A Bibliography of Historical Music Legal Deposit and Copyright

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

2017-12-06 15.27.11Dear friends and fellow network members,

Just thought I’d remind you that we have an extensive bibliography pertaining to the history of music legal deposit and copyright in the UK (and further afield, in a few instances).  Do take a look – if you have written on the subject but I haven’t picked up the citation, please do forward it!  Similarly, if you have colleagues whose work ought to be included in this listing, it would be great if you could let me know.  I’d hate for anyone to be missed out!  Very many thanks.

Access it here:- https://claimedfromstationershall.wordpress.com/bibliography/

Transferable Skills: my involvement with the Jimmy Shand Collection in Dundee

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

cropped-wighton-instr-logo_square-1-300x300Yesterday, I was at the Wighton Centre in Dundee, where I’m honorary librarian of the Friends of Wighton – it’s a charity set up to look after and augment the Wighton Collection, a renowned collection of historical music which has been housed in Dundee public library since the 19th century.
Today, we were launching the Jimmy Shand Collection, which is 23 antiquarian volumes that were bought at auction from the estate of the late Scottish dance-band musician. There were local dignitaries, and Mr and Mrs Jimmy Shand Jnr were also with us.

The Friends of Wighton support music classes in traditional instruments, and some of the musicians played for the launch today. I’m sure Andrew Wighton and his widow would have been pleased that his original epic collection is still been drawn upon for repertoire, and has now had these expertly-conserved scores – once owned by Jimmy Shand – added to it. Jimmy Shand Jnr. made a brief speech in which it was clear that the family are delighted to see their Dad’s music beautifully restored and made available to the local community – and much of it has also been digitized to further its reach.From my point of view, I spend my working week surrounded by conservatoire musicians who play at a very high level, and I enjoy the contrast of seeing other talented musicians out in the community, sharing their skills with people who perhaps haven’t the same musical background, but are still clearly getting personal pleasure from learning to play traditional tunes in the company of other like-minded folk. You could say it’s music for everyone, and not just for the gifted individuals who will set the world alight in their future careers. That’s exactly how it should be.My involvement with the Wighton Collection goes back a number of years now, though I’ve only been Hon. Librarian for a comparatively short time. It’s not directly related to my Claimed From Stationers’ Hall research, but I certainly do draw on knowledge and experienced gained in that respect, so there’s a kind of sideways, indirect link.

If you’d like to see photos of yesterday’s launch, do visit the network Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/ClaimedStatHall/

And a wee postscript!  I was back in Dundee this morning to talk to a TV reporter about the Wighton Collection and the Shand volumes.  I don’t think there’ll be anything to see for a while, so I’ll update you when it does!

Newsletter, August 2018

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

The latest Claimed From Stationers’ Hall Newsletter is live!  Read it here.

menu on CFSH websiteFor your convenience (and the benefit of my Researchfish entries), there’s now a page with links to all  Newsletters.  You’ll find it here – or from the Menu bar on the homepage of this website.

Sacred Harmonic Society (Grove Music)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

One of those chains of enquiry where one thing leads to another!  Should I need to know later, here’s the Oxford Music Online entry for the choral society for which Husk was librarian:- Sacred Harmonic Society | Grove Music

Husk, William Henry (Grove Music)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Husk was the Librarian of the Sacred Harmonic Society, and corresponded with William Chappell.  Having heard of him through researcher Alice Little, I looked him up in Oxford Music Online, just in case I needed to know about him later:-

Source: Husk, W(illiam) H(enry) | Grove Music

The Picture of Fashion

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Not so long ago, I encountered a Georgian picture of a cutter (sailing boat) in a music book that once belonged to Jimmy Shand, and today’s find was just as unexpected.  This book belonged to a woman – there’s no way of telling if it was she, or someone else, that drew a series of fashionable women in Victorian bustles and frills!  No, this has nothing to do with music, but I thought you might like to see the drawings all the same!  They’re in a copy of William Chappell’s A Collection of National English Airs belonging to the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

2018-08-17 11.15.052018-08-17 11.14.342018-08-17 11.14.57

And here’s the Georgian cutter from the Jimmy Shand collection in Dundee Central Library.  It was rather indistinct, but I’ve since interpreted it in my own, 21st century way:-

2018-04-28 15.26.20

James Young Musician ship cutter boat Shand Collection Dundee
An unfinished drawing from a book which belonged to musician James Young.

