I’m not going to spoil the surprise, but I’m delighted to say that we already have several articles and a couple of book reviews submitted for the next issue of Brio, the professional journal of the UK and Ireland branch of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries). More are on their way. It’s going to be a great special issue, and there will be plenty of new insights into the surviving music that was “Claimed From Stationers’ Hall” during the Georgian era – genuinely completely new discoveries! Woo-hoo!
What’s the Collective Noun for a number of Book Reviews?
My bookshelf seems to be loaded with books that I just “must read”, but I’ve only set myself the task of reviewing three of them. The collective noun for a number of book reviews seems, therefore, to be somewhere between a shelf and a library!
With the deadline looming for our special issue of Brio, I’ve done two book reviews and contributed part of an article, so far. That leaves one more book – sitting right here in front of me – and ultimately, perhaps contributing to the editorial. Even as I write, other contributors are putting together their own contributions. Exciting times! It’s so good to know that one of the network’s major outputs is actually coming together in a very satisfactory way!
Book Reviews
Network members are enthusiastically typing away at the moment, as the deadline for our Brio special issue looms closer! I’ve done a couple of book reviews, and have one more to tackle. Today, I was thinking about matters as apparently disparate as copyright, romanticism, bootlegging and modern recording techniques. Does that sound weird or intriguing to you? I thought it was an excellent book – but you’ll have to wait until the next issue of Brio to read my review!!
New Owner – Toronto Archives
This blogpost about a military tunebook may be of interest to our readers!
Lanrick Castle, Centre Stage!
I have just stumbled across a whole video about Lanrick Castle – only touching upon Sir John MacGregor Murray’s time there, but it’s very evocative, so I thought you might like to see it for yourself. You can imagine Sir John living there, and song-collector Alexander Campbell approaching it in 1815, perhaps a little in awe when he saw the grandeur inside:-
Dr Peter J. Gordon’s website is called “Hole Ousia”. You’ll find the Lanrick Castle video here:- https://holeousia.com/time-passes-listen/ruins/lanrick-castle-demolished/
Stationers’ Hall music and David Daube’s collection by Dalia Garcia
Absolutely delighted – and that’s no exaggeration – to see the Stationers’ Hall music at Aberdeen being studied with enjoyment by MSc placement student Dalia Garcia. I was thrilled to learn that Dalia’s been investigating some of the scores in this collection, and am equally excited to read this blogpost, bringing the collection to the attention of a wider audience – deservedly!
My name is Dalia Garcia and I am about to complete my MSc Information and Library Studies at Robert Gordon University. Looking back now I can say studying this course has been one of the best decisions I have ever taken, and my placement has contributed in great part to making me feel this way. I was lucky enough to be accepted as a placement student at the University of Aberdeen Special Collections Centre, situated on the lower ground floor of The Sir Duncan Rice Library. I was there for the month of April in a full-time learning position, under the supervision of Keith O’Sullivan, Senior Rare Books Librarian, and Jane Pirie, Rare Books Cataloguer.
I had the privilege of seeing such a dream team as the University of Aberdeen Museums and Special Collections working together on their day to day tasks of facilitating research through their books and archives…
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Networking with Other Networks: Romantic National Song
I’ve mentioned before that I am a member of the Romantic National Song network, spearheaded by scholars at the University of Glasgow. There’s a lot of new content on the website today, so I’m happy to share some links which you might enjoy.
The new content website includes the concert video, programme and gallery and two new blog posts reflecting on the concert.
- Concert page: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/concert/
- Concert video: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/concert/concert-video/
- Concert programme: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/concert/concert-programme/
- Concert photo gallery: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/concert/gallery/
- Reflections from the singers blog post: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/singing-british-national-songs-1750-1850-our-performers-reflect-on-the-rnsn-concert-on-18-march-2019/
- Reflections from network members blog post: https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/reflections-on-our-rnsn-concert-of-british-national-songs-1750-1850-by-members-of-the-rnsn/
Please do share with interested colleagues. If you use social media, please share or tag @UoG_RNSN!
A Working Weekend?
Try as I will to avoid the temptation, my research interests overspill into my weekends. Saturday saw me inventorising the late Jimmy Shand’s less-antiquarian accordion music at the Wighton Collection in Dundee. I had much amusement looking at the accordion instruction books! There might be mileage in a wee general-interest article about these, so I can see I’ll have to look at them more closely when I return to finish my “honorary librarian” duties another time. (I’m obsessed with paratext for its value as cultural context, and music instruction books are a bit of a spin-off from this – even if they’re not from the Georgian era!)
Back at home on Sunday, I did a little more work on my Sir John Macgregor Murray paper.
Writing about writing (sharing a blogpost by Dr Jane Secker)
I know this isn’t about copyright music! But it’s a very interesting blogpost by someone who does write elsewhere about copyright-related matters! Jane articulates very well the benefits of reflective writing.
Torn between Copyright Music and the East India Company!
I’m back from vacation with a vengeance, here. I’ve thought of not one, but two future projects worth pursuing, so I am getting in touch with people whom I think might be interested. One project is closely linked to the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall network, whilst the other idea could be said to tie together several strands from all the research I’ve done in the past decade or so. Obviously, grant-writing time is approaching again! Watch this space.
An interesting news snippet is my recent discovery that a librarianship student from Robert Gordon’s University has been doing a placement at the University of Aberdeen’s Library Special Collections – and looking at their Copyright Music collection! This really is very exciting – I love to hear of people getting engaged with these materials, and I’m really happy to think that Aberdeen’s collection is attracting attention. Retired music librarian and rare books cataloguer Richard Turbet did much work on it a few years ago, but it’s definitely time to be woken from its slumbers with some more close study!
So much for copyright music. I still have more writing to do for a substantial journal article about the UK’s repertoire, amongst other things. And we have the Brio journal issue to work towards, later this year, too. All this will be done!
Perso-Indica workshop on “John MacGregor Murray (1745-1822): Persianate and Indic Cultures in British South Asia” – Paris, May 28th 2019.
However, right now, I’m focusing on writing a paper for a seminar at the Sorbonne, which takes place at the end of May. Sir John Macgregor Murray took an almost obsessive interest in Scottish and clan culture, but it appears he was as interested in Indian culture, commissioning translations and texts in Persian, on matters relating to Indian religion, festivals and agriculture. His career was spent in the private army of the East India Company, so maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised that he took an interest in the customs of the land that was his home for more than two decades. He did have a base in Scotland too, having bought Lanrick Castle in his mid-twenties, though I haven’t investigated how often he came home, or whether his wife and son ever stayed there without him. (Much as I’d like to know, I have to remind myself that I’m interested in his cultural activities, not his entire biography!)
(The above image is dated 1760, a bit before Sir John joined the East India Company, but it was so lovely, I just had to include it!)
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 