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!)
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!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 