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THREE WAYS TO MAKE A SONG COLLECTIONAnd one way to annoy your neighbours!

19th Century Scottish Music

Dr Karen McAulay

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Last lecture: C18th Celtic music• How people in Scotland viewed their own national music• (To a lesser extent) how it was viewed in England. • And what was happening in Ireland and Wales• And the key themes were …

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6 key political & cultural influences

Political His-tory

Popularityoutwith Scotland

Enlightenment

Travel

Primitivism & Antiquarian-ism

OssianScottish Song

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This week• 3 song collections and an English anthology: different

times, different approaches• C18th influences continued, but changed gradually

• Albyn’s Anthology / Alexander Campbell• The Scotish Minstrel / Robert Archibald Smith• Songs of Scotland / George Farquhar Graham• and …• Popular Music of the Olden Time / William Chappell

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MISTAKEN FOR NAPOLEONAlexander Campbell’s Hebridean Song-Collecting Summer, 1815

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An extraordinary man

Alexander & John Campbell (caricature by John Kay, 1784)

Classically trained by Tenducci

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A dilettante – literature & art too.

Sketch from Campbell’s Journey from Edinburgh through Parts of North Britain

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Albyn’s Anthology (1816-18)

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Campbell’s “Slight Sketch of a journey made through parts of the Highlands & Hebrides.”

“On the 23rd July 1815, I took my place as an out-side passenger on the mail-coach to Stirling. On

my arrival there, I armed, and apparelled myself in the ancient costume of my native mountains; and set forward for Lanrick Castle.”

Lanrick Castle – home of Sir John MacGregor Murray (influential and interested)

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Off to the Hebrides …Imagine a trip today.

Now think again!

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Stopping for directions at Lanrick CastleAfter that – on foot.

Callander.

Ferry to Lismore.

Ferry to Mull.

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Social gathering

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Fingal’s Cave, Staffa

Piper played a lament in the cave

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Dervaig, MullMet an old lady with

a song-collectionTunes from Margaret Maclean-

Clephane

Stopped at Callach Point to draw a view, and met an old man who could recite Ossian

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Tunes from boatmen, fiddlers, gentry … Mull, Staffa, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Skye …

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Mishaps and misadventuresFell in Tobermory Falls Kept awake by talkative weaver

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Got taught piping notation - and transcribed some

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ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (1764-1824)

23 July – 23 October, 1815Journey “by sea and land, of between eleven and twelve hundred miles, undertaken to collect on the spot materials for Albyn’s Anthology” …

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Results of Campbell’s trip• Attempted another journey in Borders following year• Albyn’s Anthology - 2 volumes• Gaelic and English• Highland and Border repertoire, including …• Novelist & ballad-collector Walter Scott - words• Poet & Novelist James Hogg – words and tunes• But what was the music like?

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Some examples• Una of Ulva (Luineag Mhic Leod) AAII/13• Does have intro/coda• Moved beyond figured bass but clumsy harmony• Oh, sweet is the feeling (‘Smi m’ shuidh’) AAII/2• Same observations: inappropriate/unprepared inversions,

strange passing notes (but nice tune)• When I was a wee thing (Oran sugradh) AAII/79• Double-tonic tune: AC seems unsure how to handle it• My Peggy, thou art gane away (AC’s Gaelic; Hogg

English) AAII/25 dedicated to Sir John MacGregor Murray• More effective

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R A SMITH – THE SCOTISH MINSTREL(Give or take a made-up song or two)

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Wild flowers, honeycombs and jewels

• Metaphors inform us about audience expectation in early 19th Century Scottish song collections

• Robert Archibald Smith, The Scotish Minstrel [sic] (1820-24)• In 6 vols. Subsequently compiled 1-vol Irish Minstrel.• Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern

(1825)

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Recurrent themes

• 1. Minstrels• 2. Origins (minstrels, royalty, peasants)• 3. Manner of presentation• 4. Authenticity v. restorations/imitations

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Robert Archibald SmithThe Scotish MinstrelHow it was done

• Committee of ladies• Lady Carolina Nairne• (aka Mrs Bogan of Bogan)

• Ballad-collector William Motherwell involved at least towards end.

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The significance of Paratext• Floral & natural metaphors in The Scotish Minstrel:

• ‘simple “breathings of nature”’• ‘Not a few of these wild flowers have been gathered from the

peasantry.’ • Floral & natural metaphors in The Irish Minstrel:• ‘our old national melodies are imperishable plants, unfading

evergreens…’

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If you thought the minstrel theme had died out …

• ‘There are some Scotch bards to whom we have not had the courage to make any application; but if they would twine a wreath for the Minstrel, proud would he be to wear it.

• We now send him forth, ‘[…] to wander through the mountains of his native land - to traverse the green wilds of Erin, and the sequestered vales of Cambria; and, we trust, he will be hospitably received “’mong merry England’s cultured fields.”’

