Dr Karen McAulay explores the history of Scottish music collecting, publishing and national identity from the 18th to 20th centuries. Research Fellow at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, author of two Routledge monographs.
After a couple of months of online and a few in-person interviews, I’m at the stage now where I’m going through all my recorded interviews and transcriptions, reminding myself of highlights and key details.
This one just leapt out at me:-
‘The one thing I do remember is all the crowd standing up, after I had sung – and cheering and clapping and stuff, and that was the beginning of it, you know.’
Isn’t that glorious? I’m sure the Sir John Leng Trust will be delighted to read such heartwarming witness to Sir John’s inspired endowment. (I’ll keep the rest of that particular interview for later – I want to leave plenty of material for what I shall be writing in due course. I have a lot of data to draw upon.)
I aim to bring the interviewing to an end by the end of June; after that, I have some annual leave booked, and then I need to start writing! An article or two, a book chapter – and maybe organise a wee event or two.
This has turned out to be absolutely the most enjoyable, affirming piece of research. I’ve decided I love oral history, and conducting interviews is nowhere near as scary as I thought it might be!
(Incidentally – although my interviewing will mostly finish by the end of June, if anyone was literally bursting to share their own Leng Medal memories with me after that, then do get in touch. Even if an interview wasn’t feasible, I still might be able to draw upon memories shared by email.)
Actually, this blog wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for teachers!
My parents were teachers;
I benefited from many excellent teachers at Norwich High School, GDST;
Lecturers are teachers too, so let’s add everyone who taught me at the Universities of Durham, Exeter, Aberystwyth and Glasgow. And those who led the PG Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Arts Education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland;
Instrumental teachers whilst I was learning the piano and the oboe at school and at Durham
and all the teacher colleagues who surround me at work. Whilst I was never a full-time teacher or lecturer, I’ve collaborated with many, contributing specialist expertise. My thanks to them for letting me help!
So, having paused to thank several dozen influential teachers, we come to this blog itself. How many teachers have I mentioned over the years? Well, you only have to type teacher into the search box on my home page, to get a good few for a start!
Clarinda Webster
Mary Kerr, Euphemia Allan, Rose B. Smith, her mother and an older sister, and Kate Logan (they’re in my recent RMA Chronicle article)
James Easson
Herbert Wiseman
Allan Macbeth
Edward Harper
Nimmo Christie (Dundee)
Margaret James (Gloucestershire)
Hugh Gibson Millar (Paisley)
And there are plenty more music teachers hiding in my A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951. Alan Reid, who did a lot of educational music materials for Parlane, the Paisley publisher, for a start. I haven’t mentioned him on this blog, but I spent a lot of time examining his output whilst I was Ketelbey Fellow at the University of St Andrews. Or William Anderson Moodie, who set Wee Davie for a magic lantern Service of Song, and taught at the forerunner to Jordanhill Teacher Training College.
Not to mention the teachers I encountered in the archives of Thomas Nelson & Sons last year, about whom I’ll be writing later this year.
So – yes, I owe a debt of gratitude to an enormous number of teachers, both in my own education, and in my historical research. I think I need an orchard rather than just one apple!
Our Wi-fi was down for 14 hours, and the household was plunged into the depths of despair. (I only slightly exaggerate.) But more to the point, all the detailed text of today’s blog post was trapped on my laptop and couldn’t be transferred to the blog.
In my earlier post, I promised I’d share details of John Leng & Co.’s advertising strategy, as observed in their booklet, The Songs of Burns – so here we are.
‘Life is made lightsome with a song’
The Songs of Burns is a booklet that I bought purely out of curiosity; I was interested in their support of Scots Song singing through the Dundee Leng Medal prizes, and I wondered if books like this showed another aspect of that interest. I think the only link is probably that Scottish songs in general, and Burns’ songs in particular, were just popular all ways up, so this pamphlet wouldn’t have struggled to find purchasers. As the advert on the back cover says, ‘life is made lightsome with a song’.
Tucked in amongst the Burns songs, are the little column adverts and bigger full-page ones, which clearly indicate which publications they were pushing, around January 1905. Many of the adverts are distinctly aimed at women, which is interesting, considering Burns’s songs are of universal appeal.
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, much use was made of ‘Aunt Kate’ for good, sensible advice from a trustworthy auntie!
