PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT, PRIVATE PREPARATION

My last two talks were about the Bass Culture project (Scottish fiddle tune-books) and the Wighton and Shand Collections in Dundee Central Library.

The next two are different again!  I’m currently preparing my talk for Edinburgh Central Library, commemorating the bicentenary of the First Edinburgh Musical Festival.  That’s scheduled for Friday 30th October.  I’ve been poring over George Farquhar Graham’s account of the event, and sorting out in my own head what exactly they performed, and who performed it.  This weekend, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to source some of the (now) obscure pieces that were featured in amongst the Handel, Mozart and Haydn.  I will not be beaten!  I’m determined to play a couple of examples of these now unknown pieces that were once hot favourites, and I have a handful of pieces to source already.

• Eventbrite booking form
• Edinburgh – Library Events

COMMON THREADS

But before that, on 12th October, I’m talking at our Exchange Talks series at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  Torn between talking about my recent research (the AHRC-funded Bass Culture project), and my next shorter project on a particular collection in St Andrews University Library, I finally realised yesterday that there’s a talk just waiting to be written – tracing the common thread between all the research projects I’ve ever been involved in.  Because there is a thread that links them all, believe it or not. I have a title now:- ‘Common Threads: From Sacred to Secular, Ancient to (nearly) Modern’

Curious?  You’ll have to come and listen!  (Date changed from the original 2 November.)

• Exchange Talks – Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Public Engagement my New Specialism?

I had two speaking engagements this weekend – one, a brief talk about our Bass Culture research project, and the other about the Wighton and Jimmy Shand music collections at Dundee Central Library.

The first was at the University of Glasgow, where I discovered my audience was a group of our own Conservatoire students.  They will be experimenting with performing some of Robert Burns’s songs in the Scots Musical Museum and Thomson’s more upmarket collections, as part of a big project in the Scottish Literature department at the University.  My input was quite slight, but it was interesting to reflect upon accompaniments to songs and fiddle tunes at different stages in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Then, yesterday morning saw me leave the house at 7 am to go to Dundee.  It was a glorious day, and a beautiful autumnal journey.  The talk to the Friends of Wighton went well. I talked about the times my research had led me to the Wighton collection; what was important about it; and the treasures in the more recently-acquired Jimmy Shand collection of old Scottish music.

I was happy with my efforts on the harpsichord; the harpsichord itself was lovely to play; and my audience were certainly interested and appreciative. Before heading back to Glasgow, I decided a wee treat would not be inappropriate ….

Jimmy Shand – Music Collector

If you’ve any knowledge of popular Scottish dance-music of the mid twentieth century, then accordion  player Jimmy Shand will undoubtedly come to mind.  His band became synonymous with Scottish country dancing for several decades.

• http://www.jimmyshand.com/
• http://jimmyshand.co.uk/

But fewer people know that he collected old Scottish music – historic material, make no mistake – and the Friends of Wighton in Dundee successfully bid for his collection a couple of years ago.  Now they’re crowdfunding to raise money to restore the books, which are in a rather fragile state.

I’ve had quite a bit to do with the Wighton Collection during various pieces of research that I’ve done, and next Saturday I go to Dundee Central Library to give a talk to the Friends of Wighton about both Wighton’s and Shand’s collections. I consider this a great honour – some very famous names are connected with the Wighton Collection, and I’m relatively unknown except in academic circles.

My family are a bit bemused by the copies of harpsichord music appearing on our piano stand this week!

I’ve been practising my musical examples furiously, and today I got access to a harpsichord so I could familiarise myself with the harpsichord touch.  Sadly, the instrument had been moved recently, but had not yet been retuned.  My ears were practically bleeding after half an hour playing a piece in the key of F, because this was what I was actually hearing:-

At that stage, I moved to a grand piano where I played merrily, if inauthentically, enjoying the lack of dissonances!  I’m looking forward to playing the very beautiful harpsichord in the Wighton Centre, which I know has just been tuned.  (Ahh, happy ears!)

I took myself off to Glasgow University Library to look at their copies of other music in the Shand collection, to see if I might find more worthwhile musical examples.  And indeed I did, so I’d better print my photos out now, to see what I can use …