Like Buses, Pre-Publications seem to come in Threes

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Three blue double decker buses, one behind the other

Since Friday, I’ve been sent three exciting emails:-

  • the proofs of one chunky article that’s due to be published next year;
  • the proofs of a contributed chapter with probably a similar timescale,
  • and another even chunkier article that has now been accepted – but needs a couple of final touches before I send it back to the editor.

Not bad, in two working days with a weekend in between!

It’s just the way things turn out, but the first article is a late-in-the day return to a paper that I originally gave in 2019 – I waited to be sure that the original conference organisers wouldn’t be needing it. Not only that, but the paper itself had been a return to, and development of, a topic I researched for my PhD and subsequent first monograph, so it has been a long time brewing! I first ‘encountered’ the ghost of Sir John MacGregor Murray some twenty years ago, and a fascinating ghost he turned out to be. He deserves his article in Folk Music Journal next year. Proofs checked and returned already.

Song book entitled, The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song.
Collection aimed at …
Picture of a plane, suitcases and a world map with a pin in it.
Visitors …
Embroidered map of Britain commemorating the Festival of Britain, 1951. My own work.
To Britain …

Meanwhile, the book chapter expands on work that I did for my own recent second monograph, A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity, focusing on a song collection published in time for the Festival of Britain. And the other article picks up on very different threads from that monograph, but also represents a considerable amount of detailed research since then. I look forward to checking the chapter and dealing with the article.

I do have another article due to be published later this year, too. More of that anon.

When you consider that I’m just beginning to think about a third monograph, it’s all a bit dizzying. Mind you, that won’t be happening immediately. I’m still exploring ideas. (Would it be disloyal to say that this is all so much more fun than cataloguing jazz CDs in my earlier existence …?)

Buses photo: Image by Jm TD from Pixabay

Exchange Talk Given, Book Launched

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

A quick post to mark a successful and very enjoyable evening. I gave my research exchange talk tonight at RCS. It was about a book of Scottish songs almost certainly published for the Festival of Britain in 1951. I talked about history, book history, music history, Scottish tourism and that all important catch-phrase for the Festival of Britain – ‘A Tonic for the Nation’. And then there was my book launch afterwards.

RCS wasn’t on Renfrew Street in 1951. We were the Royal Scottish Academy of Music at that point, in the old Athenaeum building (Nelson Mandela Place), but we had established a drama department in 1950 – the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art. (More about our history – click here.)

It’s fair to say that the book I talked about tonight – The Glories of Scotland, published by local publisher Mozart Allan – would not have been required repertoire for the talented students passing through our doors in 1951. It wasn’t aimed at high-performing classical artistes. (I doubt the library even had a copy in 1951, but there’s no way of finding out now. Anyway, we have recently acquired it!)

Nonetheless, the songbook does have a place in Glasgow’s history, in its own unique way.

Books relaxing after a night out!

After the exchange talk, we launched my book about amateur music making, Scottish national identity and Scottish music publishing. Professor Stephen Broad introduced it, and said some very kind words about it. There were friends and colleagues there whom I hadn’t seen for a while, so it was very sociable as well as celebratory.

Book launch: my ‘few words’ in response

My thanks go to everyone who contributed to make the evening so successful – Research Exchange colleagues, Library former colleagues, and the box office events team. I’m ‘dead chuffed’, as they say.

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

7 & 8 November  – TWO McAulays in a week (in different places)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It appears both my husband and I are giving presentations in a fortnight’s time!

The evening of Tuesday 7th , Hugh is talking on Zoom about Newcastle trolleybuses, to an enthusiasts’ group in Turin.* (Sadly for him, he’s sitting in Glasgow, not Turin, to do it!)

Less than 24 hours after that, I shall be giving a talk about a couple of Mozart Allan Scottish songbooks, in the Gifford Room (at the University of St Andrews’ Laidlaw Centre) on Weds 8th at 2.30 pm.

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

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/assets/university/music-centre/documents/music-events.pdf

The Glories of Scotland is a ‘snapshot in time’, as I shall explain. It has connections with another contemporary Mozart Allan title, and also with the Festival of Britain.  Admittedly, it doesn’t look particularly special to our modern eyes, but it indirectly tells us a lot about postwar British culture.

As it happens, I’m giving a lecture to the historians later in November, in connection with my Ketelbey Fellowship.  But I’ll be taking a very different tack that time. The music talk on 8 November is about one – okay, two books, whilst the history one covers half a century. And it feels as though, whilst I’ll be introducing history to the music lovers, I’ll be sharing music history with the historians – looking at how contemporary trends were reflected in what Scottish music publishers produced.

I’ve just finished writing my music talk.  On Wednesday, I made a list of all the images I’d need for the PowerPoint, and I had intended on Thursday to see which pictures I had already (as opposed to those I needed to scan), draft the Ppt and do some reading. 

However, I didn’t bargain on Storm Babet. Suffice to say, I got a bus home to Glasgow and spent the afternoon and evening scanning and finishing the slides. No reading got done, but at least the talk and slides are all sorted. Well, apart from timing it …

Postscript. Thankfully, the postie’s delivery of one particular rarity didn’t get drenched in the rain last week. It was only 2/6 in 1950 – I dreaded it getting damaged. Especially as I’m talking about the diaspora intentions of the publisher, and this particular copy comes from France!

* For Hugh’s talk, visit the ATTS Torino Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/attstorino