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.
I’m still managing not to reply to work emails – I merely glance at my inbox and delete anything irrelevant – and I haven’t touched my interview transcriptions this month. From that point of view, I’m succeeding at this ‘having a holiday’ July. However, my eBay purchases arrived earlier this week, and I could hardly not look at those, could I?
Holiday Purchases!
Prospectus, 1913-14
The school prospectus for 1913-14 contained no mention of James Easson in its examination results. He’d have been 17 or 18 by then. He was also absent from the ‘List of Distinctions gained by Former Pupils’ – but he wouldn’t have had time to get any before the Great War began. I already knew that he served in the war, was invalided out in 1917, and got his Royal Academy of Music certificates in 1918 and 1921.
Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I discovered that the school provided instrumental and vocal instruction – but the teachers’ names weren’t those of the men with whom Easson studied; maybe he had private tuition.
The other alumnus in whom I was mildly interested – the one at the Scottish publishers whom Easson and Wiseman had initially considered, before signing a contract with Nelsons – did appear in the prospectus. He had attained Second Class Honours in Rhetoric, English Language and Literature at Edinburgh University during 1912-13 and graduated with an M.A.
APER: Fifty Years of Progress 1898-1948
This guy also appeared in my other purchase – a jubilee publication celebrating the Association of Publishers’ Educational Representatives.
It was pleasing to spot a contribution from one of the older editors at Thomas Nelson’s, too. By 1948, he had retired to Cornwall – he’d been living there most of the time before retiral, anyway.
Unfortunately, although I read this book from cover to cover – and it was interesting, showing the important role that the educational representatives held, liaising between publisher and schools – it soon became evident that a lot of people, some of them reps, and others with different roles in education, had been commissioned to write a few pages to celebrate the organisation’s 50-year jubilee. By the end of it, I was in no doubt as to the nature of their role. I’d also noted that there were lists of members and important officials – but the book had no direct bearing on my own research. There were some amusing anecdotes, and I was reminded that Thomas Nelson’s educational representatives always wore top hats when they were out visiting schools. It distinguished them from ordinary travelling salesmen.
Top hats in the 1890s (and still in 1948!)
As that retired editor joked, school staff were unlikely to refuse admission to a smartly-dressed gent in a top hat!
Unfortunately, semi-retirement and working-from-home mean that when I’m on holiday, nothing much changes except that I have even more time to spend not-working at home. And Scotland hasn’t even offered sunshine for me to tidy up the garden!
A week into my ‘holiday’, I’ve baked. I’ve knitted socks. I’ve booked a couple of days away. But eventually, bored with my own company – and an excess of companionable but essentially unsatisfying daytime TV – I crept back to my laptop. What could I do? Aha, there had been an interesting comment from one Nelson’s Scots Song Book compiler to his editor, that has been intriguing me for a while. It looks as though Nelson’s weren’t the compilers’ first choice. Clearly, a good vacation activity would be to find out more about the firm that they had initially considered.
So I did. Of course, I’ll never know if the other firm wasn’t interested, or if the compilers decided that for some reason, it wasn’t going to work out. But I now know who the managing director was, who the chief editor was, and what else they published that was remotely music- or Scottish-culture-related. Apart from a commissioned Burns song collection and a couple of dance books, I recognised two modern, contemporary names published by this other firm – but neither were Scottish, nor had anything to do with Scottish culture.
What use this is to me, I cannot fathom, because – as I’ve just said – Easson and Wiseman contracted to produce their series with Nelson!
My fingers twitched to acquire eBay copies of the somewhat unrelated titles that had piqued my interest, but truly, I can’t really justify it. I might just see if I can see copies in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, although that begins to feel like a work-related wild goose chase, not a holiday treat. (I did order a contemporary book-trade commemorative volume that I thought might contain useful background material …)
‘Old School Tie’?
Back I returned to the managing director and chief editor. There was just one interesting lead left to follow. And … I discovered that, believe it or not, James Easson and the chief editor had attended the same secondary school – a highly-esteemed, fee-paying Academy. (Much later, it became state-funded.)
With five years between them, I suspect they wouldn’t have known each other. Their families lived in completely opposite directions, so it’s hard to imagine their paths could have crossed much until adulthood. All it tells me is that they both benefited from a thoroughly good education. One went on to attain music diplomas; the other, academic degrees.
I didn’t trace any musical threads in the chief editor’s timeline. I couldn’t find any interaction with Herbert Wiseman, either. Of course, just because I didn’t find anything, doesn’t mean there wasn’t some connection that I didn’t manage to turn up. But even I know when to concede that I’ve found nothing of interest!
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.
