A Grumpy and Irritable Aberdonian

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Grey granite bricks

To be fair, David Baptie spoke highly of the Aberdonian James Davie, an early to mid 19th Century Scottish song enthusiast. He was a friend of the Dundonian song collector James Wighton.

However, correspondence between the two men reveals him writing sour objections to other contemporaries’ activities and opinions. I quoted some of his grumblings in my first book, Our Ancient National. Airs. I formed the impression that he was decidedly irritable in his old age! 

Here he is, in characteristic tone at the start of his Caledonian Repository:-

Arrangers? Pshaw!

Notwithstanding this, I was excited to accession several books of this Caledonian Repository to the library, since they’re quite rare. The books are tatty and fragile, but a tangible link with the past – they’re about 200 years old.

James Davie’s Caledonian Repository (You can find it in the National Library of Scotland https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/102743092)

The Repository is in two series. We have three books from the first  and two from the second. Grateful that the tune contents pages were there, I sorted out which pages belonged where, then catalogued them. Oh, my fingers flew. But the last one that I managed to catalogue before 5 pm yesterday, simply didn’t want to play fair. The catalogue entry was done. But, without going into details, it wasn’t displaying properly.

I went home, had tea, opened the laptop and recatalogued that piece using the info I’d already entered.

No luck.

I removed the identifying sequential number and tried again.

Still no luck.

Maybe ‘something’ magical would happen to it overnight? It was too much to hope! Mr Davie, irascible as ever, did NOT want that book to appear properly in our catalogue.

Finally, my line-manager suggested trying to give it a different barcode. I have absolutely no idea why the system didn’t like the one I’d assigned it, but I did as suggested, and hey presto, we have Davie’s Caledonian Repository, Series 2, Book 2, properly catalogued and accessible.

So that left me with Series 2, Book 1 to do this morning. That book has all its pages, but the page numbering is, shall we say, a little quixotic.  Mr Davie has had the last laugh there.

Nonetheless, we do now have all five items in the Whittaker Library catalogue.  I like to think Davie would be a little bit pleased!

Seeking Solace in the Library

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Archive book 'snake' weight

I’ve had a run of things going wrong!

  • Awaiting dishwasher parts for 2 months
  • Needing a stonemason
  • Storage heater malfunction
  • MOT cancelled on April Fool’s Day; it really was …

I took myself off on a library visit, looking for a peaceful, fruitful day. (Yes, yes, I know – I’m a librarian, and I already work in a library 3.5 days a week. However, researching in a different library is an entirely different experience.)

It was peaceful, though I could have done without the six miles’ walking in the rain! But –

I found nothing related to my research question!

The trouble was, I had to read a lot of stuff, to eliminate it. Having researched music for so long, however, I was enchanted to read about paper pulp, factories, shipping and personnel in Nairobi, Cape Town, India, Toronto … yes, it was 1946-7, and the links were strong.

Then there were paper and bookbinding cloth shortages. Lots of allusions to both.

But was it a wasted journey? On the face of it, I made no progress, but – as you see – I gathered contextual information. From now on, I won’t be parroting those facts, but alluding to situations I’ve witnessed through perusal of correspondence.  That does count for something.  And I learned a handful of names that I might one day encounter in a musical context.

Oh, and apart from getting drookit  (drenched) and walking six miles (thanks, Fitbit), I did get my peaceful day in a library.

Bibliographies, Lists

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Am I a listophile?  I started the list to end all lists, on Saturday evening. (Yes, I know. Sad, isn’t it? It’s surely better than the Saturday night trips to the laundry in my student days, though.) I’m going through my book manuscript, tracking EVERY sheet music title that I’ve mentioned.

I should already have them in my epic Zotero bibliography, but for this exercise, I’m also checking off which chapters they appear in.  It could be handy when I’m indexing the book in due course. Not only that – if I encounter any date discrepancies, at least I will have the chance to put them right.

But have I created a Monster?

This, dear reader, truly is turning out to be a mega-list. I’m approaching the end of my trawl through Chapter 3 now, and the list is already quite lengthy. On the other hand, since I am likely to be the most knowledgeable authority about publications and publication dates for these particular Scottish publishers, there surely must be some value in this.

And – there are just a few ‘lost books’ amongst them. What could be nicer but more tantalising for a librarian/musicologist/book historian?

Going, Going…
Image by Mike Cuvelier from Pixabay

Image by tookapic from Pixabay

Revisiting Old Haunts (aka, Revision)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It has been a fortnight of revisions. I had a minor tweak to do to my book manuscript, but that was done pretty much in the twinkling of an eye. So far, so good. I zipped it all up in another zip-file, and off it went.

I’m also revising a paper that I’m giving to a professional organisation at the end of April. Most of it is fine, but I have an extra bit I need to add since I last gave the talk to a different group.