Moreover, I find it interesting that there’s more marketing for the People’s Friend than the People’s Journal. The magazine is still running, whilst the journal ceased in January 1986 – so even the journal had a good long life.
The People’s Penny Burns
Inside cover: Full page advertisement for its earlier companion, The People’s Penny Burns
p.48 Another full page advertisement for The People’s Penny Burns.
The People’s Penny Stories
p.3 Do you like a good novelette? You do. Well, don’t miss The People’s Penny Stories. Every month. One Penny. None so good.
The question is followed by a firm affirmative answer. Since my own People’s Friend serial ended up as no.393 in the ‘People’s Friend Story Collection’ back in the 1990s, I am naturally disposed to agree, stressing that this is light fiction, not literature!
p.29 A second advertisement for the People’s Penny Stories series.
Caring
Drawing by Mary Mapes Dodge, Wikimedia
p.1 A LOVING MOTHER’S NEGLECT to rear healthy babies is unpardonable. Aunt Kate’s Mother’s Guide contains much useful information, and anyone who follows its advice will have healthy families. Sold by all Newsagents; Price ONE PENNY.
Taking an indisputably moral tone, the assurance that ‘anyone who follows its advice’ will flourish would probably flout advertising standards today, since some problems simply cannot be put right merely by following sound advice!
p.15 Have you a home pet? If so, and you would like to make the most of it, for its own sake and your own, invest a penny in Aunt Kate’s Canaries and Home Pets. Also uniform in size, style, and price, The People’s Dog Book.
Clothing the Family
p.5 Aunt Kate’s Knitting and Crochet Book contains over 170 Patterns. Price One Penny. (Believe me, this was an absolute bargain!)
p.30 Young Mothers will find the People’s Friend Paper Patterns invaluable. Complete Layette Sets at low prices. Baby’s First Garments, Shortening Clothes, Outdoor Things, Christening Robes, Sleeping and Day Gowns, Newest Bonnets, Hats and Bibs for Young Children of all ages. For styles for spring, summer, autumn and winter, see People’s Friend Fashion Pages.
(Get the paper patterns, or look in – where else, but the People’s Friend? It has to be said that nowadays, the Friend isunashamedly aimed at grandmothers rather than young mums.)
p.41 Make your own Clothes. Full directions how to cut dresses and other garments in AUNT KATE’S DRESS-MAKING BOOK. Price one penny; sold everywhere.
Feeding the Family
p.9 Aunt Kate’s Cookery Book is the best pennyworth in the world. If you have not a copy get one.
Entertainment
p.11 ‘AUNT KATE’S SCOTTISH SONGS’ Nos.1 and 2, and the ‘PEOPLE’S ENGLISH SONGS’ Contain the Cream of our National Minstrelsy. Each comprises nearly half a hundred Songs – Words and Music. The Price of Each is One Penny.
And they soon appeared, together with Welsh songs, in two hardbacked collections. These song books are advertised again on the back cover, see below.
This was, of course, the age of Tonic Sol-Fa, and many schools taught it, so there was a good chance that at least some of the readers of these books could work out a tune from Sol-Fa. The piano accompaniment, however, required someone who could read music. These accompaniments are simple and functional, rather than artistic, but they’re certainly usable. The arranger was a local Dundee music teacher who also wrote for John Leng & Co. Ltd.
Back cover: Life is made Lightsome with a Song: an unparalleled Quartet … ‘Music in each case in staff and sol-fa. One penny each. Sold by all newsagents.’
This is a whole page advert for the books in the smaller column advert on p.11.
Aunt Kate’s Scottish Songs No.1: 46 ‘gems of Scottish Song’
The People’s English Songs: 46 ‘popular English ballads’
The People’s Welsh Songs: Words in English and Welsh
Inside back cover – advertisement for ‘Simply Indispensible! Four Valuable Books [one penny each]:-
Conjuring and Parlour Magic Book: Aunt Kate’s Parlour Magic Book
Parlour Games for Everybody: a Companion to Aunt Kate’s Conjuring and Parlour Magic
The People’s Fortune Teller
Aunt Kate’s Dance Music ‘contains music for no fewer than twenty-six popular dances’ (there’s a little more about this book in another blog, Unsung Histories, Sept 2021, by Katie Howson.)
