The Bass Culture Project

Karen McAulayRoyal Conservatoire of Scotland

Before the Project …

1726 Stuart for Ramsay (Sedate, elegant baroque)

1757 Bremner (functional)

1781, McGlashan (little change?!)

1784 Gow, A Collection of S’spey Reels

1801 Gow (cadences & ending)

Marshall’s Scottish Airs of 1822…

And Marshall’s Scottish Airs, 2nd ed, 1844

Kerr’s Modern Dance Album

Finding the Tunebooks

Found on imgfave.com

Charlie Gore’s Index (Books and Tunes)

• Fiddle Music Index, 1994• Scottish Music Index (online)

Charlie Gore’s Tune Incipit Codes

But there were more! Union Catalogues (lots of libraries)

• Worldcat http://worldcat.org/

• Copac http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/

Trains, Tethering and Teashops

Big Ambitions

• What’s the repertoire?• What’s in the books?• What do they look like?• What do we know about the compilers and

the history behind each collection?• What’s remarkable about each one?

We digitized these

• Bremner – A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances (1757)

• McGlashan – A Collection of Strathspey Reels (1778)

• Cumming – A Collection of Strathspey or old Highland Reels (1780)

• McGlashan – A Collection of Scots Measures … (1781)

• Marshall – A Collection of Strathspey Reels 1781)

• Riddell – A Collection of Scots Reels, Minuets &c (1782)

And these …

• Gow – A Collection of Strathspey Reels (1784)

• McGlashan – A Collection of Reels (1786)

• Malcolm Macdonald – A Collection of Strathspey Reels (1788)

• Bowie - A Collection of Strathspey Reels (1789)

• Malcolm Macdonald – A Second Collection of Strathspey Reels (1789?)

• Joshua Campbell - A Collection of New Reels & Highland Strathspeys (1789)

• S, A & P. Thompson – The Caledonian Muse (1790)

You want more?

• Petrie - A Collection of Strathspey Reels & Country Dances (1790)

• Calvert – A Collection of Marches and Quicksteps (1792)

• John Clark – A Collection of New Strathspey Reels (1795)

• Petrie – A Second Collection of Strathspey Reels (1796)

• Niel Gow – First Book of Niel Gow’s Reels, 2nd edition (1801)

• Niel Gow – Part First of the Complete Repository (1805)

Still more!

• Petrie – A Second Collection (corrected by Gow, 1808)

• William Marshall – Marshall’s Scottish Airs, Melodies, Strathspeys, Reels &c for the Piano forte, Harp, Violin & Violoncello (1822?)

• Marshall’s Scottish Airs, Melodies, Strathspeys, Reels &c (2nd edition, 1844?)

Books Listed and Books Digitised

22Digitised &

indexed

Book details and commentary throughout

200+listed

Social Media

• @BassyCulture• http://bassculture.info/ (our blog)

Hms.Scot

• Historical Music of Scotland www.hms.scot (Beta version)

• The fiddle page http://hms.scot/fiddle/

Hms.Scot/fiddle

Hms.scot/fiddle - searching

Other useful info on website

Searching

• Enter a search-term – search engine finds the term anywhere, so entering something like “Glasgow” means you’ll get tunes with “Glasgow” in the title but also collections which have a Glasgow connection.

• “House” is a good term for exploring the website!

Search Results

Looking at the results of a searchDownload button

Hyperlink

Wifi? Worth a try?

• Any questions?• Thank you!

• Feedback on the website:- info@hms.scot• K.McAulay@rcs.ac.uk• Twitter @Karenmca

The Bass Culture Project

Alexander Stuart for Allan Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany – Polwart on the Green (1726) Robert Bremner – Tulloch Gorm (1757)

Alexander McGlashan - Tulloch Guirm (1781)Niel Gow – Tulloch Gorum (1784)Niel Gow – Tulloch Gorum (1801)

William Marshall – The Marchioness of Huntly’s Strathspey (1822)William Marshall – The Marchioness of Huntly’s Strathspey (1844)

Kerr’s Modern Dance Album – Reel of Tulloch