International Women’s Day: Rose Smith (and Marjory Kennedy-Fraser)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
The beginning bars of The Road to the Isles, in a piano arrangement by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser.

This has become a two-post day? Well, it’s International Women’s Day. How can I not mention it?

I decided I would play music by women this morning. Rose Smith (one of the women I recently wrote about in the RMA Research Chronicle – you’ll be familiar with her name by now!) was a piano teacher, a composer, and an Episcopalian organist. She was born in Lanark, moved to Glasgow whilst still a child, and later lived with her husband and children in Rutherglen. Her composed songs were rather like those by Ivor Novello – I’ve acquired nearly all of what seems to be extant, but I think a lot is missing. She only self-published a few, and the rest – for variety show singers – may not even have been published at all.

There’s no surviving organ music, so there was nothing for it – I played her songs before morning worship today. I bet you she never played them in church! However, since no-one knew they were secular songs, there was no harm in it. They’re well-written pieces, and I do think it’s a shame they’re not known. I did recommend one to an RCS Finalist a few years ago, and it was performed with enjoyment and appreciation.

I have significant performance anxiety about recording my playing, but I did unearth a piano demo of three songs by Rose Smith, that I recorded for a student a few years ago. Be kind! This isn’t a perfect performance or a perfect recording, but does show how the songs go.

Quick piano demo of three songs by Rose Smith

For my outgoing voluntary today, I turned to a more well-known composer. I played Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s Eriskay Love Song, followed by The Road to the Isles.

Applause

I scored! I don’t usually get a round of applause after a voluntary.

I’ve got a new book of proper organ voluntaries by women composers, so I really must roll up my sleeves and learn some of them, but I suspect The Road to the Isles will prove hard to beat, as far as audience reaction goes …

Technology! And into the 21st Century …

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

In my summer holidays, as a child, I would occasionally go to the grammar school with my father, who was Head of Modern Languages there. The school had a ‘language laboratory’ with multiple desks hiding tape-recorders, and a control desk at the front of the classroom. I’m not sure exactly what Dad had to do on these expeditions, but there was much winding of tapes, and whirring spindles, before he declared that everything was now satisfactory – and then we went home. Decades later, my mother’s recollection was that Dad really wasn’t very technically-minded at all, which came as a surprise to me. My hero had surely been at the very forefront of technological advances with this complicated, hi-tech studio?

When I got a cassette recorder, it seemed even more modern. No reel-to-reel tapes for this up-to-date teenager. It also seemed perfectly straightforward. But I really had very little need to record anything by the time the cassette recorder was discarded. I did get a tiny wee recording device a few years ago, but I hardly ever used it. Eventually I chucked it out. I think it got wet at some point – anyway, it wasn’t exactly trustworthy, and the recordings were awful.  I can record on my phone, sure. Or my laptop. Isn’t that enough?

For my new research project, however, I do need reliable, good-quality recordings. To that end, I got a Zoom portable recorder last month, and I must confess that I’ve waited until I had total solitude and no pressing tasks for a couple of hours, before looking at it.  (I couldn’t contemplate working it out whilst decorators tramped through the house – or family members grumped about the sheer inconvenience of what we were being put through in the name of renovation – or sundry other distractions, all challenging my concentration!)  Anyway, I started setting it up this morning. 

Now, I was shown a different model before Christmas, and was told about a similar one in January.  But it transpires that a new portable recorder in the hand is a very different kettle of fish to someone else’s already-set up gadget.

Right On!

A couple of helpful YouTube videos proved instructive. The first – aimed at school students, but I’m not proud – ended with a triumphantly American, ‘Right On!’ Right.

Mr Watson Rocks!

Followed by, on-screen, the caption, ‘Mr Watson rocks!’  Indeed you do, Sir.

Zoom H5 Basics

I may still need a couple more sessions studying this wonderful piece of wizardry … can I find any more by Mr Watson?

Fame! Flora Woodman and Robert Wilson under the Spotlight

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I’m giving a paper at a forthcoming conference at the University of Surrey: Actors, Singers and Celebrity Cultures across the Centuries.

It takes place from tomorrow, Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 June 2025, and is organised under the aegis of the University’s Theatrical Voice Research Centre.

My talk’s entitled, ‘Comparing the Career Trajectories of Two Scottish Singers: Flora Woodman and Robert Wilson‘. 

The Gowns! The Kilts!

I could write plenty about their concert attire alone (think lace, diamonds and fluted frocks, or smart kilts and jackets) – but obviously, I can only just brush past that particular clothes rail, considering the more significant observations that I’m also making.

Boosey’s Ballads

Today, I’d like to share some audio that won’t be making it into my talk. Let’s call it ‘extra content’.  I’ve recorded some of the Boosey-published ballads that Flora performed at their Royal Albert Hall concerts.  Since I’m not a trained singer, I’ve done my best to convey an impression solely on the piano.  (I’m not going to start singing here!)  I also highlight some of the themes in these songs – captured hearts, broken hearts, the joys of spring and of youth.  It’s surprising what you find, if you really look.

Here goes:-