250th Birthday of Scottish Song Collector Alexander Campbell

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER CAMPBELL!

born 22.2.1764 

Karen has written and talked and blogged about Alexander Campbell so much over the past

eight or nine years that we hardly need to go over his biography again.  However, it would be shabby not to mention his 250th birthday on Saturday 22nd February.  His was a fascinating life. He dabbled in many things, and didn't achieve particular greatness, but he left a pile of published writings and Scottish music.  

You can read about Campbell at length in Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era.  (There's a copy in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.)  You'll also find further writing on Karen's Academia.edu pages.

Some of his songs from Albyn's Anthology have been arranged for sax ensemble, and Karen has recordings by a Cambridge saxophone ensemble called Saxual Healing:-

• Alexander Campbell Saxophone Quartet and Hebridean Suite on SoundCloud 

Finally, Jo Currie's book, Mull: the Island and its People, contains a big chunk from Campbell's Hebridean song-collecting diary (the time he spent on Mull, specifically) - warmly recommended.  It's not in the Whittaker Library, but could be obtained for registered readers if anyone was interested.

Oliver Knussen's birthday

Where the Wild Things Are - Knussen is 60

Image from Composition Today

website, with thanks

The BBC Symphony Orchestra tweets that Oliver Knussen is 60 today!

"We celebrate with Total Immersion weekend 3-4 November 2012"

• Knussen in the Whittaker Library: check our catalogue!
• Glyndebourne Archive - see video clips and read more about Knussen's dramatic works
• Take a look at the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Where the Wild Things are

On this day, 15 May

Significant dates in Scottish musical history

C K Sharpe and Alexander Campbell Anniversaries

You may be blissfully unaware of the importance of 15th May in Scottish music history!  Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe was an antiquarian, interested in Scottish ballads, songs and genealogy.  He was born on 15th May 1781, and although he's rarely mentioned today, he was considered a fount of knowledge to his Scottish contemporaries.  Worth knowing his name, then.

Meanwhile, Alexander Campbell died on 15th May 1824.  His name is more directly relevant in Scottish musical history terms, because of his music legacy in the shape of the 2-volume Albyn's Anthology.  It's a collection of Highland and Border songs, in Gaelic and Scots.  His musical arrangements weren't brilliant, but the tunes are a very valuable repertoire.  He was one of our first Scottish ethnomusicologists, and spent 3 months travelling in the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland collecting songs from all sorts of people.  (He was a bit of a dilettante, and music was by no means his only interest, but that's the one we're most interested in here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.)

Karen McAulay has given presentations on Campbell's output, most recently to the Glasgow Highland Club.  Here is her Slideshare powerpoint presentation, entitled 'Mistaken for Napoleon'.

We've blogged about Alexander Campbell on Whittaker Live before.  Here's a posting about his homeward journey after his song-collecting expedition.  Click here ...

Steve Reich 75th Birthday Competition

Steve Reich's 75th birthday

Win Goodies from Boosey & Hawkes - follow this link.