But then, yesterday I decided to do some revision to a lecture that I’m scheduled to give to our own students in a month’s time. I’ve given it annually for several years, and each time it gets a little brush-and-polish to reflect any additional thoughts I’ve had on the topic.

This time – and I don’t know why I thought of it – it underwent a slightly more detailed overhaul. Partly, this is because of the work done on my book since this time last year. In March last year, I was still completing the manuscript for the first draft. Now, it’s with the editors, so my thoughts have had time to settle.  But actually, it’s quite interesting to stand back and look at this particular lecture, since it draws on my research over two decades, albeit in a pretty superficial way. (Well, how much can be said in an hour?!)

Writing Under Headings

As I read the lecture through for the umpteenth time today, I realised that there were bits of rearrangement to do. I remembered my PhD supervisor’s advice: write headings, then ensure you write to those headings. Today, I retrospectively added some headings and – miraculously – any passages that were slightly out of order pretty much jumped out and slapped me in the face. It definitely improves the clarity of one’s writing.

The Hebrides (Image by rachinmanila from Pixabay)

The controversies around Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s achievements are clearer with some of the life history pruned out, and her friend Professor Blackie is introduced in a more organised way.

Ironically, my listeners won’t even know what’s changed (and they won’t see those  new headings!),  but I’ll know it’s more polished, and that’s the main thing.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

My Second Monograph: Update

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

No, it’s not published yet. But … there are exciting signs of progress towards that goal.

A Social History of Amateur Music-Making

Meanwhile ….

Amazon has found something I might like. And indeed, I do. I wrote it!

‘We found something you might like’

Typewriter image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay

Stereotypes? Not my Thing!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Thoughts inspired by Women’s History Month

It’s hard to believe now, just how much more women composers were discriminated against in the past. Today, they’re still struggling for equal recognition, but not as much as when Boosey said he would only publish ‘little songs’ by a woman. It’s not as though there’s a feminine style of composition. We don’t arrange our crotchets and quavers, chords and rhythms in a uniquely feminine way.

I concede that a composer might say their piece was inspired by some aspect of being a woman.  Life experiences  can inspire any composer.  Yet, there are as many experiences as there are people on earth.  I don’t think a woman’s music is inherently distinctive, any more than her trumpet playing or any other art-form would be.

Why must we stereotype people? On the face of it, I’m a very conventional, married librarian and mother of three.  I look boringly conventional, I freely admit it.  Yet I am also the breadwinner, and did a PhD at the second attempt, working full-time throughout.  I’ve carved a parallel career as a scholar.  Is that conventional? Does it fit the stereotype of a boringly conventional information worker?

Dancing to my own tune

And I’m about to retire from librarianship – but not from research.  I’m not going to fit any stereotype of a pensioner, either. (Daytime TV and bingo sessions have absolutely no appeal for me – I might explode if anyone tries to categorise me into those particular boxes!)  I have a second monograph and two book chapters to see published before or as I move on with my research plans.

No – stereotypes are definitely not for me.

Images by JiÅ™Ă­ Rotrekl and John Hain from Pixabay

A Glimpse into my Weekend

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I woke, turning over in my mind the latest research idea, debating with myself what I could do with it.  I’m wondering if a mind-map would help!

But Saturday morning means organ practice, so I have to put thoughts of twentieth century music publishing to the back of my mind. In the run-up to Easter, I have three extra services AND two funeral services next week.  Yes, I booked a couple of half day holidays!

And here’s my workplace this morning! After that, home to make choral scores and transcribe a modern Scottish tune for an organ arrangement – there’s no rest for the wicked, as they say!

Daffodils out in time for Easter
Practice done!
Tracker action, late Victorian organ
I love it when the sun pours in
Neilston Parish Church

What you are Looking for is in the Library [a Review]

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Audible, in its infinite wisdom and comparatively brief acquaintance with me, suggested I might enjoy this Penguin novel by Michiko Aoyama.

What You are looking for is in the Library (Penguin, 2023)

Was it because I enjoyed, The Premonition,  by Banana Yoshimoto? Or does Audible (Amazon) somehow know I’m a librarian? I don’t buy books on librarianship…

In any case, it’s not surprising that when this title came up as a new suggestion, I’d be drawn to it! Haven’t I spent 42 years hoping people would find what they were looking for in the library?

It’s an interesting idea: a series of individuals are drawn to visit a community library. It’s staffed by a nervous but friendly trainee and a mysterious, large, middle-aged former special-needs teacher turned librarian (with a penchant for Japanese honey dome cookies, and a felting obsession).  We encounter each library visitor at a crisis point in their lives. A girl wanting a more challenging job; a woman demoted during maternity leave; a man dissatisfied with his work; an unemployed artist; and a newly-retired man each consult the librarian for book recommendations, receiving a couple of perfect choices, and an apparently random children’s book, along with a bonus gift.

In each case, the random book and felted object help them to realise three truths: that there is always more than one way of looking at a situation; there are always other choices of direction; and that everyone draws their own message from any particular book.

