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.
Folks, I’ve just noticed Routledge has a 20% summer sale on at the moment. So, if you or your library could use a copy, this might be a good time to get it! (All books and e-books are 20% off until 1 August 2025.)
The accent is on social history and Scotland – and music-making, obviously. I’m keen to hear what readers think of it. (If you are a reviews editor, do get in touch with Routledge. There’s a link on the website.)
Published in 1997, this is quite an unusual collection: I can’t think of another Scottish song book illustrated throughout by a famous contemporary artist. Inside, the drawings and graphic art are monochrome – only the cover is in full colour. This, it must be said, is not quite what Gray initially envisaged; the decision was necessitated by cost, on the part of the publisher. It’s still a beautiful piece of – well, book art – I imagine it sitting on coffee tables. It doesn’t sit very easily on a piano music stand, due to its bulk.
Today, as I opened it, the dust-jacket fell back, revealing an equally beautiful embossed cloth cover. I just had to share it!
Embossed cloth cover; worded:- ‘Sing as if you live in the early days of a better nation’Endpaper designBook is designed and illustrated by Alasdair Gray
It’s a very traditional anthology – you won’t find modern repertoire here. But it’s carefully annotated, with a bibliography bearing witness to the amount of research that went into it.
I have looked at contemporary reviews, and other related material – and there’s more I could say about this publication. However, I am keeping this for another day.
If you’d like your own copy, it’s out of print but easy to source second-hand. (Here’s the Abe Books link.)
Songs of Scotland, ed. by Wilma Paterson, designed and illustrated by Alasdair Gray (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1997)
This forthcoming Scottish entertainment promises to be so much fun. I had to book more time off for a tradesman’s visit today, so I spent the morning writing song introductions quite different from my usual restrained scholarly style. All the nice little anecdotes suddenly found a home. But let’s see if you can guess the songs requiring my unorthodox props! (How well do you know the west of Scotland?)
Uncommonly Grey Cat
Grey cat, stuffed (fabric, not taxidermy)?
Jam sandwich?
Tartan shawl?
Yoyo?
I still need to unearth a music stand. (We had one! But where?) And heaven help me if I forget the concertina. I found a couple of tunes that suit it and my own capabilities.
The accordion is staying at home, though. After due consideration, I wouldn’t even have enough hands to carry it …
I wrote this post last year, but for some reason never actually posted. Not to worry – now is the time to share it!
You could say Robert Wilson had Scottish music publishing just about tied up in Glasgow. As his singing career began to wane, he bought up James S. Kerr’s and Frank Simpson’s, also co-founding Thistle Records from his premises in Berkeley Street. Not bad going, eh? Oh, and he also owned a travel company, which is less surprising considering his own worldwide travelling as a singer – he must have gained quite a bit of insight into the travel business. An informed, on-the-ground (or water, or airborne) interest, you could say.
After his death, the remaining shareholders of Kerr’s Corporation later acquired Mozart Allan’s AND Bayley & Ferguson’s backlists, too.
Wilson began a career as an apprentice draftsman, but after redundancy, started out as a singer. He sang with the Rothesay Entertainers, joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company Chorus between 1931-7 and then embarked upon his solo career, specialising in middle of the road Scottish song, but not limiting himself exclusively to this repertoire. Here he is, recorded by Pathe Films at the start of his solo career.
Annie Laurie (Maxwellton Braes are Bonnie)
If you’ve got a bit more time, here’s a ‘Voice of Scotland Short’ – a biopic lasting nearly an hour,with musical performances:-
Robert Wilson – Voice of Scotland Short
‘A Tribute to Robert Wilson’, with:-
Kenneth McKellar
Eliot Dobie
Jimmy Shand
Andy Stewart
Will Starr and Accordion
Cliff Hanley
Harry Carmichael
Sydney McEwan
Additional material by Bob Wright of Girvan
Header Image of ‘The Road Bridge to Bonnie Dundee’ from EBay
I have a forthcoming magazine article with more about Robert Wilson, of which I will give full details when it’s published in the near future.
You can read more about Scottish music in bygone days in my recent book:-
On LinkedIn, public-speaking coach Alex Merry recently posted these tips on making a great presentation. It occurs to me that some of these tips will be equally applicable to the Scottish song entertainment that I’m leading later this month.
Alex Merry’s Presentation Tips
In my case, it’s not a presentation at all – I just need to introduce the songs we’re singing. So it’s categorically not about me. But I do need to be lively and relatable. Start with a short sentence and a pause? I hadn’t thought of that, but it should be easy to factor in.
Fun? Oh, yes. I have a few ideas! 💡 Well, props, really. I’m going to need one of those big, reusable supermarket bags. And I have an abundance of stories, so that’s all right.
My only problem is this: I’m a bit embarrassed about my Englishness. I’ve lived in Scotland more than half my life. Scottish national music is my specialism, and I’m secure in my subject – but this is a fun entertainment, not a demonstration of knowledge, and my accent is all wrong. So … do I bring attention to it jokingly, or put it to the back of my mind? My personal view is that you should never draw attention to your weaknesses. What would you do? Stuart Chater on LinkedIn makes a good argument for NOT being ashamed of your accent.
And the song I’m going to sing? (It wasn’t my idea, someone asked me.) It’s short. It’s within my vocal range. But I can no more sound Scottish than fly!
