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 wrote extensively about Scottish song-collector Alexander Campbell and his early 19th century Albyn’s Anthology collections, in my PhD. And my subsequent monograph. I’ve talked about him (a lot), and during the pandemic, I contributed a chapter to Steve Roud and David Atkinson’s essay collection, Thirsty Work and other Legacies of Folk Song (London: The Ballad Partners, 2022). So it’s gratifying to read a nice review of the essay collection in the April-May 2023 issue (no.324) of London Folk.
Campbell feels like a distinct ‘blast from the past’, after I’ve spent the past three or four years mainly thinking about more recent song collections. But I’m very pleased that other people seem to share my interest in this fascinating man!
It’s just a wee song written by a 1950s Scottish comedian – ‘Let Scotland Flourish’, by Alec Finlay. Yes, published by Mozart Allan (who else?!)
I found a picture of the cover – oh, yes! But I really would like to see inside, and also the back of it! There’s every probability it’s just a “variety theatre” kind of song – it may have a Scottish flavour. But I’d still like to see for myself …
You’ll remember that last year, I gave some talks about Scottish song-collector Alexander Campbell and his tour round the Hebrides in 1815.
James D Hobson has just posted a great blogpost, A Guide to the Georgian Coaching Inn. Read about the kind of experience Alexander Campbell may have had, on the occasions he travelled by coach or stayed at an inn! (I’ve added this link to my own earlier blogpost so readers will have another chance of finding it, too.) Congrats, James – it’s a wonderful read.
I’ve been busily posting away on the Facebook page, so I thought I’d better update the blog as well. These few lines are taken from the FB page.
YESTERDAY there was a slight hint of despair as I wrote,
My second book is going to take quite a while to write! I’m only technically a postdoctoral researcher for one and a half days (10.5 hours) a week. I told myself I had to write 250 words a day, five days a week.But factoring in answering emails, attending the odd meeting, doing the odd bit of research, ordering the odd book or downloading the occasional article, and how much time do I have in which to actually write? So the first week of this bold resolution has resulted in …? Not exactly 1250 words for the introductory chapter. Oh, they’re good words, in the right order, but nonetheless … I shall have to pull my finger out tomorrow morning!!
TODAY, things started to look up:
ONE DAY THERE WILL BE A SECOND BOOK. I’ve redeemed myself. I set out to write 250 words a day, five days a week. I didn’t manage that in the first week. However, on the first day of the second week, I do now have a total of 1500 words – mathematicians will work out that I’ve caught up before the Easter break. This may be the only time that it happens, of course …
This has also been posted on Facebook, on my Glasgow Music Publishers page.
Well, that’s it done. I was invited to contribute a chapter to a book, and after quite a bit of research – and 34 hours’ writing in the past week – I have submitted it! Such a relief. I admit, I was a bit chastened to realise that I had just spent a whole week of Actual, Genuine Holiday sitting at my desk writing a book chapter – which constitutes actual, genuine intellectual work. Oh well, it had to be done!
This also means I can sidle out of the eighteenth century and back to the twentieth, to continue my researches into Scottish music publishers from the late Victorian era onwards.
Because of Covid, I still can’t do what I’d like to do next. I’d like to speak to very elderly people, to see what they can tell me about the Scottish music they and their parents enjoyed in the days before the folk revival. To do this properly, I’d have to get ethical clearance from my department, and then I’d need to reach out to the generation whose memories I’m particularly interested in. Obviously, Covid means I can’t go physically interviewing frail old people anywhere, so I’m a little bit stuck, and there’s no point in seeking ethical clearance to do anything of the sort, even when everyone’s had their vaccination.
But if you’ve got elderly relatives who enjoyed Scottish music in their youth, and they can remember particular books that they had in their music cabinets or piano stools, then do feel free to tell me what those books were! It might not be a formal, ethically-approved study, but even anecdotal stories help us document what was popular and, maybe, why it was. Maybe Great Auntie Doris always had a few songs that she sang at Hogmanay, or cousin Lottie used to sing from a certain book at Sunday School concerts? Or Bert next door was renowned for his bothy ballad renditions on the accordion? Do tell me! Otherwise, in another decade or two, we’ll have lost that generation and their stories with them.
The talk itself wasn’t recorded, but I did make a recording of my final rehearsal. Please do contact me if you’d like to see it for research purposes – I’m not going to post it publicly here.
So here’s a fine state of affairs. I’m working on a book chapter. I’m also polishing a paper for a lecture I’m giving next month. There I was the other day, looking at one of the sources that I’m focusing on for the chapter, and suddenly – hey, THERE was a tune that had also been used by the anthology compiler that I’m lecturing on.
One thing led to another. I now have a new section in the lecture, a new selfie-stick for recording myself PLAYING the tune in various different iterations, a practising schedule to make sure the tunes sound good in the recording, and the distinct possibility that I shall write something more extended for this blog at some stage. Which is great, of course.
However, that aside, these particular points of interest are neither connected with the impending book chapter, nor my own research into Scottish music publishers! I’m stuck with an earworm. Meanwhile, I need to set the lecture aside for now, and put some more work into the chapter …
I recently wrote a blog-post about Alexander Campbell, for the Romantic National Song Network. Campbell was one of “my” song-collectors, who occupied a good bit of my time whilst I was writing my PhD thesis and subsequently my book. (And I learned a whole lot more about his “trip-advisor”, Sir John Macgregor Murray, when I was writing a paper for that seminar at the Sorbonne last year!)
Here’s the link to the blogpost, which went live this evening. Get yourself a cuppa and settle down for a read …
Image:- Lanrick Castle Gatehouse, entrance to Sir John Macgregor Murray’s home (Campbell’s trip-advisor!)
Post Script! By the way, James D Hobson has just posted a great blogpost, A Guide to the Georgian Coaching Inn. Read about the kind of experience Alexander Campbell may have had, on the occasions he travelled by coach or stayed at an inn!
Must be the start of the year – there’s a sudden outpouring of calls for papers, conference registrations and other exciting challenges. Here’s one for this morning – Musica Scotica is a network I’ve long been associated with.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 