The People’s Friend
p.14 WHY NOT JOIN A CLUB? The Helper’s Club, conducted by Janette in the “People’s Friend”, is a National Bureau for the exchange of opinions, advice, and experiences among women of all classes.
p.16 Everyone praises the wholesome tone that characterizes every page of THE PEOPLE’S FRIEND.
p.17 A FRIEND INDEED is just what the People’s Friend has all along proved itself to be. No one who has ever known this “Friend” has turned his or her back upon it. It contains something for everybody. Ask your Newsagent to introduce you to the “Friend”; it will cost you a Penny, but you’ll find it worth the money over and over again.
(Three adverts in four pages – and not the last you’ll encounter, for this most popular of magazines!)
p.25 Tribute to the PEOPLE’S FRIEND […] A miscellany which finds its way into many homes where good reading is courted. It has been a real influence in Scottish life, brightening it, and that must be a chief joy to Sir John Leng. – Daily Chronicle, London.
p.35 Quoting Mr T. P. Connor speaking highly of the People’s Friend and People’s Journal, we find another mention of the Friend and a second of the Journal.
p.47 Space at the bottom of the Table of Contents – filled with a larger advertisement for The People’s Friend, quoting press opinions.
Men’s Stuff?
p.21 If your husband, son or brother wants the best book on a good subject, he should buy – HOW TO READ, WRITE, AND DEBATE. It costs One Penny, and is full of valuable hints to all who desire to become good writers and debaters, and who wish to make the best of their reading.
The People’s Journal
p.23 POINTS about the PEOPLE’S JOURNAL. 10,000 Newsagents sell it. 1,250,000 People read it. A week’s issue weighs 20 tons. It is the People’s Family Newspaper. Sold everywhere, price one penny.
This was how John Leng & Co., of Dundee and Fleet Street, London, advertised their new booklet in The Forfar Herald on Friday 20 January 1905:-
“THE SONGS OF Burns.—Messrs John Leng & Co., Ltd., have in their latest penny booklet, entitled The Songs of Burns, published what should be specially attractive to many at this time of the year, in view of the approaching anniversary of Burns’ birthday. Most of the well-known songs are included, and an alphabetical table of contents is also printed. It is a good pennyworth.”
That one penny (one-twelfth of today’s modern 5p and equating to about 55p using the Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator), was certainly affordable! The Songs of Burns was sensibly and conveniently published just before Burns’ Day – 48 pages including an index and a full page advertisement for another of their publications.
It’s just a book of verses – no music. It was intended to be a companion to an earlier collection, The People’s Penny Burns (‘a splendid selection from the poems of Scotland’s national bard’), the same size and price.
No surprises as to the contents, then, but what caught my eye was actually the column advertisements. The publishers wasted no opportunity to advertise other publications that the reader might find interesting! Skimming through them enables us to profile the readership very clearly: largely women, concerned with feeding, clothing and amusing their families, and looking after the household pets. ‘Aunt Kate’ was the branding John Leng used for many such publications – a homely and mature voice that readers could trust.
Meanwhile, women are advised that their menfolk should buy a booklet on effective reading, writing and debating. Of all the advertisements in this particular booklet, that’s the only ad for a title specifically aimed at men:-
How to read, write, and debate …
We have no wi-fi today, so I’m going to stop here for now. When I return, we’ll have a paratextual wander through the 48 pages of John Leng’s The Songs of Burns, and I’ll show you how Leng did their advertising!
(Contextual note: If you’re not well up on newspaper publishing history, I should explain that D C Thomson later acquired John Leng & Co. Ltd, so there’s a direct lineage to today’s The People’s Friend, Sunday Post and Scots Magazine. The People’sFriend goes back a very long way.)
Yesterday morning’s organ music just had to be topical. To our small but enthusiastic congregation’s approval, I included ‘Flower of Scotland’, ‘Loch Lomond’, ‘Caledonia’, ‘500 miles’, ‘Highland Cathedral’ (not really Scottish, but much-loved all the same), and I managed something along the lines of ‘Never Stopped Dreaming’, the new World Cup anthem by Skerryvore.
Yesterday, I headed north of the river, because there was a community event being held by Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust, and a group I’ve recently started following was manning a stall there – the Protests and Suffragettes social enterprise.
A creative project & new social enterprise led by a team of artists, activists, & local historians working to recover and re-voice the histories of women activists in Scotland.
My takeaways from the stall!