Whilst the characters seem unlinked apart from these common threads, the final chapter does gather them together loosely. It’s a gentle, thoughtful, sequential book rather than one with a grand denouement. 

As such, the reader is left feeling less that it all came together in the end, than that each character had found a way to resolve something that had been troubling them. Less of a ‘Wow!’, more of a quietly satisfied, ‘Yes, I enjoyed that.’

Aoyama’s choice of characters is ingenious.  The librarian and her trainee are deftly and likeably characterised as a bit oddball, but happy in their environment, whilst their searching patrons – all new library users – are defined in such a way that the reader is sure to relate to some aspect of their collective predicaments.

And the three truths that I mentioned? Well, as I said, the third was that everyone takes their own message from a book. You’ll have to read it!

Change of Perspective

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This is Fleshmarket Close in Edinburgh. It’s an absolute killer! I hadn’t ventured up those steps for some years – I swear they’ve got worse – and although my bags weren’t heavy, I was ready for a breather 1/3rd of the way up, and 2/3rd, not to mention at the top!  Fitbit says I’ve put in my steps quotient, but annoyingly didn’t count how many flights of stairs I ascended, which is ironic.

But I was on a mission, and I did reward myself with a cuppa when I got to the University Library. 

It’s good to go to a different place to study. (The library,  I mean, not the cafe …)  I think that in itself puts one in a frame of mind to come up with fresh ideas.

It was something of a scoping exercise. Now I need to sit and think about what I found, and its potential as a future research project. Tomorrow will doubtless  see me writing away until I get my ideas in order.

I’ll leave you with a couple of publisher’s rejection letters – nothing to do with music or my research. I just stumbled across them, and smiled:-

Publisher to naive would-be authors:-

‘Dear Madam, […] For a book of merely 43 pages, 370 illustrations is excessive …’

Or this one:-

‘Thank you for offering a MSS on Cats and Reptiles.  I regret that neither subject would be likely to suit our programme which is chiefly school and expository’.

I wonder if the author ever DID get their MS accepted somewhere?!

What does a Librarian want with a PhD, anyway?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Few people in Glasgow knew that I had an unfinished first PhD guiltily lurking in my past, when I announced I wanted to do a PhD. It would actually be my second attempt. I’m told that someone (an academic?) asked that memorable and somewhat hurtful question, ‘What does a librarian want with a PhD, anyway?’

Chained to the shelves – Wimborne Minster Chained Library (Wikipedia)

I realised with a jolt, yesterday morning, that I would be retiring from librarianship exactly fifteen years to the day, since I submitted my thesis to the University of Glasgow. I never managed to cease being a librarian in order to become a full-time academic, because I had family responsibilities in Glasgow, and the chances of a full career-change without relocation were limited, to say the least. However, if I entered librarianship with the unfulfilled expectation of soon having a PhD from Exeter, and the aspiration to become a scholar-librarian …. well, I did achieve the latter aspiration. After getting the Glasgow PhD, I became partially seconded to research three years later, and I’ll continue as a part-time researcher when I’m unshackled from the library shelves.

I don’t know who it was that queried whether a librarian actually needed a PhD, more than twenty years ago. It’s probably a good thing I don’t know! However, if I could show that individual how I’ve just spent my afternoon, then maybe they’d begin to understand.

The other day, an academic colleague said they were putting a student in touch with me, to advise them about resources for a project. This afternoon, I was working from home as a librarian, so I decided to spend the time finding suitable resources for my enquirer. I had in mind a lever-arch file from my own research activities, that I knew was in my study-alcove.

Subject Specialist

[Scottish] ResearchFish

The more I thought about the query, the more things I thought of suggesting. I looked at my own monograph, for a start, along with a couple of essay collections that I’ve contributed to. I compiled a list, mostly but not entirely from the library catalogue. (I tweaked a few catalogue entries whilst I was at it. What does an academic want with a library qualification?, one might ask!) I The family balefully eyed the dining-room table that they were hoping to eat off, as I moved aside the ancient and modern books that were gaily strewn across its surface. However, I’m fairly content that I’ve done my preparation to help with the query. I’ve also enjoyed an afternoon in the company of old friends – the compilers, authors and editors of all those books!

A Value-Added Librarian

Listen, I wouldn’t have known any of those resources if I hadn’t done that PhD. I wouldn’t have known what the arguments were. I wouldn’t have known how nineteenth and early twentieth century song-collectors viewed their collections, nor the metaphors they used to describe them, nor which collections might be of particular interest. I wouldn’t subsequently have collaborated on The Historical Music of Scotland database. And if I hadn’t gone on researching, I wouldn’t have known about some of the more recent materials, either.

I kennt his faither! (A Scot knows what that means)

There might have been times when others wondered who I thought I was, but I am absolutely certain that it has come in useful!