On 7 Mar 2012, Gibbons, John wrote: > Bruce was one of the 2 editors of the Northumbrian Minstrelsy, though Stokoe > was the > main editor for the tunes. Both were not ideal - but many of the earlier > Ancient > Melodies Committee, particularly William Kell,
Last week I went through the Ancient Melodies Committee correspondence which predates the appearance of the book by some 20-odd years. Bruce had some direct contact with the "sources" - mainly the Duke's pipers, but I think Robert White, Kell and so forth did most of the actual collecting. Bruce had the most appalling handwriting, anyway, particularly when compared with a surprisingly elegant hand from William Green, who was my primary interest on this occasion. I think, as John says, that Stokoe was primarily an editor of already supplied material. The earlier group obviously made extensive enquiries (within certain social limitations), and also had access to a number of source publications such as Oswald, Aird, and Bewick's MSS, all of which are mentioned. There was a lot of deliberation as to which tunes were Scottish and which rightly Northumbrian - in a way that wouldn't be seen as so important today, I think. Julia To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
