Fiddler of Strathspey Festival, Grantown

Fiddler of Strathspey Festival

23-25 June 2017

Details of a fiddle festival - lots of fiddling events, recitals, sessions, workshops, masterclasses - and all in Grantown, home of the strathspey.  RCS alumna and tutor Lauren MacColl is amongst the many stars who will be there. Visit:-
http://thegrantownsociety.org/page5.html

How old ARE Strathspeys and Reels?

If you don't mind coming in halfway through an ongoing discussion, you may find this paper of interest.  Michael Newton (University of North Carolina) continues a debate with Will Lamb (University of Edinburgh) about the origins of the strathspey and reel as dance and musical forms.
Read it here on Michael's Academia.edu page.

Keeping it Reel: the Origins of the Reel in a Scottish Gaelic Context, by Dr Michael Newton

The Boundless Energy of Niel Gow and Sons

Anyone involved in the Scottish music scene knows that Niel Gow and his sons - particularly Nathaniel - produced an enormous amount of fiddle music to dance to.

• Take a look at IMSLP and be amazed. 
• Find out what motivated those fiddling Gows!  Here's a new posting from the Bass Culture project about Niel and Nathaniel Gow's controlling influence.
• And another posting about Nathaniel's diversion into Scottish song repertoire: Nathaniel Gow's "small share of trouble". 
• When the Bass Culture website goes live this autumn, there will be much, much more digitized fiddle music for you to exclaim over at http://hms.scot  (At the moment it's just a holding page.)

Who was Mrs Garden of Troup?

Mrs Garden of Troup's Strathspey was so very popular, we thought we'd ask:- who was Mrs Garden of Troup?

Leave us a comment if you know!

Know your Scottish music history : Domenico Corri

On this day …

Domenico Corri was born in Rome, 4th Oct 1746. He came to Scotland and became a music publisher. His Scottish song collection was famous, but that wasn’t his only Scottish-themed publication.


The Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has A collection of strathspey reels : with a bass for the violoncello or harpsichord ; most humbly dedicated to Her Grace the Dutchess of Athole by Niel Gow at Dunkeld.  It was published by Corri in (we think) 1792, and it's in our Special Collections.  Details here.

• Also worth knowing about: Dundee City Library holds the fabulous Wighton Collection of early printed Scottish sources, including books by Corri.  Find out more here.