Don’t worry – all the historical legal deposit music is enjoying a few bars’ rest. I’ll be back soon!
Quiet Contemplation: but You can Help!
I’ve reached the point where I need to find more grant-funding! I seem to be at a bit of a cross-roads, needing to decide whether to forge ahead immediately with the Stationers’ Hall research, or take another road which will bring me back to it eventually, having gathered more useful data on the way.
There’s also the question of my own status as a researcher. Neither “new” enough nor “old” enough for early-career or emeritus awards, nor established enough to say that I’m in a “permanent academic post”. Permanent, yes. Academic-related, certainly. But ….!
Meanwhile, please do give me feedback on what the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall network has achieved so far.
- What have you enjoyed?
- What have you learned/gained from following it?
- Has it given you fresh ideas?
- Have you shared information with other people or taken new actions yourself?
I posted similar questions on the Facebook page yesterday. I am more than happy for you to talk to me and share your ideas!
Why have I fallen silent? Well, not totally mute, but the thing is … I’m looking for more grant-funding and trying to…
Posted by Claimed From Stationers Hall: Early Legal Deposit Music on Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Networking with Other Networks: CILIP LIHG: Finding the Women in Library & Information History (CFP)
Another call for papers, spotted on social media this morning …
Conference announcement: Finding the Women in
Library & Information History
CILIP LIHG Conference 2019
Saturday 22nd June
The John Rylands Library, Manchester pic.twitter.com/8EvNqVoFab— CILIP LIHG (@CILIP_LIHG) February 26, 2019
Networking with Other Networks – both funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Today, I attended the first meeting of a new research network – the Cultural History of Glasgow Network, organised jointly between the Open University in Scotland, and Glasgow City Archives, and funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It was hosted by the Mitchell Library, Glasgow’s impressive flagship central public library. It’s always interesting to be involved with a new collaboration introducing a different mix of people, and this one’s particularly interesting being so close to home, as it were!
As the session ended, I pulled on my coat and headed back to the Conservatoire for a concert organised by another of the networks I’ve been involved with – the Romantic National Song Network, led this time by Dr Kirsteen McCue of the University of Glasgow, but drawing performers from British and Irish music colleges. Again, it was funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Here, we heard national songs largely from the Romantic era and slightly earlier – British, English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh songs were all represented, introduced by experts, and performed to an exceptionally high standard. I’m not going to attempt to review the event – I’m too close to all involved to be considered an impartial witness! But it was great, and I am proud to have been involved with the network. More of my own reactions will appear on the RNSN website in due course, so watch this space!
Networking with Other Networks: Panellist at ISECS – International Congress on the Enlightenment
I’m excited to be part of a panel talking about paratext at the forthcoming ISECS Congress, 14th – 19th July 2019, hosted by the University of Edinburgh. Registration is now open, though the detailed programme isn’t yet finalised. (There’s an early bird rate until 30 April.)
Icepops 2019: Draft Programme
UK Copyright Literacy, via Icepops 2019: Draft Programme
I’m presenting a Pecha Kucha at the June 2019 Icepops event in Edinburgh. “Silence in the Library: from Copyright Collections to Cage”
This (if we are to believe YouTube) is the official video of John Cage’s 4’33”
TEDxGlasgow? Now, Let’s See ….
❌ 2019 SPEAKER APPLICATIONS OPEN NOW ❌
Ideas. Exciting, new, ground-breaking, thought-provoking ideas. If you have them, we want them. This year’s theme is Connection so if your idea connects to the theme, apply to be a speaker here > https://t.co/l2GyAgg8Pp #TEDxGla2019 pic.twitter.com/go4Z0sKRJx
— TEDxGlasgow (@TEDxGlasgow) February 25, 2019
International Women’s Day 2019: The first women in the Library
How lovely to see Miss Lambert included there in this blog about St Andrews University Library’s women staff! (even if Miss L. wasn’t actually an employee!)
The theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019 is ‘Balance for better’ with a call to action to help ‘forge a more gender-balanced world.’ Women have been studying at St Andrews for 127 years having been first admitted to the University as students in 1892 – though the University’s Ladies Literate in Arts (LLA) scheme began earlier in 1877 as a distance learning qualification for women. Although the history of women at St Andrews is a fraction of the University’s 600-year history, more recent statistics suggest the sex/gender balance in the student population (2017) is now in favour of female students (58.4%), compared to male (41.6%).
Tracing the history of women employed by the University is more difficult. We cannot say for sure who the first woman to be employed by the University was, although the 16th century statutes of St Leonard’s College include the rule that no woman…
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Networking with Other Networks: the 1820s: Innovation and Diffusion
Hosted at the University of Glasgow, Thursday 11th – Friday 12th April, this is a conference I find very tempting – the 1820s were my favourite era during my doctoral studies, and they’re pretty interesting in current Legal-Deposit-Music-From-Stationers-Hall terms, too. Will I manage to attend some or all of this one, though? I have 10.5 research hours per week: we’ll see!
Here is the conference page, with EventBrite booking and programme:-
Networking with Other Networks: Reframing Heritage through Art Practice at the University of the West of Scotland
Out of the Past, Into the Present: Reframing Heritage through Art Practice
The other day, I saw details of the abovenamed event hosted at the CCA by the University of the West of Scotland’s Creative and Cultural Industries course in the School of Media, Culture & Society. It took place today, and I spent my morning there, hearing about music as a creative response to global warming, music using heritage technology (synthesizers), and documentary film about post-industrial Ravenscraig, about Irish women’s role in rural society some decades ago, and about a pioneer woman engineer.
You might ask what any of this has to do with Georgian legal deposit music? On the face of it, not a lot. This is partly because although the web announcement named UWS and the titles of the talks, it didn’t name the department or that a couple of the presentations were based on Masters students projects. The department has a contemporary and recent contemporary, rather than a centuries-old historical focus, so there was a divergence of approaches between theirs and mine. Also, partly because I saw the words “reframing heritage” and “art practice”, and I read what I wanted to read. And that’s my fault – but don’t we often do this?! Obviously, “heritage” does not have to mean Georgian. “Reframing” can also include responding musically to something other than music, whilst my own research places heritage music as the primary focus and looks for ways to reframe that, to make it relevant and appealing to people today. But my research response is not to write music (although I’ve been known to write the odd self-indulgent tune!), and – until today – it wouldn’t have occurred to me to produce a documentary film about it.
So, I felt a bit of a dinosaur, really – here were people responding to real global issues, using music and film, whilst I am exploring the history of centuries-old music. You could say I’m reframing it to make it interesting to new audiences, but not in quite the same way! Would anyone be interested in a documentary film about Stationers’ Hall legal deposit music? My fear is that there would be a smaller audience than for the topics being discussed today!
Anyway, back to the drawing-board now. I’m looking for new grants and new directions to take the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall research – better get on with it!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 