A couple of days ago, I wrote,
I would dearly love to trace a child, or children, who sang from these books. I think these books were aimed at children probably between eight to twelve years old, so the oldest children were born circa 1936-1946.
Well, I have! Five people have reached out to me already – one of them a prize-winning singer. However, it appears I underestimated this title’s longevity. I guessed,
I don’t know how long the books would have remained in use, but my guess is that they’d probably have fallen to bits by the late 1950s. In that case, the youngest users would have been born round about 1950. And that would make them baby-boomers, but several years older than me
I got that wrong! Two (as I predicted) are a bit older than me. Two a little younger. And the very youngest tells me they were at school in the 1980s – still singing from Nelson’s Scots Song Book.
Four are Scots. But the other (one of those a little bit younger than me) was in …
South Wales! (Now I’m curious to know – any more distant sightings, anyone?)
I’ve also, tonight, been gifted a copy of Book 4. I got home and sat down at the piano straight away! What an exciting present. And I can play away to my heart’s content, since it’s all in the name of research.
But I won’t pre-empt my Work in Progress talk at IASH next week. Would you like to hear it? It’s online as well as in person. Click here.
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 