Soundyngs’ workplace recently received an impressively weighty 2 volume hardback collection of fiddle tunes by John M Mason (1940-2011), co-founder of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra (with Gerry Crean) in 1980. Thanks to the generous support of the Rev James Currie Memorial Trust, the publishers have also made the tunes available, free, on a keyword-searchable website (see further reading and listening). Both Mason and Currie (who often compered the fiddle orchestra) were dedicated to supporting Scottish fiddle music, curating the tradition and in Mason’s case, writing many new compositions. The project organisation was undertaken by Mason’s sons, Rognvald and James (Lunan, 26 Oct 2025); this collection of 600 of Mason’s tunes is a grand testament to a lifetime of music making.
And my workplace wasn’t the only one to receive this gift: 1000 printed copies have remarkably been donated to many organisations around Scotland and indeed globally (Lunan, 23 October 2025).
Together, print and web resource will hopefully help to ensure this material continues to contribute to musical community making.
John Mason was born in Kirkwall, Orkney, moving to Troon in 1967, where he worked as a solicitor by profession for the Troon company of Waddell & Mackintosh. That significant career clearly only took up part of his capacious brain. The Scottish Fiddle orchestra emerged out of a looser series of ‘Fiddler’s Rallies’ associated first with the Kilmarnock and then with the Ayr and Prestwich Strathspey and Reel Society, including a recording (‘Strings of Scotland’) that Mason organised in 1975.
It might have taken an Orcadian to realise the audience potential of Fiddler’s Rallies; these may be common all around Scotland, but I have particularly keen memories of 1970s Orkney and Caithness joint rallies, with the St Ola ferrying fiddlers between the communities. These community events allowed more experienced players to encourage youngsters into the repertoire; en masse, the odd slipped note was swept along in the general massed sound.
So, this isn’t just about music, it’s also about community building. Awarded an MBE in 1987 for his services to music in Scotland, Mason was also part of the musical forces who played for the opening of the Scottish parliament in 1999 (Lunan, 23 October, 2025). The website for the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra tells us that the orchestra is comprised of players who play unpaid, raising money for many charities as well as covering their own costs. Tours have taken the sound of Scottish music to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and even China.
The printed volumes organise tunes into dance categories – slow airs, strathspeys, reels, marches, jigs, hornpipes, barn dances, polkas, two steps, waltz, duets, songs, and a final 21 ‘miscellaneous’, followed by an endnote section with light touch information on people and places associated with many of these. Simply set, the collection gives the user tunes and suggested chord accompaniment – all you would need to get playing with a standard ceilidh band.
The searchable online database allows some creative curation, to suit individual interests. Inputting ‘Wigtown’, for example, yielded a list of 7 tunes: The Martyrs of Wigtown, and The Wigtown Martyrs (lest we forget) (both slow airs); Let Wigtown Flourish, The Vennels of Wigtown, Wigtown Cross, and Wigtown Square (all strathspeys); Let Wigtown Flourish (as a march); The McGowans of Wigtown (a jig) and a cheerful hornpipe called The Wigtown Ploughman. More than enough for a set in The Wigtown Ploughman pub, if anyone there is interested.
Other searches, and hostelries, are obviously possible. ‘Troon’ is fruitful, as might be expected, while ‘Irvine’ throws up ‘The Heckling Shed’ (a reel) and ‘The Engraver-Tommy Rutherford, Irvine’ (a jig).
The first foreword, written by Mason’s friend the BBC broadcaster Jim McColl (d.2024) remembers Mason’s as a friend, sharing music in many different venues around the UK and in Canada. A second one by another BBC veteran – Robbie Shepherd (d.2023) remembers fondly what fun it was to compere the Scottish Fiddle orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London (p.ix). The trio of forewords is completed by veteran Edinburgh fiddler Yla Steven
However you use the material, the collection is a tool to make musical communities – something that I’m sure John Mason would have loved.
Further Reading and Listening
- The John M Mason Collection parts 1 and 2 (Troon: J D C Publications Ltd, 2025)
- The John M Mason Collection website is a remarkable resource that provides users with free downloads of Mason’s music, and a search engine for individual tunes
- Duncan Lunan, ‘Treasure Trove of John M Mason Collection Gifted Worldwide’, Orkney News 23 October 2026
- Duncan Lunan, ‘Postscript to ‘Treasury of John M Mason Collection, Gifted Worldwide’, Orkney News, 26 October 2025
- The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra website