Highs and Lows in Edinburgh

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

To get to the National Library of Scotland, it’s a fairly energetic walk uphill from Waverley and across the Royal Mile to George IV Bridge. My FitBit and I agreed that I’d put in a reasonable amount of effort and a reasonable number of steps, so I had the obligatory coffee and cake as reward before heading up to Special Collections.

Snap!

I wanted to look at a piece of music by Rose Smith.  I do own a copy – but needed to see if the NLS one emanated from an earlier or later era than the address on mine. It was, alas, identical, so I can be fairly sure that it was sold – and probably published – between 1891 and 1901. Any earlier, and Rose was barely an adult. Any later, and Mozart Allan’s street number would have been different.

Happy Families

There’s another Smith score in my own collection, where NLS didn’t have the precise ‘you might also like’ title that was advertised on the back. The British Library catalogue entry dates the advertised title at 1927.  I don’t feel inclined to request a digitised copy.  It wouldn’t necessarily confirm Smith’s piece to have been published around then.  Smith’s cover art makes me doubt this. Although the first newspaper mention of a music title can be significant, Mozart Allan filled the inside and back covers of his music with adverts for other things from his back catalogue that the musician might be interested in. These weren’t always contemporary. So unless I can find a definite date earlier than 1925, I’m floundering in the dark.

Anyway, I had two more Mozart Allan scores lined up to view. These were by the same composer as that British Library piece. Both copies turned out to have been printed after 1925, but one of them could initially have been published any time after 1901 – I did find an early newspaper mention.

I’m not sure what I hoped to establish, really. Knowing that a piece of music by someone else, was published between 1901 and 1925, tells me nothing about the Smith piece that I actually want to pin down.

The Saltire Society

Saltire Society/ NLS Event

Somewhat crestfallen, because I hadn’t made much, if any progress, I was happy to have another coffee (and a blueberry muffin, in the interest of scientific comparison with the recipe I use!), then head to a talk about ‘The Women of the Saltire Society’, which was taking place at NLS this afternoon. There were two excellent speakers, Sarah Leith and Magnus Linklater, giving lively and informative presentations. I definitely need to read more about this organisation!

And then … down the News Steps I went. An unimpressive cuppa (frothy milk in tea?) at Waverley, then back to Glasgow. 

As I said, it was a day of highs and lows!  A welcome, relaxed day does no-one any harm.

One Step Forward: One Woman’s Publishing

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This week, I turned the internet inside out trying to find a copy of a piano piece by Rose Smith,  which seems only to be available in one or two libraries.  Clearly, I need to update Zotero, because when I eventually found this very run-of-the-mill piece of salon music ….

It was in my own collection. Oops!

I only needed it to see which address it had been published from. Setting it alongside another similar piece by Smith, with a later Mozart Allan address, it serves as a reminder that you can’t assume something was first published from the address on a particular copy. Other music listed on a later-printed copy may give you a  clue that it is from an earlier era. Indeed, the apparently ‘later’ piece has an illustration which simply didn’t look the right era for the publication address.

Now, as for the other music listed, which really does appear no longer to survive … anywhere at all … !

More interestingly, the stylistic difference between these piano pieces and Smith’s later self-published songs is quite significant.  But more about that another day.

NEWSFLASH! Print and Tourism (Peter Lang, 2026)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
book cover - Print and Tourism

Yes, I’m on holiday! So I’ll keep this brief, but I have to share this: the postie has just delivered my author’s copy of Print and Tourism: Travel-Related Publications from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century / ed. Catherine Armstrong and Elaine Jackson.

My contribution is Chapter 8, The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: Jumping on the Festival of Britain Bandwagon (pp.187 – 205). It enabled me to write more about this Mozart Allan publication than I was able to justify in last year’s monograph about Scottish music publishers. I’m very happy indeed to have this chapter in Vol.7 of the Printing History and Culture series.

Published Peter Lang, 2026

  • ISBN 9781-80374-2441 (print)
  • ISBN 9781-80374-246-6 (ePub)
  • DOI 10.3726/b20937

Print and Tourism (Peter Lang, 2026), with a Chapter on Mozart Allan’s ‘The Glories of Scotland’

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

An exciting email from the Print Networks Council popped into my inbox this week, announcing a new publication. It contains a chapter that evolved from a paper I submitted back in the pandemic. Yes, I mentioned Mozart Allan’s Glories of Scotland in my book, A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and National Identity, but I have treated it more extensively in this new chapter. It’s not every day that a musicologist gets to think about the Festival of Britain, book exhibitions, and post-war tourism. I thoroughly enjoyed both the researching and the writing of it – and I’m really looking forward to seeing an actual copy!

The latest volume in the Print Networks series has now been published; copies may be ordered via this link: https://www.peterlang.com/series/phc – where previous volumes in the series are also available.

Print and Tourism (the latest in the series)

St Patrick’s Day! Take a Look at Irish Songs Published in Scotland …

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

In honour of the fact that my McAulay in-laws originated from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland, moving to shipbuilding work in Greenock in the mid-19th century, I thought that this St Patrick’s Day I’d highlight my writing about Irish songs published in Scotland.

Chapter 3 in my latest book (A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity), deals with ‘The Saleability of Scottish (and Irish) Songs’. The chapter ‘functions as a guide-map to a large genre of national songs published by Scottish music publishers.’  With many Irish workers in industrial Scotland, and another eye on both the Scottish and Irish diaspora, our Glasgow publishers eagerly produced a number of Irish songs books of various kinds, alongside the Scottish books.

Let me share the chapter abstract with you:-

Abstract (A Social History, Chapter 3, pp.56-92)

Examining first the afterlife of Wood’s Songs of Scotland, the chapter next examines the growth of Glasgow firm Bayley & Ferguson, demonstrating how a combination of new works and reprints of saleable older ones built up a significant catalogue, and also noting their involvement with song-collectors and arrangers Afred Moffat and Frank Kidson. It highlights their interest in Highland collections, and also closely examines two of their popular titles, the Scottish Students’ Song Book and subsequent British Students’ Song Book.

The chapter assesses the various Scottish as well as Irish songbooks produced by Scottish publishers, appealing to emigrants as well as British music-lovers, and indicating their clear resolve to produce Irish books which would appeal to both sides of the sectarian divide.

Whilst the primary focus has been on the main Scottish music firms, this chapter concludes by shedding light on some of the lesser ones, and those for whom publishing was a sideline to a primarily retail business.

It may be of interest to note that Robert Wallace, the second owner of James S. Kerr’s, had a connection with Northern Ireland himself: his parents had married in Belfast. His father was Glaswegian, but as I recall, his mother was Irish. (There’s more about the piano-tuner turned publisher Robert Wallace in Chapter 1.)  Kerr’s The Orange Songster is distinctly sectarian, but the much-reported and decidedly humorous court-case between Kerr’s and Mozart Allan hinged on just one particular song: ‘The Ould Orange Flute’.  Wallace published this song first.  Mozart Allan was accused of plagiarism.  You’ll have to read the book for the full story!

A Century Earlier

Irish songs also got a mention in Chapter 5 of my first book (Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era), too. It’s a chapter on early 19th century metaphor in song book paratexts: ‘Which many a bard had chanted many a day’: Paratextual Imagery and Metaphors in Romantic Celtic Song Collections (pp. 129-148). There are no orange flutes here – but a lot about bards and minstrels, with references to broken harp strings in the context of the United Irish movement.

Silent Harps

The harp that once, thro’ Tara’s halls, the soul of music shed, now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls as if that soul were fled …

Oh! Blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers […] The string, that now languishes loose o’er the lyre, might have bent a proud bow to the warrior’s dart …

The minstrel boy to the war is gone […] and his wild harp slung behind him. […] The minstrel fell! […] The harp he loved ne’er spoke again …

Two songs by Thomas Moore, and a souvenir from a research trip to Dublin!

