Tag Archives: Edinburgh

A Flurry of Activity

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The Bass Culture team has adopted a serious, studious demeanour as the project rolls towards its October web-launch. Not that we weren’t serious and studious before, but we’re even more so now, which goes some way to explaining why there are fewer blogposts these days.

David and Karen are editing the spreadsheet (consistency is our middle name, and qualitative judgements are very carefully weighed up, if they’re allowed to remain at all!).  Luca is building the website.

It’s all the extra things that Karen’s afraid of forgetting!  There is going to be a bibliography of key sources: the following are some of them, but we’ll provide the full bibliographic details on the website itself!

  • Baptie’s Musical Scotland
  • The British Union-Catalogue of early music printed before the year 1801 : a record of the holdings of over one hundred libraries throughout the British Isles (in our database, abbreviated as BUCEM)
  • Douglas, Sheila – The Atholl Collection catalogue: 300 years of Scottish music and poetry (Perth, UK: Perth & Kinross Libraries, 1999)
  • Glen, John – The Glen collection of Scottish dance music : strathspeys, reels, and jigs, selected from the earliest printed sources, or from the composer’s works [2 vols, 1891 and 1895](In our database, in the format: Glen, Collection of Scottish Dance Music)
  • Gore, Charles – Scottish Music Index http://www.scottishmusicindex.org/
  • Johnson, David – Music and Society
  • Kidson, Frank – British music publishers, printers and engravers : London, provincial, Scottish and Irish. From Queen Elizabeth’s reign to George the Fourth’s, with select bibliographical lists of musical works printed and published within that period (1900) (In our database, in the format, Kidson, British Music Publishers
  • National Library of Scotland, Digital Gallery
  • Oxford Music
  •  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • RISM (Repertoire Internationale des Sources Musicales)
  • Scottish Book Trade Index (In our database, SBTI)
  • Smith and Humphries’ Music Publishing in the British Isles

All the information is there in Karen’s Mendeley and Diigo accounts, but it still needs to be collated and double, treble-checked!

Hold onto your hats, folks – it’s going to be quite a ride!

Gaily tripping, lightly skipping

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(And not an HMS Pinafore in sight!)

David McGuinness’s Concerto Caledonia will be playing for a day of Quadrilles and Contredanses in Edinburgh this Saturday, as Talitha Mackenzie leads a Regency Dance workshop.  Never was a band better informed than this one!  Since they may be drawing upon Bass Culture repertoire, it seems appropriate to post details of the event here.  So … do you know your Quadrilles from your Contredanses?

Quadrilles and Contredanses – Saturday 6 June, Edinburgh

  • Dance Workshop 10.30 AM to 4.30 PM (£20)
  • Regency Ball 7.30-9.30 PM (£8/£6 or £5 with Workshop ticket)
  • Venue:  Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh, with live music on period instruments throughout the day from members of Concerto Caledonia.

All welcome! Low-heeled shoes or dance pumps recommended ~ Regency dress suggested but not required for the ball.

Discussion Hots Up

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We’re gratified to find that our observations about these fiddle collections are attracting interest!

Sometimes little tiny discoveries come like a ray of sunshine into the routine entering of data into our mega-spreadsheet.  For example, today we found a new source of information that sheds light on the selling activities of our music vendors.  Andrew Rochead, who reissued Robert Petrie’s first Collection of Strathspey Reels and Country Dances, also made and sold square pianos – there are two examples in the University of Edinburgh’s Musical Instrument Museums. There’s a useful database to take note of!

But it gets better.  In 1808, Niel Gow edited and reissued Petrie’s Second Collection.  Muir Wood reissued Petrie’s Third Collection the same year. And Rochead reissued the first collection circa 1809, according to the University of Glasgow’s Special Collections cataloguers.  Or was it? What’s the betting it was 1808, prompting Gow and Rochead to rush forth and get their share of what was obviously hot property?

Ronnie Gibson, doctoral researcher at the University of Aberdeen, tells us that, “Nath Gow judged him the best at competition in 1822 held in conjunction with George IV’s visit to Scotland, so he must’ve been at least ok!”

Petrie lived 1767-1830, so he was in his mid-forties at that competition.  Thankfully musicians remain at the top of their professions for longer than sportspeople!

The question was raised about copyright – had the copyright expired? Well … no, it hadn’t.  Existing legislation provided for 14 years after publication, or 28 if the author was still alive after 14.  So – let’s do our calculations!

  • Book 1 – 1790-1804; Petrie lived on so he got another 14 years copyright
  • Book 2 – 1795-1809; Petrie’s still alive so …
  • Book 3 – 1800-1814; Petrie’s barely 40
  • Book 4 – 1805-1819; Petrie’s still around – and has that competition to play in yet!

One wonders what Petrie got out of these reprinted publications. Here’s hoping he got something.