My interest stems from the work I’ve done researching late Victorian and early twentieth century Glasgow women involved in teaching, performing or publishing music. I’ve already published an extensive article in the RMA Research Chronicle, and I’m giving a conference paper later this year. I’d like to find out if two of ‘my’ ladies were actively involved in the early suffrage movement. My guess is that they may have been sympathisers, if not active in the cause. The older lady lived before the Suffragette movement as such, and I’m not expecting to find the younger of the two doing anything particularly audacious, but it would be nice to find any trace of supporting the cause, even just as a member of some organised group! (I’ve already mentioned my trip to Glasgow Women’s Library on a similar mission a couple of weeks ago.)
Anyway, I thought it would be altogether lovely if I introduced myself today, since we’ve already been in touch via social media. And it was lovely. I took the opportunity to outline what else I’m hoping to find out about this particular mother and daughter.
Caught chatting
Elevator Pitches
You’re always reading on LinkedIn about how you should have an elevator pitch just there on the tip of your tongue, so that your current project can be readily described to questioners who may not know very much about your work yet. As I travelled home, energised, after my outing, I reflected that actually, I need several elevator pitches, because I have two side projects as well as the main one!
Glasgow Women’s Careers in Music
One of my side projects, I’m currently exploring how different women’s backgrounds may have influenced the careers they pursued, in turn-of-the-century Glasgow.
The Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music
I’ve been exploring the careers of our first Principals, and contemplating the musical education that the institution offered in the first few decades. Another side project.
Publisher Thomas Nelson & Sons
This is the big project. I’ve been looking at the kind of educational music materials published in the first half of the twentieth century, and reflecting on the use made of Nelson’s four Scots song books by pupils and teachers. After archival work on the Nelson correspondence, I’m now conducting an oral history of the Sir John Leng Trust’s Scots Song medal competitions in Dundee. The idea is that I’ll use all this for a third book. Watch this space!
It’s World Cup weekend – and as the saying goes, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. But what do I know about football? Absolutely nothing. I have two left feet, no eye for a ball, and have never watched a match in my life. (Not even Norwich City’s ‘Canaries’, though I expect my brother did!)
I imagine the proprietors of Thistle Records were a little more clued-up than me, because they included football songs amongst their other 45 rpm singles. Thistle Records was the Scottish record label in which singer Robert Wilson held a part-share, along with Kerr Music Corporation. It started trading in 1962, and Wilson died in 1964, so really he had little to do with it. Gavin D. Farquhar was the Managing Director, and John Cutler the Recording Manager. They overwhelmingly specialised in Scottish artistes, so the football songs must have just been a remunerative sideline. I’m assuming someone was interested in the sport, though they might just have taken interest in the profits from these records. (I’ve written about Robert Wilson and Kerr Music Corporation in my latest book – and I did make passing reference to Thistle Records, but I have to say that my specialism is printed rather than recorded music!)
Discographies like 45cat, and Robert Lyons’ Seventies Sevens (‘a site for seven inch record labels of the 1970s’, uploaded in 2008) enable us to reconstruct a list of Thistle’s football singles. I have quoted dates where they were given, but I haven’t verified them:-
Rangers With The Caledonian Accordion Band – The Blue Flag And Follow Follow / It’s Rangers For Me – Thistle – UK – TM 80
The Manchester United Team (With Soloist John Dunbar) – United! United! / The Red And White’s – Thistle – UK – TM 81
Everton Football Club – E-V-E-R-T-O-N / Everton For Me – Thistle – UK – TM 83 (45cat dates this to 1964)
The Celtic Team – Celtic! Celtic! / Slattery’s Mounted Fut – Thistle – UK – TM 85
Rangers Football Team With Lex McLean – Every Other Seturday / R.A.N.G.E.R.S. – Thistle – UK – TM 86 (45cat dates this to 1964)
The Partick Thistle F.C. – It’s The Jags / Firhill For Thrills – Thistle – UK – TM 97 (Lyons dates this to 1971)
The Clyde F.C. With Fraser Bruce – Song Of The Clyde / One – Two – Three – Thistle – UK – TM 98
Rangers [Scottish Football Team] – That’s The Team! / The Glasgow Rangers – Thistle – UK – R.1066
The firm was largely defunct by the late 1970s. Andy Cameron coined the phrase, the ‘Tartan Army’ in his recording, ‘Ally’s Tartan Army’ in 1977, when the Scotland team qualified for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, but he didn’t turn to Kerr Corporation or Thistle Records to publish it – instead, the score and record were published in London by Klub Music/Mews Music.
