Dr Karen McAulay explores the history of Scottish music collecting, publishing and national identity from the 18th to 20th centuries. Research Fellow at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, author of two Routledge monographs.
In preparation for a lecture I gave at the Sorbonne at the end of May 2019, I returned to an individual who appeared in my doctoral research – Sir John Macgregor Murray. I gave him a page on this blog because all my up-to-date research appeared here. If you’re interested, you’ll find the new page here.
NEWS! I’ll be publishing an article based on this lecture, in the Folk Music Journal in 2026.
Don’t worry – all the historical legal deposit music is enjoying a few bars’ rest. I’ll be back soon!
I’ve reached the point where I need to find more grant-funding! I seem to be at a bit of a cross-roads, needing to decide whether to forge ahead immediately with the Stationers’ Hall research, or take another road which will bring me back to it eventually, having gathered more useful data on the way.
There’s also the question of my own status as a researcher. Neither “new” enough nor “old” enough for early-career or emeritus awards, nor established enough to say that I’m in a “permanent academic post”. Permanent, yes. Academic-related, certainly. But ….!
Meanwhile, please do give me feedback on what the Claimed From Stationers’ Hall network has achieved so far.
I posted similar questions on the Facebook page yesterday. I am more than happy for you to talk to me and share your ideas!
Why have I fallen silent? Well, not totally mute, but the thing is … I’m looking for more grant-funding and trying to…
Posted by Claimed From Stationers Hall: Early Legal Deposit Music on Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Another call for papers, spotted on social media this morning …
Conference announcement: Finding the Women in
Library & Information History
CILIP LIHG Conference 2019
Saturday 22nd June
The John Rylands Library, Manchester pic.twitter.com/8EvNqVoFab— CILIP LIHG (@CILIP_LIHG) February 26, 2019
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!
I’m excited to be part of a panel talking about paratext at the forthcoming ISECS Congress, 14th – 19th July 2019, hosted by the University of Edinburgh. Registration is now open, though the detailed programme isn’t yet finalised. (There’s an early bird rate until 30 April.)
UK Copyright Literacy, via Icepops 2019: Draft Programme
I’m presenting a Pecha Kucha at the June 2019 Icepops event in Edinburgh. “Silence in the Library: from Copyright Collections to Cage”
This (if we are to believe YouTube) is the official video of John Cage’s 4’33”
❌ 2019 SPEAKER APPLICATIONS OPEN NOW ❌
Ideas. Exciting, new, ground-breaking, thought-provoking ideas. If you have them, we want them. This year’s theme is Connection so if your idea connects to the theme, apply to be a speaker here > https://t.co/l2GyAgg8Pp #TEDxGla2019 pic.twitter.com/go4Z0sKRJx
— TEDxGlasgow (@TEDxGlasgow) February 25, 2019
How lovely to see Miss Lambert included there in this blog about St Andrews University Library’s women staff! (even if Miss L. wasn’t actually an employee!)
The theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019 is ‘Balance for better’ with a call to action to help ‘forge a more gender-balanced world.’ Women have been studying at St Andrews for 127 years having been first admitted to the University as students in 1892 – though the University’s Ladies Literate in Arts (LLA) scheme began earlier in 1877 as a distance learning qualification for women. Although the history of women at St Andrews is a fraction of the University’s 600-year history, more recent statistics suggest the sex/gender balance in the student population (2017) is now in favour of female students (58.4%), compared to male (41.6%).
Tracing the history of women employed by the University is more difficult. We cannot say for sure who the first woman to be employed by the University was, although the 16th century statutes of St Leonard’s College include the rule that no woman…
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Hosted at the University of Glasgow, Thursday 11th – Friday 12th April, this is a conference I find very tempting – the 1820s were my favourite era during my doctoral studies, and they’re pretty interesting in current Legal-Deposit-Music-From-Stationers-Hall terms, too. Will I manage to attend some or all of this one, though? I have 10.5 research hours per week: we’ll see!
Here is the conference page, with EventBrite booking and programme:-
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 