Silver and Gold Leng Medal Memories, Update no.2. Uplifting Conversations

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
A Silver Leng Medal for Scots song singing

After some years researching the history of printed Scottish music and Scottish music publishing  I’m currently using oral history (talking to people about their memories) to find out what they recall about Dundee’s Leng Medal Scots Song Competitions. Did participation lead to a lifetime of music and song? Or stage fright?!  What do people remember?

I began the project a couple of months ago, and I posted an update a month ago. It feels like time I posted another one, so here goes!

You’d be surprised how many people remember their music teachers. You’d also be surprised how many people have kept their Leng medals! For gold medal winners, Mozart Allan’s Morven Scottish song book was a prize for a number of years,  certainly into the 1970s. From the late 1990s, the prize changed to Wilma Paterson and Alasdair Gray’s lavish Songs of Scotland, published in 1996.

Are there any gold medallists out there from the 1980s or 1990s? What was your prize book? Have you still got it?

What I find so enjoyable about this project, is how uplifting these conversations are! Participants talk with such enthusiasm and affection about singing in school – not just in the Leng Medal competitions – and about other musical activities that enriched their childhood. Sir John Leng would be astonished at the impact his endowment has had.  I wish he could be a fly on the wall!

I haven’t nearly finished my interviews yet – as a part-time researcher, I’m just slowly and steadily making progress. Indeed, I’m heading to Dundee tomorrow for some face-to-face meetings. And then on Thursday, I’ll see about sending out some more meeting invites.