Good News! Article now Published in RMA Research Chronicle, and an [unrelated] Book Chapter Pending

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Silver Victorian pen and ink stand

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my RMA Research Chronicle article was now available online as open access. Today, it’s actually in the published issue. Receiving this email is a great start to the day:-

“your article, ‘Women Pursuing Musical Careers: Finding Opportunities in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Scottish Music Publishing Circles’, has now been published in Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle! You can view your article at https://doi.org/10.1017/rrc.2025.10009 “

Citation Details

Writing about Tourism

What’s this?, I hear you ask. Why would a musicologist write about tourism? Well, it’s like this: one of the song book titles that I explored in last year’s monograph, The Glories of Scotland, really deserved more space than I could give it in a monograph devoted to a nation’s music publishing. However, the opportunity came up to contribute a chapter to a Peter Lang Publication, Print and Tourism: Travel-Related Publications from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, edited by Catherine Armstrong and Elaine Jackson.

Today, I received the final proofs, which means that the book itself can’t be very far away. I really enjoyed writing this chapter – you could say that it’s decidedly more about publishing history, and tourism, than conventional musicology – and I really look forward to it actually being published.

My chapter (19 pages):-

‘The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song’: Jumping on the Festival of Britain Bandwagon?’

The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song - a song book published by Mozart Allan of Glasgow. The cover shows various Scottish tartans.
The Glories of Scotland – Mozart Allan’s souvenir songbook
Back cover of The Glories of Scotland song book
Back cover of The Glories of Scotland

A Gift Idea? A Social History of Amateur Music-Making

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Stumped for a present for your Scottish music enthusiast? My new book is affordable as an e-book! (Just sayin’ …)

A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music 1880-1951

Why did Scottish music publishers produce so many songbooks and dance tunes? Who took Scottish music overseas to the diaspora? How did classical composers interact with local publishers?

I’ve discussed all this and more. Full details on the publisher’s page, link above.

Most Memorable Scottish Songs Today (Library Perspective!)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Preparing for my Good Morning Scotland interview the other day, as I mentioned, I drew up something halfway between a mind-map and a spreadsheet to clarify in my mind how old the songs were, and who they were associated with. I had also – ever the librarian – looked up which of the Whittaker Library songbooks actually contained the songs in question. I wasn’t looking for every copy we had, just a rough overview. I thought you might be interested to see what our library patrons have access to. 

It is significant that there are only two genuinely old songs – the last two, by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns. Otherwise, they’re popular songs that are Scottish, but folksongs? Not exactly traditional or old, but certainly much beloved today. So, will there still be popular songs in fifty years’ time? Yes, of course – but maybe they haven’t even been written yet! 

Here is the list – in order of popularity – that Visit Scotland compiled from their recent survey:-

The Singing Kettle, book 2
  1. You cannae shove yer grannie aff a bus – it’s in Cilla Fisher and Artie Tresize’s second Singing Kettle music book (1989). Also in Ewan McVicar’s One Singer, one Song (1990) and his Scottish Songs for Younger Children (a words-only book, 2002); and in Traditional Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland Vol.3 (1994).
  2. Donald, where’s your Troosers? Sung by Calum Kennedy and published by our friends Mozart Allan in 1959, and by Andy Stewart, published by Kerr’s in 1960. We listened to Andy’s rendition at home last night – and it still makes us laugh.
  3. Coulter’s Candy – (hint: it’s pronounced ‘Cooters’) in Singing Kettle [book 1]; Katherine Campbell and Ewan McVicar’s Traditional Scottish Songs and Music (St Andrews: Leckie & Leckie, 2001); and Ewan McVicar’s Scottish Songs for Younger Children.
  4. Wee Willie Winkie – I know it, and we have it in the library, but not in the version I know!
  5. Skinny Malinky – in Wilma Paterson and Alasdair Gray’s Songs of Scotland (1996)
  6. Three Craws – in the second Singing Kettle book; and Jimmie McGregor’s Singing our Own (1970)
  7. The Jeely Piece Song – the library has Adam McNaughtan’s CD, The Words that I used to know (Greentrax, 2000). It’s also known as The Skyscraper Wean and can be found in Morag Henriksen and Barrie Carson Turner’s Sing Around Scotland (1985).
  8. Bonnie wee Jeannie McColl – first sung by Will Fyffe in 1929, and more recently by the Alexander Brothers, it appears in 100 Great Scottish Songs (Dublin: Soodlum,1986)
  9. An oldie: Walter Scott’s, Scots wha’ ha’e – it’s in many, many collections! I found it in Traditional Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland Vol.3; and Wilma Paterson’s Songs of Scotland.
  10. Another oldie; Robert Burns’s My heart’s in the Highlands. People probably know the version sung by Karine Polwart in 2001, and Fara in 2014. There are much earlier versions in printed books, of course, but I suspect not what today’s enthusiasts are looking for!