Forgive me for boasting, but this is exciting! I’ve just discovered that my second monograph came out in paperback on 21 May 2026, just over 18 months after the hardback and digital versions. This is really good news, because it makes it much, much more affordable for individual scholars.
Late Victorian Scotland had a flourishing music publishing trade, evidenced by the survival of a plethora of vocal scores and dance tune books; and whether informing us what people actually sang and played at home, danced to, or enjoyed in choirs, or reminding us of the impact of emigration from Britain for both emigrants and their families left behind, examining this neglected repertoire provides an insight into Scottish musical culture and is a valuable addition to the broader social history of Scotland.
The decline of the music trade by the mid-twentieth century is attributable to various factors, some external, but others due to the conservative and perhaps somewhat parochial nature of the publishers’ output. What survives bears witness to the importance of domestic and amateur music-making in ordinary lives between 1880 and 1950. Much of the music is now little more than a historical artefact. Nonetheless, Karen E. McAulay shows that the nature of the music, the song and fiddle tune books’ contents, the paratext around the collections, its packaging, marketing and dissemination all document the social history of an era whose everyday music has often been dismissed as not significant or, indeed, properly ‘old’ enough to merit consideration.
The book will be valuable for academics as well as folk musicians and those interested in the social and musical history of Scotland and the British Isles.
It’s interesting to see how newspaper publishers diversified, producing books and booklets – and even music – for their readership. They advertised other publications within the pages of these booklets. The same practice is of course observed inside and on the back covers of sheet music. Indeed, James S. Kerr sometimes advertised along the bottom of a page of printed music.
In the case of John Leng, it gives a glimpse into the kind of readers they were aiming their publications at, and underlines the importance of music in their lives – specifically Robert Burns’s songs, national songs and dance tunes.
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.
(Three adverts in four pages – and not the last you’ll encounter, for this most popular of magazines!)
‘Life is made lightsome with a song’
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.
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.
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.
The advertisements in this little poetry booklet would be called ‘paratext’ by book historians. Paratext is anything around the text that forms the main body of a book. So the title page, index, contents pages, a preface or introduction – or advertisements for other publications – all count as paratext. It tells us more about the motivation of a publisher, what else they were publishing around the same time, and what they thought their readers would be interested in.
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.)
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, ASocial 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.
Book 1 of The People’s Song Book (1905) finally reached me, yesterday. Repatriated back to the UK from Virginia, it was beautifully packaged and looks, outwardly, in good condition for its age. Inside is the most fragile paper I have ever encountered. And I’m not kidding! I have done some repairs with library-standard transparent Filmoplast, but the pages tear if one so much as lifts them too quickly to turn over, so I doubt I’ll be using it on the piano much.
Repurposed
Nonetheless, I have pretty much answered my own question: John Leng & Co’s The People’s Friend Students’ Song Book of 1939 derived half of its songs from Book 1 of their earlier The People’s Song Book, and half from Book 2 (1915). Both books, with Tonic Sol-Fa above the staff notation, were compiled by Nimmo Christie (1855-1920), a Dundee music teacher and music critic. For many years he wrote for the Dundee Advertiser, the first Dundee newspaper that John Leng edited. Christie’s sister was a journalist on the same paper.
Christie actually compiled several song books of this type. His name doesn’t appear inside either of The People’s Song Book volumes, but there’s sufficient evidence in contemporary Dundee newspapers. I’m completely convinced. Since he also conducted the Leng Medal concerts – and other school concerts – for a few years, there’s a pleasing tangential overlap with my Leng Scottish Song research, too.
Now, if the later People’s Friend Students’ Song Book derives from the two earlier collections, is there any more to say? Well, yes.
‘A-Roving’
There is one extra song which is in neither earlier book. Back and forth I went, looking through the section indices and the music itself. But ‘A-Roving’ (also known as ‘At Number Three Old England Square’) is categorically not there. An early appearance of this song was in the Canadian Camp Fire Choruses of 1887, ‘Presented to Members of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces With the Compliments of The Compilation Committee of the University of Toronto Song Book’. Oxford University Press reprinted it in 1916.
The song is also in Bayley & Ferguson’s Scottish Students Song Book – but although it’s the same tune, the piano arrangement is different, so it wasn’t just lifted.
Which begs the question, why did John Leng & Co. insert the song into their later publication? I suspect it may simply have been the choice of a well-known song that would fill a blank page. I cannot find any reason why this particular song was included, and certainly no link to the by-now long-deceased Nimmo Christie.
No matter. Community singing and family sing-songs were for many years a popular form of amusement for folk in many walks of life. Evidently, students were no different. It says something for the repertoire that it was still considered worth reproduction in this free supplement in ThePeople’s Friend, a quarter of a century later.