This blog post is an edited excerpt from the research Exchange Talk I gave at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 11 November 2024.
Inside the song-book, The Glories of Scotland, the foreword was followed by a full-page signed photo of a popular Scottish singer and comedian, Alec Finlay. The University of Glasgow’s Scottish Theatre Archive, characterises the latter as, ‘The pocket Harry Lauder’, and ‘Scotland’s gentleman’, describing his comedy as, ‘delightful, couthie and kindly’.
His was an international variety act; significantly, he toured America in late 1950.
If he was known as the ‘pocket Harry Lauder’, it was for a logical reason: a colleague of mine pointed out that Finlay, who clearly modelled his act on the variety superstar, Harry Lauder, even went so far as dressing like him, ‘wiggly stick’ and all.
Harry Lauder, from Wikiwand.com
A song is linked to the signed photograph of Alec Finlay at the front of the book. The photo is captioned ‘Scotland’s own comedian’, with Finlay in typical pose, full Highland dress, wiggly stick, and a blurred Scottish vista behind him. Beneath the photo, and alongside his signature, is the name of a song, ‘Let Scotland flourish’, composed and sung by Alec Finlay.
Sure enough, opposite a picture of Edinburgh’s Princes Street supplied by the Scottish Tourist Board, page 71 bears the words of the chorus – not the music, just the lyrics!:-
‘Let Scotland flourish / In all the years to be / The land that I was born in / Will aye be dear to me / Caledonia I adore you / Tho’ I travel the wide world o’er / My home is where my heart lies / Scotland ever more.’
It’s there, ‘by kind permission of Alec Finlay’, and it was written and composed by Bill McDonnell and Alec Finlay. At the foot of the page, we read that the ‘complete words, music and Solfa are available for 2/- from all music-sellers.’ It was published by Mozart Allan – who also published The Glories of Scotland. The British cover appears at the top of this blog post. (There was another for the overseas edition. )
‘Let Scotland flourish’ is a typical Scottish waltz of the era. Finlay was a hit in America in 1950; and selling the song as a single piece of music would make commercial sense.
In the recording of the song, published by Scottish Clan Records in New York, Finlay sings in the broad Scottish brogue that contemporary American listeners would have expected to hear.
Looking forward to my Exchange Talk and Book Launch next Monday, I made a wee promotional video! Maybe I’ll see you there, if you’re in/around Glasgow.
I knew there was this vast mass of cheap, popular music books, many containing what used to be called ‘national songs’, dating back to the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th. I decided a book needed to be written, and wrote it. I can’t wait for it to make its entry into the world!
You probably have to be Glaswegian to know this old chestnut:-
‘Heh, does this tram go to the Palais?’
‘Naw – it cannae dance!’
Well, the tram has my sympathy, as I can’t either. ‘Himself’ and I each have two left feet, when it comes to tripping the light fantastic. Indeed, his mother used to wonder how someone so musical could be such a hopeless dancer. On the other hand, I realised I disliked the activity as a small child at a party for preschoolers, when a well-intentioned parent tried to make me dance the Twist. I remember the discomfort and embarrassment to this day.
We must have been terrible disappointments. After all, dancing was in the Fyfe’s blood:
Great Grandfather, a stonemason, played bass up in Fyvie for winter dances
My Grandpa-in-law went to dance classes in Turriff as a boy
Mother-in-law was Miss Milligan’s first dance pianist at Jordanhill Teacher Training College, before Jean Milligan even set up the Scottish Country Dancing Society. Later, after a lifetime accompanying Scottish country dance in Newcastle, she got a certificate of recognition from RSCDS at the St Andrews Summer School.
Meanwhile, my own Mum was a PE teacher like Miss Milligan, taught country dancing at a school in Whitstable, and even got my father to play for her on occasions.
I myself had a Saturday job as a ballet class piano accompanist. It felt a comfortable place to be.
So, it feels as though fate has caught up with me, when recent research into a dance accompanist led me to explore early digitised committee minutes on the RSCDS website (thanks, folks – this was really useful!). In Glasgow’s Mitchell Library yesterday, I learned some more, from a book I only discovered at the weekend. I thought the secondhand copy that I found online looked too expensive, but I am reassessing this opinion!
And here I am on a bus to Edinburgh in the pouring rain. I am hoping to see two rare books of reels and strathspeys connected with this one particular pianist who, it appears, was nothing if not a force of nature. A renowned accompanist, I read that when she and her band had to share the dances with other non country dance bands, they really didn’t know quite how to deal with her – they hadn’t encountered anyone like her!
It’s such a damp and dismal day, that I really hope the National Library of Scotland books are just stuffed with interesting paratext, to make the outing worth the effort!
A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951
I’ve just heard I should get the proofs of my second monograph by the end of July.
It looks as though the start of semi-retirement is going to be action-packed, doesn’t it? You might almost think I’d planned it that way, but in truth, it’s just how things have worked out. Any planning was really no more than my thinking, ‘yes, that will probably work out rather nicely’.
I need to start thinking about indexing. Indeed, I have made a partial start, but so far only focusing on one aspect.
Let me just stop coughing and get this beastly flu-bug out of the way, and then I’ll roll my sleeves up!