So, Kerr Corporation and Thistle Records never got to mark Scotland’s visit to Argentina, and by now, few Scottish football supporters will even have heard of them. Times move on.
Mind you, I was listening to Skerryvore’s ‘Never stopped dreaming (Scotland World Cup Song)’ this afternoon, and reflecting just how much tastes have changed since the 1960s-1970s! I think Messrs Wilson, Farquhar and Cutler would have been a bit surprised.
Just a quick post today – I realised that I do actually possess all three of the Scottish song books that have been awarded to Leng Gold medallists over the years. They make a pleasing display!
Mozart Allan’s Morven was awarded for many years. First published in 1890, it lived on for an incredibly long time, and is still valued by those who own it. I have spoken with winners a little younger than myself, who still have their copy of this book. (I have a hunch that Mozart Allan’s sister Euphemia may have had a hand in this publication. (See my recent RMA Research Chronicle article for more on this!*)
The next book prize was a Paterson book, J. Michael Diack’s Scottish Orpheus Collection, which actually goes back to 1922. (There had in fact been an earlier edition, resulting in Diack’s book being called the New Scottish Orpheus in some imprints.)
And lastly came Royal Scottish Academy of Music graduate Wilma Paterson and artist/author Alasdair Gray’s collaboration, their lavish Songs of Scotland (Mainstream Publishing, 1996), which is certainly amongst the most artistically pleasing modern collections that I’ve seen. Early winners of this one got a signed copy.
New Page about the Leng Medal Memories project
I’ve just made a new ‘Leng Medal Memories‘ page for this website – do take a look.
The 10 June 1902 was a significant day in the life of the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music. The next day (11 June), The Scotsman reported:-
Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music
Dr Edward E. Harper, the new principal of Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music, was introduced yesterday in the hall of the Athenaeum to a large gathering of students and others interested in music. Councillor Ure Primrose, who presided, said that Dr Harper’s appointment was undoubtedly an epoch in the history of the Athenaeum, and especially of its School of Music. They had a Royal Academy of Music in London, the only one in the kingdom [this was actually incorrect – it wasn’t the only such institution], and he saw no reason why they should not have a similar institution in Scotland. Dr. Harper spoke briefly, and remarked that it would be his earnest endeavour to realise the aim of the directors to make the school a thoroughly effective one.
Harper was our second ever Principal, succeeding Allan Macbeth. He was only to be in post for a couple of years, and there’s no record of why he left. Indeed, we’ve come on a lot since then, and increased hugely in standing. He’d be astonished if he came back today and discovered jazz, traditional music, drama and production arts, film, television and ballet!
I recorded a podcast about Edward Emanuel Harper a few weeks ago – you can hear it here.
This isn’t really a scholarly post – just a reflection.
One of my informants remembers singing ‘Muirland Willie’ as their Silver Medal entry, and I was chuffed to find it in my Nelson’s Scots Song Book, Book 3 (‘words edition’). And yes, the ‘words edition’ does contain the melody line as well – just not the piano part.
Title page, Book 3 (pupil’s edition)
The book had reached me third hand – or was it fourth? How many hands has it passed through since someone stamped ‘Rockwell Primary School, November 1952’ on the title page? This tells me it was bought by a Dundee school the year it was first published. It must have lived in a class collection for some years, at some point ending up in a private home, and finally being sold to a friend of a friend, who generously got it on my behalf.
It’s a little bit battered, so it obviously got well-used. One page bears a carefully drawn treble clef – pretty accurate but not yet fluent – someone had been learning how to write music, evidently! Meanwhile, the back inside cover has a scrawled ‘THE END’! Was there a sigh of relief, or was it just an irresistibly blank page demanding to be scrawled on?
If Books Could Talk
I wonder how many Leng medal competitors used this copy? If books could talk, this one would surely recall feelings not only of excitement, enjoyment and pride, but also occasionally fear, nerves and perhaps embarrassment – all emotions that my interviewees have shared with me.
It would remember teachers who are still remembered half a century later; not to mention head teachers and deputy heads whose own musicality ensured that they gave music its proper place in the schools that they led.
The principal teacher of music at that time […] was a redoubtable lady and she made sure everybody knew everything …1
But I’d better put my little book away and get back to my interview transcriptions now!
Secondary school pupil commenting on Leng medal singing classes ↩︎
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 