[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Speaking of old books, I found one in my mother's house. (She died recently,
> quite tragically, in an auto accident, so if you think my book is a
> pointless, useless piece of garbage, please don't tell me.)
>
> Mom left nothing but trash, mostly, but this one book crawled out from under
> a pile of magazines and papers and caught my eye. It is not dated. Called
> "Scotland Calling in 50 Scottish Songs", it has both staff notation and
> sol-fa. For someone who has only a vague knowledge of sol-fa, this is rather
> like finding the rosetta stone.
>
> The book was published by Mozart Allen, 84 Carlton Place in Glasgow. Lots of
> standard stuff, like Scots Wha Hae and Auld Lang Syne, but a couple of tunes
> I don't already know (which you all probably know like the back of your
> fiddle, so I won't embarass myself by listing the ToC).
>
> I *shall* embarass myself by admitting I don't know the arranger, who is Mr.
> C. MacKay Collier. Does this clue help date it? Any pearls of arcane
> knowledge out there on the list?
>
> I imagine this book must have belonged to my Grandfather Ogilvie. Mom never
> worried herself about her "roots". I wish I knew how old it was. Probably not
> very. But I'd be interested to know if it was one of the few things Grandad's
> parents brought with them when they came here from Scotland. If I knew the
> age of the book, I could speculate...
>
Sol-fa notation was almost universal in the interwar period. It was used
for the Community Song Books which appeared when radio first became
available, and was often combined with ukelele chord symbols. It was
also used earlier on in school curriculum songbooks.
'Scotland Calling' must surely date this to radio era, and the early
radio era at that. I would guess 1928-32. My dad had stacks of stuff
like this. Most of it is seriously uninspiring and when you do find an
'unknown' tune it turns out to a be a Broadway Scots invention or a
musical-hall survival. BUT you never know; it's possible to find
unexpected gems worth reviving even from this date.
David
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