Yesterday, I was at the Wighton Centre in Dundee, where I’m honorary librarian of the Friends of Wighton – it’s a charity set up to look after and augment the Wighton Collection, a renowned collection of historical music which has been housed in Dundee public library since the 19th century.
Today, we were launching the Jimmy Shand Collection, which is 23 antiquarian volumes that were bought at auction from the estate of the late Scottish dance-band musician. There were local dignitaries, and Mr and Mrs Jimmy Shand Jnr were also with us.
The Friends of Wighton support music classes in traditional instruments, and some of the musicians played for the launch today. I’m sure Andrew Wighton and his widow would have been pleased that his original epic collection is still been drawn upon for repertoire, and has now had these expertly-conserved scores – once owned by Jimmy Shand – added to it. Jimmy Shand Jnr. made a brief speech in which it was clear that the family are delighted to see their Dad’s music beautifully restored and made available to the local community – and much of it has also been digitized to further its reach.From my point of view, I spend my working week surrounded by conservatoire musicians who play at a very high level, and I enjoy the contrast of seeing other talented musicians out in the community, sharing their skills with people who perhaps haven’t the same musical background, but are still clearly getting personal pleasure from learning to play traditional tunes in the company of other like-minded folk. You could say it’s music for everyone, and not just for the gifted individuals who will set the world alight in their future careers. That’s exactly how it should be.My involvement with the Wighton Collection goes back a number of years now, though I’ve only been Hon. Librarian for a comparatively short time. It’s not directly related to my Claimed From Stationers’ Hall research, but I certainly do draw on knowledge and experienced gained in that respect, so there’s a kind of sideways, indirect link.
If you’d like to see photos of yesterday’s launch, do visit the network Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/ClaimedStatHall/
And a wee postscript! I was back in Dundee this morning to talk to a TV reporter about the Wighton Collection and the Shand volumes. I don’t think there’ll be anything to see for a while, so I’ll update you when it does!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 