Today, I attended the first meeting of a new research network – the Cultural History of Glasgow Network, organised jointly between the Open University in Scotland, and Glasgow City Archives, and funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It was hosted by the Mitchell Library, Glasgow’s impressive flagship central public library. It’s always interesting to be involved with a new collaboration introducing a different mix of people, and this one’s particularly interesting being so close to home, as it were!
As the session ended, I pulled on my coat and headed back to the Conservatoire for a concert organised by another of the networks I’ve been involved with – the Romantic National Song Network, led this time by Dr Kirsteen McCue of the University of Glasgow, but drawing performers from British and Irish music colleges. Again, it was funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Here, we heard national songs largely from the Romantic era and slightly earlier – British, English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh songs were all represented, introduced by experts, and performed to an exceptionally high standard. I’m not going to attempt to review the event – I’m too close to all involved to be considered an impartial witness! But it was great, and I am proud to have been involved with the network. More of my own reactions will appear on the RNSN website in due course, so watch this space!
You might ask what any of this has to do with Georgian legal deposit music? On the face of it, not a lot. This is partly because although the web announcement named UWS and the titles of the talks, it didn’t name the department or that a couple of the presentations were based on Masters students projects. The department has a contemporary and recent contemporary, rather than a centuries-old historical focus, so there was a divergence of approaches between theirs and mine. Also, partly because I saw the words “reframing heritage” and “art practice”, and I read what I wanted to read. And that’s my fault – but don’t we often do this?! Obviously, “heritage” does not have to mean Georgian. “Reframing” can also include responding musically to something other than music, whilst my own research places heritage music as the primary focus and looks for ways to reframe that, to make it relevant and appealing to people today. But my research response is not to write music (although I’ve been known to write the odd self-indulgent tune!), and – until today – it wouldn’t have occurred to me to produce a documentary film about it.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 