It stands to reason. If I’m researching the John Leng Scots Song competitions, then I might also be interested in this firm’s publications. Not, of course, that there’s any direct link between Leng’s trust fund and the firm’s later publications. They published general material, magazines and newspapers, and only a handful of music titles. However, this means that what music they did publish would be of a kind suited to the mass market.
‘For the people’
Is it any surprise that, amongst the ‘Aunt Kate’s’ housekeeping and embroidery books, there might also be dance music and national songs? Which of course indicates their recognition of how popular national songs actually were.
The mythical ‘Aunt Kate’ enjoyed a song!
This week, I bought the second volume of The People’s Song Book, published in 1915. It’s quite an attractive little book, containing 32 Scottish, 33 English, 35 Irish and 34 Welsh songs.
There’s also a section with 32 of the now distasteful genre of ‘minstrel’ songs at the back – blackface minstrelsy, not the homegrown wandering minstrel variety. They are described more insultingly than that, as was the unfortunate custom of that era.
Curiously, these are indicated as a third series of English songs, lower down the page. (The second series appeared after the Scottish songs. Remember, this was the second book, so the ‘first series’ of English songs is presumably there.)
Today, we recognise the English and American origins of the minstrelsy repertoire, but I doubt the compilers were hinting at that. I have written at some length about such songs in my recent monograph – what’s in the present book is no different to those in the collections I’ve already examined.
Notwithstanding this – because we have to recognise that the book is a product of its age, whatever our more informed modern opinion – it would be a strange scholar that acquired book 2, but wasn’t curious about book 1, so I’m excited now to be repatriating the first volume from Virginia. Perhaps some expat took it with them in their trunk, or had it sent to them as a keepsake? And now it’s coming home – it feels appropriate.
First song in the 2nd book – emigration!
The funny thing about Virginia – on a completely unrelated note – is that, a quarter of a century ago, I attended a librarianship interview in Richmond. I didn’t succeed – but I did start my doctoral studies at home in Glasgow, a year or two later. None of what I’ve subsequently done, would have been done at all, if I’d become yet another emigrant like those of a century before.
And now a little national song book is making its way home to me. I’ll be sure to make it welcome!
And More?
Book 1 may answer an intriguing question that arose yesterday. I’m impatient!
Something you may not know is that my first book was by no stretch an academic one; it was actually a People’s Friend serial-turned-paperback, published in 1996.
And Her Family Never Knew
Fiction
Not many people know (there’s a theme here!) that I published 30 short stories and that serial, long before I made my second start at an academic career. Writing helped finance my first maternity leave, and even enabled me to replace my car at the end of it. OK, it was a comparatively little-used Lada. But it had four gears compared to the previous Lada’s three, and more significantly, I’d earned it through writing. I was proud of that. I owe a big debt of gratitude to D. C. Thomson, who gave me these writing opportunities, and plenty of feedback along the way.
Writing Skills: Clarity
Our Ancient National Airs
I honed my writing skills. Clarity was one thing: a story must progress logically, and readability is crucial. I still try to avoid big words for big words’ sake, unless they are the obvious, unavoidable choice.
And Writing about People
Writing about people was another skill, and I have continued to enjoy this in my subsequent work. No, it’s more than enjoyable – I love it! I’m never happier than when I’m writing about people whose lives I have researched; I feel as though I actually know them. Walking through Edinburgh, their ghosts surround me, and I’ve often reflected that I probably know as many deceased Edinburgh musicians and publishers as live ones!
I turned my PhD thesis (2009) into my first monograph (2013), then came a few contributed book chapters, amongst other writings:-
A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity
My second monograph was published at the end of 2024. Research has never occupied as much as half my working week, with the exception of last year’s IASH postdoctoral fellowship, so I have to resist making unfavourable comparisons with other full-time academics’ output; mine doesn’t compare. But, taken in context, I can hold my head up pretty well.
But enough of celebrating my books for World Book Day – I need to get back to the research that will ultimately, I hope, give rise to my third monograph. I’m making up for lost time …
Book Stack
And Her Family Never Knew
Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era
‘Wynds, Vennels and Dual Carriageways: the Changing Nature of Scottish Music’, in Understanding Scotland Musically
‘National Airs in Georgian Libraries’, in Old Songs, New Discoveries: Selected Papers from the 2018 Folk Song Conference
‘Alexander Campbell’s Song-Collecting Tour: ‘The Classic Ground of our Celtic Homer’, in Thirsty Work and other Legacies of Folk Song
‘Strathspeys, Reels and Instrumental Airs: a National Product’, in Music by Subscription: Composers and their Networks in the British Music-Publishing Trade, 1676-1820
A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 