Soundyngs’ editor laments their inability to speak Gaelic but this new collection of Tolmie’s collected songs is generously furnished with both Gaelic and English paratexts and translations, which makes this material accessible to both competent and less competent readers. The title – Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh: The Tolmie Collection – reflects a saying translatable as ‘without seeking, without asking’, or ‘serendipity’, that was a favourite of Tolmie’s. Although searching and asking lay at the heart of what this redoubtable woman contributed to Gaelic culture, this edition shows that Tolmie was uniquely situated, at just the right time and place, to hear, and record, a vast repertoire of songs in a period of rapid cultural change.
CAVEAT: This review is not from a Gaelic speaker, and someone who is competent in that language would be better positioned to review this; at least, I would hope that wide awareness of these songs might encourage ongoing engagement with the deeper riches of the archive material.
A RETREAT FROM THE FRONT (15th March 2024): Two separate offline conversations this morning have made it clear that I am not the best person to review this work, so the original review – which was basically a summary of contents and of the intentions of the editors – has been taken out and I throw to the wider ‘out there’, if someone knows both Gaelic and this particular archive, and would like to review this new edition, please get in touch. Singers, this is a songbook, not necessarily an academic monograph. Readers, keep being interested in Tolmie. Isn’t it complicated, being Scottish….
A tentative return to the front.… (4th April 2024): Ok, so, writing this pragmatically. If you are a singer and want an affordable book that will sit on a music stand and help you sing, this publication fits. It repackages the songs published from Frances Tolmie’s collections from the Journal of the Folk Song Society in 1911 in a low-cost spiral-bound paperback edition, alongside some of the original essays, adding in some contributions in both Gaelic and English from 21st century writers and singers (Malcolm Ferguson-Smith, Kenna Campbell, Priscilla Scott, Jo Miller and Mary Ann Kennedy) attesting to the cultural importance of this material. It signposts that there were gaps and compromises made in 1911, because the editors of the Folk Song Society didn’t fully understand the material, and it suggests where gaps could be filled in. It’s a book aimed to reach a general public, and to raise awareness of the importance of this material, and it has some very nice photographs and maps that helps people to envision the Skye locations associated with the songs, and of Tolmie herself and her circle. There is still room for a more academic re-editing of the archive material, with considerably more revisiting of the decisions made in 1911. It could be hoped that, in publishing the book and raising awareness of the Tolmie collection, the editors will encourage more research activity around this material. Meantime, for general singers, this book is an entry point picking up where 1911 left off. Some songs also have background anecdotes and notes that could convert nicely into spoken introductions for live performance.
Further Reading
- Ethel Bassin, (Derek Bowman, ed.), The Old Songs of Skye: Frances Tolmie and her Circle (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977)
- Kenna Campbell & Ainsley Hamill, Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh: The Tolmie Collection (Acair Books, 2023)
- Soundyngs (Jane Pettegree), Frances Tolmie’s Skye Songs: manuscript sources from the National Library of Scotland, 11 May 2023