A Teenager! (Should I Bake a Cake?)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Facebook has just reminded me that it’s thirteen years since the book launch of my first monograph. Surely I should celebrate somehow? Should I bake it a cake? (Any excuse for a cake!)

Book launch in the Whittaker Library, 13 years ago

Saxophones, Singing and Harp Strings

The launch had a saxophone ensemble playing arrangements of songs that Alexander Campbell had collected for his two Albyn’s Anthology volumes (1816, 1818). Robyn Stapleton sang with a piano trio.  And my friend clarsach player Karen Marshalsay played a tune she had written for me.  It was a great celebration, and another milestone for me, the woman who never submitted her first doctoral thesis in the mid 1980s, but had completed another one a quarter of a century later.

We had another no less triumphant, but smaller scholarly launch at the 2013 Musica Scotica conference.

I remain totally convinced that my second research career has been better in every respect than the first abortive attempt. Different subject.  A different environment.  Much more impact. And, with no offence to anyone working on mediaeval music, significantly more useful in the librarianship career I had dedicated myself to. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland does offer a traditional music degree, so historical Scottish song collections are of some interest, whilst I suspect fewer of our undergraduates would have been excited by cantus firmus treatment in 15th century polyphony!

My research changed me, and changed my subsequent career. So yes, I do need to celebrate Our Ancient National Airs‘ thirteenth birthday.

Before I get started on the first chapter of my next, third book.

[Dangerous] Women who Dared

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Earlier this year, IASH blogged about an exciting book that Ben Fletcher-Watson and Jo Shaw would soon be releasing.  And yesterday, I attended its launch – the third book of the Dangerous Women project:- 

The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger through Creative Expression (Leuven University Press, 2021) edited by Jo Shaw and Ben Fletcher-Watson

Dangerous Women: fifty reflections on women, power and identity (Unbound, 2022) edited by Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh

Women Who Dared: From the Infamous to the Forgotten (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) edited by Ben Fletcher-Watson and Jo Shaw

It was a lovely book launch, and we had excellent speakers, who had all contributed to the book: Jo Shaw, Sara Sheridan, Ruth Boreham and Jo Spiller. 

Women who Dared is an anthology of short biographies – all of them historical ‘women who dared’.  I chatted with the speakers afterwards, and enjoyed hearing more about their work. There are so very many women of note, whom history has entirely forgotten about, so books like this are both very welcome, and very necessary.

Edinburgh University Press link

Book launch spoils!

Dr Karen McAulay Exchange Talk and Book Launch at RCS, Glasgow 11 Nov 2024

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Looking forward to my Exchange Talk and Book Launch next Monday, I made a wee promotional video! Maybe I’ll see you there, if you’re in/around Glasgow.

Click to Book tickets

Click for The book’s details

Monday 11th November: Exchange Talk & Book Launch

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Venue: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,  Glasgow

Please watch this space!

On Monday 11th November at 6 pm, I’m giving a talk in the well-established and popular RCS Exchange Talk series, where scholars talk about their latest research. I’ll be talking about a song book compiled for the Festival of Britain:-

The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: compiling a book with the 1951 Festival of Britain in mind

It’s in the Fyfe lecture theatre. There will be ONLINE BOOKING for this lecture. This will be the link:- https://www.rcs.ac.uk/whats-on/exchange-talk/book/507006/

At 7 pm we’ll have the launch of my new book, in the library. No online booking for the book launch, but if you’re hoping to attend, please do let me know, so we have an idea of numbers.

You can attend both, or either event.

McAulay,  Karen E., A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951 (Routledge, October 2024) 🎶

A book is born

Exciting Day – my Book Arrived!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Writing a second book has felt quite different from the first time round.  The first one developed out of my PhD, so I had my supervisor supporting me as I wrote the original thesis.

Going Solo

But this one? All my own, unsupervised work, arising originally from the thought that someone really ought to write a book about the music published by Scottish publishers in the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century.  No-one had written one, so I researched and wrote it myself. I was grateful for my peer-reviewers’ feedback on the first draft, and I know that the final product benefited from the subsequent edits that I made during my Ketelbey Fellowship at St Andrews.  

This time, I did my own indexing, too.  That was a new experience for me.

Now, to start planning a book launch! Watch this space – I have an idea. Provisional date Monday 11th November, but the details have yet to be finalised!

‘Dr Karen McAulay of the Books’ – by Dr Karen Marshalsay

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Karen Marshalsay's album, The Road to Kennacraig

When my first book was published in 2013, my dear friend clarsach-player and composer Dr Karen Marshalsay played at the book-launch, performing a tune that she had written especially for me. ‘Dr Karen McAulay of the Books’ has been included in Karen’s album, The Road to Kennacraig – you can hear the tune here.

Karen’s playing ‘my’ tune at a gig in Crail on 18th February 2023 – clarsairs have a much more interesting and varied existence than librarians! – but I’ll have to content myself with listening to my CD or the digital rendition. I feel very privileged to have a tune named after me.