In the mid 70s I visited Cambridge Folk Festival with a friend
named Hugh Taylor. During the trip Hugh visited a second-hand
bookshop in Cambridge and picked up a modestly-priced copy
of Scott's "Border Minstrelsy". He later discovered, to his
amazement, that the book had belonged to William Motherwell.
It was signed on the fly leaf - we verified the signature
from the Motherwell Manuscripts in Glasgow University Library.
The book contained extensive manuscript annotations on the ballads.
I must check if he still has it - I'm sure it would be of great
interest to Motherwell scholars.
Regards,
Ted
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Olson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 10 April 2001 05:43
> To: SCOTS-L
> Subject: [scots-l] Wm. Motherwell
>
>
> [It took a few days for it to sink in that perhaps a few Scots may
> have a bit of interest in this: Some headers deleted, others
> shortened. As much as I would like to edit some of my comments,
> I have not done so here.---- Bruce Olson]
>
> >From - Thu Apr 05 18:56:46 2001
> ... News and discussion relevant to the study of popular /
> folk
> / traditional b <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: book announcement
>
> Luisa Del Giudice wrote:
> >
> > The University Press of Kentucky has just released Mary Ellen
> Brown's
> > William Motherwell's Cultural Politics. See
> > http://www.uky.edu/UniversityPress/books/motherwell.html
> >
> > William Motherwell (l979-1835) journalist, poet,
> man-of-letters, wit, civil
> > servant, and outspoken conservative participated in a
> loose-knit movement
> > that might be designated cultural nationalism. Interested in
> preserving
> > relics of the past that suggested a distinctly Scottish culture
> and
> > nation, he was adamantly against changes he saw as eroding
> Scottish
> > identity.
> >
> > Motherwell worked out his ideological stance in a variety of
> contexts: he
> > founded the Paisley Magazine, collaborated with James Hogg on a
> collection
> > of the works of Burns, edited the Glasgow Couriera leading Tory
> newspaper,
> > served as Sheriff Clerk Depute of Renfrewshire, wrote poetry
> and essays
> > for the expanding periodical press, and edited and collected
> vernacular
> > literature. His l827 edition of ballads, Minstrelsy: Ancient
> and Modern,
> > offered views on authenticity, editorial practice, the nature
> of oral
> > transmission, and the importance of performance which
> anticipated much
> > later scholarly discourse.
> >
> > W.F.H. Nicolaisen says the study is "a must for all ballad
> scholars. The
> > depth, height, and breadth of this study comes as a real
> eye-opener. This
> > is ballad scholarship at its best."
> >
> > Price $39.95, plus postage.
> >
> > Luisa Del Giudice, Director
> > I.O.H.I.
> > Italian Oral History Institute
> > P.O. Box 241553
> > Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553
> >....
>
> Presumeably his Burns scholarship was later, because his version
> of "Lang a growin" in 'Minstrelsy' is Burns revision and
> extention of a 2 verse fragment from David Herd (Hecht's 'Herd',
> XXXIX expanded to Burns' "Lady Mary Ann" in the Scots Musical
> Museum, #372, 1792)
>
> I can't help wondering if Motherwell actually collected any
> ballads himself. He got Andrew Blaikie to note some tunes for
> him, but at least some, and maybe all of his texts were brought
> to him by others (as per F. J. Child).
>
> PS: My copy of the Paisley Magazine, 1828, has MS attributions of
> all pieces in it. [Motherwell held 2 of the 21 shares of the
> joint stock company that issued the magazine.]
>
> Stan Hugill's 'Shanties from the Seven Seas', p. 7, quotes from
> 'Landsman Hay', The Memoirs of Robert Hay, 1953. Robert Hay also
> held 2 shares, and his 'biography' was printed in the series
> entitled 'Sam Spritsail' in The Paisley Magazine, 125 years
> earlier.
>
> Bruce Olson
>
> >From - Fri Apr 06 12:23:13 2001
>
> Reply-To: News and discussion relevant to the study of
> popular / folk / traditional b
> ...
> From: Lynn Wollstadt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Bruce Olson wrote:
>
> > [repeat last above]
>
> I think it's pretty clear that he did...Bill McCarthy could
> certainly talk about this; his book on Agnes Lyle, _The Ballad
> Matrix_, includes a few quotes from Motherwell's notebook about
> some of his face-to-face collecting experience.
>
> Lynn Wollstadt
>
> [Header and repeats deleted]
>
> Thanks, I did't know about that one. For the many texts from the
> extended MacQueen family which were brought to Motherwell and
> Andrew
> Crawfurd by two brothers in the MacQueen family see Emily Lyle's
> "Andrew
> Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs'. Dr. Lyle has managed
> to
> identify some of Mary MacQueen's tunes in Blaikie's MSS, and some
> of her
> songs have been reunited with her original tunes, and recorded on
> Scottish Text Society cassette tape STS1. Dr. Lyle has even
> traced many
> current descendents to Canada.
> Motherwell was rather indifferent about citing his sources.
>
> Bruce Olson
> .................................................................
>
> --
> Old English, Irish and, Scots: popular songs, tunes, broadside
> ballads at my website (no advs-spam, etc)- www.erols.com/olsonw
> or click below <A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw"> Click </a>
> Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List
> - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to:
http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
