

Since Robyn is an alumna of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, we thought we'd help promote her forthcoming performance in Dundee:-

Frigate Unicorn, Victoria Dock, Dundee - Robyn Stapleton

Scotland’s finest young traditional singer, BBC Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician 2014, Scots Singer of the Year nominee, will be singing on board the Unicorn on Friday 10th July.

Robyn, who hails from Stranraer, is touring Scotland to celebrate her debut album “Fickle Fortune” which was released in May to critical acclaim.

Recent career highlights include being commissioned to record “Coming Thro The Rye” for Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, and performances at the Trad Music Awards and, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, at Proms in the Park!

Robyn is no stranger to Dundee having given two recitals at the Wighton Heritage Centre. Sheena Wellington, who tutored Robyn during her honours year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said of her former student:-

‘Robyn was gifted with a beautiful voice, warm, rich, flexible and distinctive. Couple this with a true love and respect for her material and the ability to engage an audience anywhere from a care home to a Prom concert hall and you have a very special singer indeed.’

Robyn will be accompanied by band members Kristan Harvey of Blazin Fiddles (Young Traditional Musician 2011), David McNee in guitar and bouzouki and Alistair Iain Paterson on piano and harmonium (Young Traditional Musician Finalist 2014).

• Doors open at 6:15 for performance at 7:00pm
• Tickets £9 (£7 concession) 
• Online booking: https://www.gammabookings.com/FrigateUnicorn/
• Or available at the door.

Friends of Wighton, Wighton Heritage Centre
Central Library, Wellgate
Dundee DD1 1DB

www.friendsofwighton.com

Friends of Wighton gratefully acknowledge the support of Leisure & Communities Dundee, MMG Archbold, Chartered Accountants and The Weavers Café, Dundee Central Library

Live Pipes, Recorded Clarsach, Eminent Scottish Composers

If you are interested in Scottish music, why not consider attending the Musica Scotica conference - in Glasgow this year.  There are a wide range of papers from trad to classical, ancient to modern, including live and recorded performances.

MUSICA SCOTICA 

Saturday 25th - Sunday 26th April, 

St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art, Glasgow

Your Musica Scotica conference application form is now online!  

http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/conferences.shtml  (Scroll to bottom of the page.)

The form should be completed and mailed with your payment to Graham Hair, whose contact details are on the form.  There are no online payment facilities.  

SPEAKERS' INSTRUCTIONS

Speakers have all been emailed, but if you haven't received an email, contact Musica Scotica using the website contact email.

ALL DELEGATES

1.    The Saturday sessions are from 9.30 to 17.20, followed by a trip to Hyndland for a performance of John Maxwell Geddes's Castle Mills Suite (from 18.00 to 18.45).  

2.    Saturday dinner is not provided, but there are plenty of eateries in the vicinity, should you wish to dine with convivial company after the performance.

3.    The Sunday sessions commence at 9 am, with a mid-morning coffee break, and end with lunch at 13.15.

Stuart Eydmann blogs about the Fiddle in the Scottish Folk Revival

The Fiddle in the Scottish Folk Revival

Stuart Eydmann was Traditional Artist in Residence at the University of Edinburgh in 2013-2014.  During that time he maintained a blog about the Fiddle in the Scottish Folk Revival.

You can access this useful blog here.

Robert Burns Thought Scottish Songs should be Performed Like This

A few years ago, we posted a blog entry about William Tytler.  Never heard of him?  Well, he lived a long, long time ago. 
Nonetheless, we think Robert Burns may have been influenced by William Tytler's "prescription" for good Scottish song performances.  He could have read Tytler's dissertation - it was published in several different books.  Or he could have read Joseph Ritson's book, Scotish Songs, where Ritson quoted from Tytler's dissertation.

So, let's find out more about what Tytler said.

REBLOGGED:-



William Tytler (image from ElectricScotland)

On 12th September, 1792, William Tytler died at the grand old age of 81.  Scottish musical history owes much to Tytler.

Tytler (1711-92) was an Edinburgh lawyer and historian. A founder member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1780, his A Dissertation on the Scottish Musick was an influential commentary on the history of Scottish music for antiquarians and collectors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

It was first published in Hugo Arnot’s The History of Edinburgh, attributed to ‘a learned and ingenious friend’, in 1779 (and again in 1788).  It also appeared under Tytler's name in 1783 and 1790, and was later read at a meeting, and subsequently published in 1792, in the first Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Tytler wanted to track down the origins of the earliest melodies, ‘and to trace the history of our music down to modern times.’ His comments were influential upon the song collection compilers who followed him - Johnson, Burns and Ritson. Tytler’s pronouncement about the correct kind of accompaniment for Scottish song became almost a ‘gold standard’ for contemporary antiquarian publishers of song collections.

• Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - for books on Scottish music history in the Whittaker Library, click here.
• Check COPAC (UK national and university libraries) to find your nearest copy of a Tytler source.
• We have a photocopy of Tytler's dissertation in our own library - here.  (We downloaded it from Archive.org)

Come and Talk about Your Scottish Music Research!

Time to remind everyone about Musica Scotica again! 

Musica Scotica 2015: 800 years of Scottish Music 

(Musica Scotica's Tenth Annual Conference)

• Saturday 25 April 2015 and Sunday 26 April, 2015
• The venue will be the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art
• 2 Castle Street, Glasgow G4 0RH

Call for Papers for the 2015 Conference:- http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/conferences.shtml

See you there?

Simon McKerrell Invites You to a Webinar about Scottish Music (17th February)

RCS Alumnus Simon McKerrell is now a lecturer at the University of Newcastle.  His research is into 'Understanding Scotland Musically' - he has written various articles, organised a conference, has a book shortly to be published and another co-authored one on the way.

If you'd like to talk about  'understanding Scotland musically', and to share your views with Simon, then he is organising a webinar to which you are invited.  (Webinar = Seminar on the Web).

Full details here.  Quoted from Simon's Understanding Scotland Musically Website:-

Webinar 17th February 2015, 3pm

"There will be a webinar to discuss the project for anyone who is interested at 3pm on February the 17th 2015. You can join the meeting, which will become live at that time simply by clicking on this link. 

"Participants in the webinar will receive several draft articles dealing with Scottish traditional music that are not currently available to the public for comment and feedback."

• Understanding Scotland Musically - the website 
•  http://www.musicalmeaning.com/home

Question: Where can I download a Heap of old Highland Fiddle Tunes? Answer: Highland Music Trust!

Highland Music Trust - in print and online

The Whittaker Library has several publications by the Highland Music Trust - they're transcriptions of old fiddle collections.  See the list here.

A year ago we blogged about the Highland Music Trust publications, but time has moved on.  You can now download many of these collections from the Highland Music Trust website, for free!  

The link to all this bloggy musical goodness?  http://heallan.com/freedownloads.asp

Of course, you know you can also access these collections online via IMSLP, otherwise known as the Petrucci Music Library?

• For example, Jane Fraser Morison's Highland Airs and Quicksteps of 1882
• IMSLP homepage - http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Highland Music Trust collections on IMSLP
• Highland Music Trust Homepage

It's a Voyage of Discovery at the Whittaker Library

Before too long, the Whittaker Library will incorporate a discovery layer (it's called a Full Text Finder) which will enable users to explore both physical resources and all our electronic databases, all at once.  This should make it very much easier to get the most out of what the library holds.

Just imagine - supposing you're doing the Scottish music degree, and you decide there are five electronic databases that just might have useful info for you.  Right now, you'd need to look at each resource separately.  In future, you can search the lot, all together.  Watch this space for the announcement that the discovery layer has gone live.

Meanwhile, there are still surprises ... did you know that you can look up:-

• Scottish music in the African American Music Reference
• Nova Scotia or Cape Breton material in American Song
• Archival Gaelic song in British Library Sounds
• Niel Gow in Oxford Music Online or in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
• Strathspey or Ballads in SCRAN
• Scottish Music reported in times gone by, in Times Digital Archive
• Uist, Cape Breton, or Niel Gow, in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online

. Why wait? Get exploring! 

We are the very helpful Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  

Pictures of Scotland, Scottish Music, Scottish People and Places ... SCRAN!

Scran!

http://www.scran.ac.uk/ 

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If you need Scottish images for educational purposes, Scran is the place to go.  The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Whittaker Library has a subscription for staff and students here.

• Pictures of Scotland as it is now, or in the past?  Got it!
• Excerpts of famous old music collections, like the Scots Musical Museum? Nae bother!
• Audio or Video clips of not just music but other activities too?  Yes, Scran has them.
• Ideas for costume designers?  Certainly!  (Take a look HERE.)

Here's the link:- http://www.scran.ac.uk/ .  If you're not in the Conservatoire building, pick the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland from the list of institutions, and use your student or staff login.

Do You Understand Scotland Musically? Gary West, Keynote Presentation

Understanding Scotland Musically

Earlier this week there was a conference hosted by Newcastle University and sponsored by the AHRC, addressing this many-faceted subject.

You're invited to watch the keynote address, given by Dr Gary West (and here recorded on YouTube):-

'Understanding Scotland Musically: Do we? Can we?’

• AHRC sponsored two-day conference, 20 - 21st October 2014, Research Beehive, Newcastle University.  Conference website - click HERE.