[scots-l] Re: Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
Andrew Kuntz wrote: Have the Kerr collections been definitively dated? I don't recall Merry Melodies having a publishing date in any of the four volumes, but I understand the publishing house was (is?) active for some time. No. Unfortunately the background to the Kerrs books is vague, although I've often felt like doing some research. I believe the company still exists in some form in Glasgow, but I'm shy of approaching them (apart from having failed to find the time to do so). I'm in Edinburgh for two-and-a-half days a week, and although my free time there is short, I may spend some time in the National Library seeing what can be rooted out. I'm surprised if nobody has done this research before [do you know, Jack?], but if not, it would certainly be worth doing. Gore only lists the Merry Melodies books (1-4), and gives a date from 1875; others guess a little later. I think that's because there is some concordance with Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883), but I think not. /I/ think it's more likely that the Kerr's editor had access to earlier collections published by Elias Howe (publisher of Ryan's). I think it would be possible to trace many of the original sources for the tunes in Merry Melodies. It seems obvious, for example, that Joseph Lowe's Collection was heavily borrowed from; the Gow books similarly, and Simon Fraser's collections. There are clearly contemporary compositions in there, particularly from Carl Volti, which makes me suspect that he was possibly the editor. Ah well, as you can see, the Kerr's collections have fascinated me, and I wish I had more time to research. For anyone who's interested, I've a Kerr's section on my web site (URL below). -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kerr's Collections: http://www.nigelgatherer.com/books.html Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Miss McPherson Grant's Jig
I'm in love. With Miss McPherson Grant. Can't get it out of my head. X:652 T:Miss McPherson Grant's Jig - of Ballindalloch B:Marshall's 1st Coll. (1822) Z:Nigel Gatherer L:1/8 M:6/8 K:A E | E2A A2F | GAB Bcd | c2E AGA | B3 E3 | E2e e2c | dcd Bcd | cde fed | cBA GFE | E2A A2F | GAB Bcd | c2E AGA | B3 E3 | E2e e2c | dcd Bcd | cBA EFG | A3 A2 || E | C2E A2=G | FEF D2F | d2c BcA | G3 E2E | FGA Bcd | cde fga | gfe Bc^d | e3 e2z | f2D fed | e2c ecA | FGA BcA | G3 E3 | F2d E2c | D2B C2e | cBA EFG | A3 A,2 |] -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
Unfortunately the background to the Kerrs books is vague, although I've often felt like doing some research. I believe the company still exists in some form in Glasgow, but I'm shy of approaching them (apart from having failed to find the time to do so). They turned into a classical record shop in Woodlands Road. I used to go in there regularly in the early 1980s. They're not there any more and I don't know what they're up to now. I think it would be possible to trace many of the original sources for the tunes in Merry Melodies. It seems obvious, for example, that Joseph Lowe's Collection was heavily borrowed from; the Gow books similarly, and Simon Fraser's collections. There are clearly contemporary compositions in there, particularly from Carl Volti, which makes me suspect that he was possibly the editor. Somebody remind me what Carl Volti's real name was? He was a Scottish musician who adopted an Italian professional name. I used to hear his reel The Apple Tree a lot a few years ago, it seems to have gone out of fashion. The tune is sometimes known as Willie Cook's Apple Tree, was Cook really Volti? (It's printed in Merry Melodies with Volti's strathspey Willie Cook before it). X:2 T:The Apple Tree Z:Jack Campin http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ April 2004 S:Kerr's MM v2 p5 M:C| L:1/8 Q:1/2=112 K:A A2 a2 fe`dc| Aa`ga fe`dc|[1 Bc`de fB`Bc| Bcde fefa:|! [2 Bc`de fB`Ba| gefg a2e2|| (EA)AB (cB)AF|(EA)AB (cB)AG|! (FB)Bc (dc)BA|[1 GABc defe:| [2 GEFG A2e2|] - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music. off-list mail to j-c rather than scots-l at this site, please Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
I used to hear his reel The Apple Tree a lot a few years ago, it seems to have gone out of fashion. [...] A2 a2 fe`dc| Aa`ga fe`dc|[1 Bc`de fB`Bc| Bcde fefa:|! i play it... and sometimes people recognise it, but more often not. at least i'm pretty sure it's the same tune, but i'm not very good at humming through raw abc. my abc converter barfs at the backquotes in the above line. do you know what they're supposed to signify? my copy of the abc documentation doesn't mention this character. cheers, rog. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Miss McPherson Grant's Jig
Nice tune. Thanks. CA Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
I used to hear his reel The Apple Tree a lot a few years ago, it seems to have gone out of fashion. [...] A2 a2 fe`dc| Aa`ga fe`dc|[1 Bc`de fB`Bc| Bcde fefa:|! i play it... and sometimes people recognise it, but more often not. at least i'm pretty sure it's the same tune, but i'm not very good at humming through raw abc. my abc converter barfs at the backquotes in the above line. do you know what they're supposed to signify? my copy of the abc documentation doesn't mention this character. It's a relatively recent feature, introduced at my suggestion. It's a kind of null character; it provides a way of spacing out ABC notes to allow for more readable alignment of parallel phrases, but without breaking beams as an actual space would. In most fonts ` is very unobtrusive, and while most character sets have a nonbreaking space somewhere, they don't agree on its ordinal position, so ` gives a portable near-equivalent from the ASCII set. Current ABC software handles it correctly - it was implemented in both abcm2ps and BarFly within a week of me suggesting it, which makes it the fastest-ever- agreed-on feature added to ABC. If your ABC software can't handle it, just delete all occurrences of it first with a text editor. The other sneaky thing I did in that was to use ! for a linebreak - that wasn't formerly standard, but ABC2WIN used it, and I argued for a long time that it was a good idea, so it's become more widely adopted (though BarFly's implementation of it isn't quite right yet). - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music. off-list mail to j-c rather than scots-l at this site, please Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
it provides a way of spacing out ABC notes to allow for more readable alignment of parallel phrases presumably this is assuming a fixed-width font? ABC is hard to use with anything else. i should probably get a newer version of abc2ps... For Scottish music you shouldn't be using abc2ps at all, as it makes a complete mess of pipe gracenotes. abcm2ps is much better. - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music. off-list mail to j-c rather than scots-l at this site, please Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Kerr's Reel and Strathspey Pages
There is a clue in the Introduction to J.T. Surenne's The Dance Music of Scotland (Edinburgh 1852): This Collection contains two hundred and forty-five of the best Reels and strathspeys The tunes are distributed into sets of three, as they are generally danced; that is to say, Reel, Strathspey, Reel. Stuart Eydmann Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
Jack Campin wrote: Somebody remind me what Carl Volti's real name was? Archibald Milligan, b. 1849, came from a family of fiddlers. His uncle was George Hood, a celebrated fiddler of his time (apparently). Young Archie's first tune on the fiddle was High Road to Linton (he said, in his autobiography). You can tell I've got a few days off, can't you? -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
Somebody remind me what Carl Volti's real name was? Archibald Milligan, b. 1849, came from a family of fiddlers. His uncle was George Hood, a celebrated fiddler of his time (apparently). Young Archie's first tune on the fiddle was High Road to Linton (he said, in his autobiography). Any relation to George Hood the present-day bandleader from East Lothian? - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music. off-list mail to j-c rather than scots-l at this site, please Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