Mystery in a Music Book

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I was at Edinburgh University Library yesterday – I’m trying to work out which bound volumes might contain music that arrived through the legal deposit route.  I was looking at one particular volume, and came to a batch of pieces all by the same Edinburgh-based  composer.  I looked him up – and found he spent some time in Italy in his youth, under the direction of a particular teacher.

Then I remembered that I’d encountered some music BY that teacher, in a different volume.  And then – exploring the University Library catalogue – I found more by the Edinburgh composer AND more by the Italian musician.  Is it remotely possible that the individual who arranged for that legal deposit volume to be bound, also knew the Edinburgh musician?  It was some decades before music would have an official, recognised place in the University curriculum, but obviously some music was being collected.

Equally, might the music by the Italian – in another volume, not necessarily legal deposit, and in other volumes definitely not so – have come to Edinburgh in some way connected with his British pupil?

You might argue that this doesn’t have much to do with legal deposit.  In one sense, that’s true.  But if we’re thinking about what the University decided to keep, out of the legal deposit material that they received, then this is – if nothing else – quite interesting, surely?

As to the identity of these guys – well, let me enjoy the mystery a bit longer, once I’ve worked out if there’s any more to be discovered!

Echoes From the Vault, Re-echoed

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
2016-03-09 16.25.31
Playfair Terrace, referenced in blogpost

Writing my paper for the IAML Congress which takes place in Leipzig later this month, I decided to reference a recording that I made with Dr Jane Pettegree for my blogpost on St Andrews’ Special Collections blog, Echoes From the Vault.  I can hardly believe it’s two years since I wrote it!  However, it was my research into the Copyright Music Collection at St Andrews, that led ultimately to the AHRC-funded research network that I’m currently leading.

So, maybe it’s not inappropriate to revisit the blogpost here, today?

Experimenting with Animation

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Could you use a couple of absolutely miniscule videos to tell people about the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall research network?

Educationalists don’t entirely agree with the concept of learning styles these days, but in my librarian-as-educationalist capacity I have learned that people do value having access to a variety of formats when it comes to learning about new stuff.  The other day, I was experimenting with a newly-discovered facility for creating very short animated videos.  (Yes, I spend my weekends in odd ways.)

I can see potential uses for Biteable.com, but the major hurdle is deciding which template to use.  Although you start by deciding the purpose of your video, it isn’t immediately apparent how many screens each template offers you, nor what the images are going to look like! Maybe it’s because I was playing around with the free version.

[PS a few days later – I now know that starting a video from scratch means you get to choose how many frames to use, and you can also choose which templates to use, though you lose the chirpy little animated people.  Moreover, you can upload your own music.  THAT makes things much more fun!]

Anyway, my playful Sunday evening resulted in two short videos about the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall network.

  • My first attempt was Claimed From Stationers’ Hall: a Research Network, which explains how the network came into being.
  • Next came  Out of the Stacks,  which is about the repertoire itself, and its value.  Trust me, the videoclip is as short as can be and takes only seconds to view!  I managed to get my own images into this one, which was a bonus.
  • I’ve a feeling I can only create a few videoclips a month for free, so you have my assurance I won’t be cluttering this blog with Biteable videos!

 

Why “Not worth a mention”?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Wonderful! A lovely read, especially for followers of the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall network!

mj263's avatarMusiCB3 Blog

You may have wondered why our latest exhibition, in and around the Anderson Room, celebrating the work of female composers has the odd title of “Not worth a mention“. The idea for the exhibition came about through a chance conversation with a music librarian at another Legal Deposit library. Looking for some music that had been entered at Stationer’s Hall to show a researcher, the first score he plucked from the shelf had a piece by a little known nineteenth century composer, a Miss Heward. Researcher was delighted and wondered if the library had anything else by her. Librarian went confidently to the catalogue, and was puzzled to discover that there was NOTHING by Miss Heward, not even the piece he held in his hand. Perhaps it had been missed out of the electronic catalogue during the migration from cards? But no, there was no evidence of it…

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