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Music Honours Option
The Music of Scotland

Musical sources and repertory in the Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries:
resources in Special Collections

Introduction | Davidson | Ramsay | Thomson | McGibbon | Oswald | Corri | Johnson | Dauney

Introduction

The Music of Scotland option for BMus and MA students aims to foster critical and practical approaches to music and musical life in Scotland today and over the past thousand years, focusing especially on changing view points and perceptions. An essential element of the course is to gain knowledge of the extent of sources and repertory relating to Scottish musical culture and where to find them. Students at Glasgow University are particularly fortunate in having access to a superb collection of primary resource material relating to music in the Special Collections Department of the Library. Diverse material from the medieval to the modern is available for study, drawing on major collections such as the Euing Music Library, the Farmer collection, the Hamish Macunn collection and the Mearns hymnological collection. This page consists of details (with selected digitised images) of the books examined in the course workshop in week 2 on the musical sources and repertory of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While this provides a refresher and reference point for the kinds of material available in Special Collections, students are strongly encouraged to visit the Department to explore the resources available further. 

For further details about other relevant material in Special Collections, visit the collections descriptions pages for music. The online exhibition Musicke of Sundrie Kindes describing some of the items from the Euing Music collection is also of interest.

Note on printing: most of the images have been scanned at resolutions that reproduce the pages in finer detail and at a larger scale than the originals. The easiest way to print out the image files at A4 size is to right click on the larger version of the image and then save a copy for printing out using imaging software (for example, using Microsoft Photo Editor, print out ticking the 'fit to page' option from the print menu).

For further advice about using Special Collections, please contact Julie Gardham. 
For further information about the Music of Scotland course, please contact co-ordinator Marjorie Rycroft, Department of Music.

image from R.c.12 and RQ 1621

Details and images of selected works in Special Collections

Attributed to Thomas Davidson (d. 1675)

Cantus, songs and fancies, to severall musicall parts. Both apt for voices and viols. With a brief introduction to musick, as is taught into the Musick-School of Aberdeen. Together also, with severall of the choisest Italian-songs [by Gastoldi] and new English-ayres, all in three parts ... 
 Aberdeen : I. Forbes, 1682.
Third edition, exactly corrected and enlarged.
Sp Coll R.c.12

Known as 'the Forbes Cantus'

 Engraved title-page

Engraved frontispiece of 'Bon Accord' (the motto of Aberdeen) and title-page

Music and text of the XVIII song Like as the dumb solsequium with care ov'rcome ...
(folios 21v - 22r)

Allan Ramsay (1684-1758)

Tea table miscellany
Edinburgh : Printed & sold by Allan Ramsay, [1726?]
Sp Coll Ca9-e.12

In six parts: each part has separate title-page with the title: Musick for the Scots songs in The tea table miscellany (in this copy the original frontispiece and title-page are missing, but have been supplied in facsimile)


 Title-page to the first part


Music of Muirland Willie
(pages 14 - 15) 

A new miscellany of Scots sangs
London : 1727.
Sp Coll Bh13-a.16

 Title-page


Text to song of Muirland Willie
(page 11)

Text to song of Muirland Willie
(pages 12-13)
Text to song of Muirland Willie
(pages 14-15)

William Thomson (c.1690-1756)

Orpheus Caledonius, or a collection of the best Scotch songs
London : Printed for the author, [1726]
Sp Coll N.a.2

With bass and versions for the flute.

Title-page

Music and text of Muirland Willie

Orpheus Caledonius, or, a collection of Scots songs 
London : Printed for the author, 1733.
Second edition
Sp Coll N.c.39-40

Many of the tunes are from Allan Ramsay's Tea-table miscellany, while the melodic ornaments and figured basses are Thomson's. In this edition the basses are not figured. Several songs include transposed
parts for flute. Versions for the German flute are wanting.

 Title-page
Song 27: beginning of text and music to Muirland Willie
(page 56 and plate 27)

William McGibbon (c.1690-1756)

A collection of Scots tunes : some with variations for a violin, hautboy or German flute, with a bass for a violoncello or harpsichord 
Book 1: Edinburgh : Printed by Richard Cooper, 1742
Book 2: Edinburgh : Printed by Richard Cooper, 1746
Sp Coll Ca9-y.1

Books one and two are bound together in this copy. Book one lacks the main title-page (supplied in typescript) and pages 9-10; book two lacks pages 31-32 and 35-36.



Title-page of Book 2


Music to Thro the Wood Laddie
(page 6)

Music to Thro the Wood Laddie
(page 7)

James Oswald (1710-1769)

Airs for the Spring [and Summer, Autumn, Winter].
London : Printed for the author, [1747?]
Sp Coll Q.b.72

Each season has a separate title-page. Licence, dated 23 October 1747, wanting in this copy.

 Title-page

Music to The Hyacinth
(page 1)

NB. a recording of this song is available on CD: Airs for the seasons (London : Altamira Records, 1995): Level 4 (Enq) Main Lib Music dSO805.415 A4-ALT

The Caledonian pocket companion, in seven volumes, containing all the favourite Scotch tunes with variations for the German flute with an index to the whole
London : Printed for the author at his musick shop, [1750?]
Sp Coll Ca9-c.5

The volumes were published separately during the years 1743-1759, and this set lacks volume 7. Volume 2 includes 10 songs settings for Macbeth. The original 7 volumes were later extended to 12, with separate title pages for each.  
Title-page
Music to When she cam ben she bobed
(pages 14-15)

Domenico Corri (1746-1825)

A first sett of six sonates for the harpsichord with an accompanyment for the flute, violin and violincello 
[Edinburgh?] : [s.n.], [18--?]
Sp Coll Ca9-y.33


Title-page

Music of Sonata 1
(page 1)
Music of Sonata 1
(page 2)

James Johnson (1750?-1811)

The Scots musical museum: humbly dedicated to the Catch Club, instituted at Edin. June 1771
Edinburgh : Sold and subscriptions taken in, by & for the publisher - N. Stewart, R. Bremner, Corri & Sutherland. R. Ross Edinr. & all the music sellers in London, [1787]
Volume 1 [1787]: Sp Coll RQ 1621
Volume 3 [1790?]: Sp Coll RQ 1622 

Originally issued between 1787 and 1803 in six volumes of 100 songs each (only 2 volumes in Special Collections). The 1853 edition of the work is also available at Sp Coll N.c.30-33 and in a facsimile reprint (Scolar Press, 1991): Level 4 Main Lib Music N618 JOH vol. 1 & 2

Title-page of volume 1

Music and text of The Happy Marriage and The Lass of peaty's Mill
(pages 21 - 22)

William Dauney

Ancient Scotish melodies, from a manuscript of the reign of King James VI. With an introductory enquiry illustrative of the history of the music of Scotland 
Edinburgh : Bannatyne Club, 1838
Sp Coll A.b.6-7

One of the earliest discussions of the history of music in Scotland. This copy is interleaved with manuscript notes by George Farquhar Graham.

Title-page of volume 1

Facsimile from volume 2 showing a page from the Skene manuscript

Introduction | Davidson | Ramsay | Thomson | McGibbon | Oswald | Corri | Johnson | Dauney

Return to Special Collections course material page

This page was created by Julie Gardham: November 2002.