• (The Scotish Minstrel I - Preface )

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Albyn’s Anthology and Scotish Minstrel – both had links with contemporary poets

Flowers as metaphors

Lady Carolina Nairne & R A Smith

The land as a metaphor

Sir Walter Scott

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

‘Like the natural free gifts of Flora, these poetical garlands can only be successfully sought for where the land is uncultivated; and civilisation and increase of learning are sure to banish them, as the plough of the agriculturalist bears down the mountain daisy.’

The land as metaphor

Ballad collector William MotherwellMinstrelsy Ancient and Modern, 1827

‘Though the field in which many have reaped, may, by this time, be well deemed nearly bare, yet much is still left for future skill and industry to glean.

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Another theme: Nature v. artificiality

Ritson, Scotish Song (1794)

• ‘beautiful peasant, in her homespun russet’

• Compared with• ‘the fine town lady,

patched, powdered, and dressed out, for the ball or opera, in all the frippery of fashion.’

Allan Cunningham, Songs of Scotland

• [Scottish muse]• ‘the lyric muse of the north’• ‘the muse of simple nature’• Compared with • ‘her more courtly sister of the

south’

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The idea of buried treasure• Cunningham indulged in fakery – confession alluded to

‘planting’ flowers and jewels (ie fake folksongs) for others to find.

• R A Smith admitted to making up songs for his collection and wrote to Motherwell that the preface had to mention all the ‘fine airs produced and saved from oblivion.’

• Literary examples - • Walter Scott• James Hogg• And others

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The results of R A Smith’s efforts• In far distant climes, Scottish Minstrel Vol.1 no.1• Thy cheek is o’ the rose’s hue, Vol.4, no.1• No intros/codas, but harmonically much more competent• Some in Scots, some English (Lady Nairne’s preference)

• Incidentally, he got into trouble with Thomas Moore over his subsequent Irish Minstrel collection – copyright issues involving material taken from Moore’s Irish Melodies

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Changing attitudes• Mid 1820s, much disapproval of fakery• Mid 19th Century, fakery seen as creative endeavour. • Eg, Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, May 1847, about

Cunningham’s Scottish poems:-

• ‘They are no more imitations than the finest poems of Burns, or Hogg, or Motherwell. […] every one of them came direct from the heart of our beloved Allan, and are, in their way, as truly original compositions as any burst that ever yet was uttered by inspired poet under the canopy of heaven.’

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MID 19TH CENTURY The authoritative, competent

George Farquhar Graham, Songs of Scotland

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Cultural changes• More acceptance of ‘fakery’• More insistence on authority• Continuing insistence on propriety• Replace words ‘unsuitable for the more fastidious taste of

the present day’, ‘profane absurdity’, ‘this very trashy song’

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The piano in the parlour• Before mid-19th, subscription lists show who bought

collections• Names begin to change from titled gentry, to

schoolmasters, clergy & female amateurs• More didactic, and for domestic use.• Middle-of-the-road, playable by average pianist• … but more musically complex than Campbell or Smith’s

collections• Compilers - professionals

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G F Graham’s collection - examples• Gloomy winter’s now awa (setting by T M Mudie) Vol.1/6• Commentary by G F Graham• NB referencing earlier sources, including Alexander Campbell,

Gow, William Stenhouse’s Illustrations• Note how much more sophisticated setting is, & intro/coda etc.• Tullochgorum Vol.4, no.1 (setting by G F Graham) Vol.1/52• Again, commentary by G F Graham• Acknowledges problematic implied harmony (the double tonic

Campbell struggled with)

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AND HOW TO ANNOY THE NEIGHBOURSWilliam Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time (1855-59)

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William Chappell• English antiquarian (family publishing firm)• Popular (ie national) music • Old English ballads• A Collection of National English Airs, consisting of Ancient

Song, Ballad, and Dance Tunes (1838-40)• Substantially altered, became Popular Music of the Olden

Time (1855-59) – published in parts and then in 2 vols.• Controversial

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Which neighbours? The Scottish ones

• Correspondence: significant Scots• Chappell – Edinburgh librarian David Laing• Chappell – Dundonian music seller, Andrew Wighton• Wighton – Grumpy Aberdeen publisher, James Davie

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Cultural Nationalism (and the chip on Chappell’s English shoulder)

• We’ve already noted C18th Scottish resentment of Union with England;

• Lowland/Highland and Scots/English arguments over Ossian;

• Late C18th and early C19th Irish anti-English feeling; • Now English defensive about heritage • And Scots resentful about Chappell’s observations

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New edition• After Chappell’s death, book revised:• Old English Popular Music• Significant changes

Not much to say about C19th Scottish collections?

• Clearly discernible changes• Literary and cultural influences• Cultural nationalism