This is a YouTube link to Karine Polwart’s, ‘My heart’s in the Highlands.

Wilma Paterson’s Songs of Scotland, illustrated by Alasdair Gray
Traditional Folksongs & Ballads of Scotland Vol.3

7 & 8 November  – TWO McAulays in a week (in different places)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It appears both my husband and I are giving presentations in a fortnight’s time!

The evening of Tuesday 7th , Hugh is talking on Zoom about Newcastle trolleybuses, to an enthusiasts’ group in Turin.* (Sadly for him, he’s sitting in Glasgow, not Turin, to do it!)

Less than 24 hours after that, I shall be giving a talk about a couple of Mozart Allan Scottish songbooks, in the Gifford Room (at the University of St Andrews’ Laidlaw Centre) on Weds 8th at 2.30 pm.

The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: compiling a book with the 1951 Festival of Britain in mind

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/assets/university/music-centre/documents/music-events.pdf

The Glories of Scotland is a ‘snapshot in time’, as I shall explain. It has connections with another contemporary Mozart Allan title, and also with the Festival of Britain.  Admittedly, it doesn’t look particularly special to our modern eyes, but it indirectly tells us a lot about postwar British culture.

As it happens, I’m giving a lecture to the historians later in November, in connection with my Ketelbey Fellowship.  But I’ll be taking a very different tack that time. The music talk on 8 November is about one – okay, two books, whilst the history one covers half a century. And it feels as though, whilst I’ll be introducing history to the music lovers, I’ll be sharing music history with the historians – looking at how contemporary trends were reflected in what Scottish music publishers produced.

I’ve just finished writing my music talk.  On Wednesday, I made a list of all the images I’d need for the PowerPoint, and I had intended on Thursday to see which pictures I had already (as opposed to those I needed to scan), draft the Ppt and do some reading. 

However, I didn’t bargain on Storm Babet. Suffice to say, I got a bus home to Glasgow and spent the afternoon and evening scanning and finishing the slides. No reading got done, but at least the talk and slides are all sorted. Well, apart from timing it …

Postscript. Thankfully, the postie’s delivery of one particular rarity didn’t get drenched in the rain last week. It was only 2/6 in 1950 – I dreaded it getting damaged. Especially as I’m talking about the diaspora intentions of the publisher, and this particular copy comes from France!

* For Hugh’s talk, visit the ATTS Torino Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/attstorino

Obsession or Precision?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I’ve just ordered a second copy of a cheap, mid-twentieth century Scottish song-book, for what might seem like the flimsiest of reasons:-

It has the lowest original price I’ve yet seen on the cover, and the National Anthem shows it precedes Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne. So, it’s an early copy.

Does this make a difference?

  • For a start, it is evidence of the latest possible publication date for this particular title. (I do have other, newspaper evidence, but here’s the tangible proof!)
  • It forms a kind of pair with another contemporary title, which I’m giving a talk about!
  • I want to see what other publications were being advertised at the time. Adverts did change over time.
  • I’d love to find other unexpected details – an owner’s mark of some kind – but that would be an added extra!

One day, when I’m a happy memory, my family will doubtless ask, Why did she have two copies?! Hopefully someone will defend me with, ‘She must have had her reasons …’

Oh, and where is it coming from?

France!