Alexander Campbell’s song-collecting for Albyn’s Anthology (5.30 Tues 17th November)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

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.

Karenmca's avatarKaren McAulay Teaching Artist

At the risk of being insufferable, I’m sharing this on all my social media haunts! At 5.30 pm tomorrow night, folks – I’m talking about an early Scottish song collector, Alexander Campbell – for Glasgow Uni’s Scottish and Celtic Studies Department. You can join us if you like:- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alexander-campbells-song-collecting-for-albyns-anthology-tickets-121414950385

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Scottish Music Puzzle

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Why am I posting a jigsaw puzzle? It’s for the Scottish Research Showcase on Friday 27 November 2020! See how quickly you can complete it. You’ll get the full context tomorrow when I tweet a link to my videoclip.

Scottish Music Puzzle

If you follow Twitter, these are the necessary names and hashtag to follow:-

  • @Ernscot
  • #GlobalScienceShow
  • And my own account, @Karenmca

See you there!

One Tune, One Little Tune!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

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 …

My Gift-to-Self

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This is Lancaster Castle’s Shire Hall, built circa 1798, depicted on a teapot stand from – probably – around 1830. Earlier in the 1790s, ‘my’ lady music cataloguer, Elizabeth Lambert, was christened in St Mary’s Church, to the left of the picture. The Shire Hall hadn’t yet been built, and Elizabeth’s widowed mother had moved her young family to St Andrews to join her brother, a professor at the University there. Nonetheless, the church was there.

Fast forward to the mid 20th century. I was born in Lancaster and brought home to a flat at St Mary’s Gate, which was adjacent to the church.

Was there something in the water, that made both Elizabeth and me music cataloguers?! Anyway, this was just a wee bargain on eBay, and plainly I had to have it. Luckily for me, it was of huge significance to me, but not of high value to the vendor!

Spread Too Thin?

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This is another of my cross-posts from the Facebook Glasgow Music Publishers page. But I’ve updated the update!

Apologies for the silence here. In recent weeks, I’ve given two conference papers (one on Stationers’ Hall music, and one on old Scots songs and a Lowland pipe tune); I gave another talk (about Scottish song-collector Alexander Campbell) last Sunday late afternoon. Was I happy with my talk? Yes, until I had given it! This self-doubt is really quite a handicap.

I have just had the luxury of a long weekend, but – well, it hasn’t been luxurious. As well as the Sunday talk, there was the usual domesticity and the church organist duties. We expected the roofer to start work today, too, but it rained – and you don’t remove a VERY large skylight in the rain! Not to worry – I turned one of my conference papers into a journal article and submitted it this evening. I’ve just realised I’m a coward. I submitted an article to a journal I’ve not submitted to before, and now I’m struggling NOT to judge it too harshly, probably before the editor has even checked their email inbox!

I really do have to get back to work on a book chapter – although neither it nor the rest of this frenetic activity has been about Glasgow music publishers! (I just hope their ghosts aren’t feeling neglected, or heaven help me come Hallowe’en!)

Why Provenance Matters in the Library

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Some reading for me, later on this evening! I’ve been made aware of a potentially interesting article by Alice Wickenden:-

Things to Know before Beginning, or: Why Provenance Matters in the Library

(Inscription: the Journal of Material Text – Theory, Practice, History, June 2020)

A question to you, my reader

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I asked a question on my Facebook page, Glasgow Music Publishers 1880-1950. Maybe folk don’t realize I genuinely would like to hear their thoughts! Here it is again, for anyone who doesn’t use Facebook:-

So, now. Has any particular topic really resonated with you, or has there been anything you wish I’d expand upon? I have the opportunity to write a longer piece (not immediately, but in the foreseeable future) and I’m trying to decide what to focus on!

(Confession – the image is of cards by Dundee printers, Valentines. I missed out on the eBay auction, but snaffled the picture earlier …)“

Follow my Leader! Napoleon, Victoria and Albert …

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I’m just leaving this thought here, as a general observation. I was reading recently about Victoria and Albert, tartan and the phenomenon of “Balmorality”. It would be glib, and wrong, to pronounce that everyone loves tartan, but a lot of people certainly do.

Today, I’m reviewing a book about James Macpherson’s Ossian and its pervasive influence on culture not just in Scotland or Great Britain, but on the continent, too. Again, the actual facts are far more nuanced than this bald statement, but it is clear that, because Napoleon was an enthusiastic fan, a lot of people followed him.

So, there’s a parallel, isn’t there? How often has the approval, or disapproval, of a head of state led to a craze for something cultural, be it the warp and weft of a type of cloth, or the exploits of a misty distant hero?

Image: Child in a Scots Costume, sourced via Art UK. Painting by W H Prape, and now curated by Enfield Museum Service

Revisiting the Achievements of Song-Collector Alexander Campbell

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

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 …

https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/song-collector-alexander-campbell/

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!