Image: Title page from the 3rd edition of Songs and Fancies, 1682, from an ABE Books sales page (other versions also exist from e.g. the NLS).
This post welcomes guest-author Roslyn Potter, who is currently engaged in doctoral research on early modern women’s Scottish household manuscripts, including songs and poetry. Roslyn’s earlier studies at undergraduate and masters level made her aware of Scottish female writers such as Elizabeth Melville, and she has previously held a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship to work on early Scottish song lyrics (see the output from this as the Glasgow University-hosted ‘Early Scottish Lyrics‘ site), and was attached to the ‘Wayfarers’ project, which explored how traditional music could be used in schools to teach the history of Scottish emigration to the US. In this post, she draws attention to the importance of Songs and Fancies: a music book printed in 17th century Aberdeen.
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In Aberdeen in the year 1662, printing duo John Forbes Elder and Younger made Scottish history when they showcased their first major musical publication: Songs and Fancies.
This little book is the first known collection of secular music printed in Scotland and was popular enough that the Forbes family made two subsequent editions, in 1666 and 1682, to meet demand. Throughout these three editions, its contents range from Scottish lyrics and English ayres to a selection of Italian canzonets. Each edition contains roughly sixty-two songs with notation and corresponding lyrics, around one third of which are agreed to be of Scottish origin. Seven of these are unique to Songs and Fancies: ‘When chyle cold afe shall sease upon thy blod’; I love gret God above’; ‘Where art though, hope’; ‘When may is in her pryme’; ‘The time of youth sore I repent’ ‘Ye gods of love’; ‘There is a thing that much is used’ (Cooper, p.30).
Despite these accolades, Songs and Fancies was generally disregarded by early music collectors and antiquarians of the eighteenth century. They felt, perhaps, that Songs and Fancies lacked the purity of a ‘national collection’ and found that its variety of sources perhaps invalidated its authenticity as a Scottish text. Or maybe they just didn’t like the music. William Dauney in particular finds the tunes “heavy and monotonous” (Dauney, p.29) and Charles Sandford Terry calls some songs “musically worthless” (Sandford, p.406). However, plenty of scholars since then have celebrated Songs and Fancies, and successful performances have been reconstructed and recorded by musicians all over the world and articles dedicated to the ‘Pleaugh-Sang’ and ‘Trip and go, hey’ have been active in reconsidering the value of these once-dismissed pieces (see e.g. Elliot, Fenton, Purser in Further Reading).
Although the book is often associated exclusively with the Forbes family, they undoubtably received assistance in the selection of Songs and Fancies’ contents. The initials T.D. printed on the book’s frontispiece leads to the identity of music schoolmaster Thomas Davidson (fl. 1640–1675). Aberdeen’s ‘sang-schule’ (song school) had flourished in pre-Reformation times under high-calibre musicians such as John Fethy (d. 1568) and, despite the challenges of the Reformation, maintained a good reputation under schoolmasters of distinction. Prior to the publication of Songs and Fancies, however, there were no printed musical textbooks of Scottish origin and schoolmasters relied on instructional books from England or Europe such as Thomas Campion’s A New Way of Making Fowre Parts (London, 1610) and Charles Butler’s The Principles of Musik (London, 1636); both these books are listed in Shire’s catalogue of Andro Melville’s library (Cooper, p.27).
As the ‘Master of Musick’, Thomas Davidson was a principal advisor in the compilation and setting of the pieces in Songs and Fancies. The creation of a native instructional book held several interconnected advantages, benefitting the music school, the printers and the cultural reputation of the city of Aberdeen. The blend of Scottish, English and continental song and music made available through Songs and Fancies are a careful selection of lesser- and well-known melodies that appeal to their audience of potential buyers, as well as including material that will instruct the pupils of the song school in the ‘art of music’, particularly in singing. There was clearly a market for a secular music book in Aberdeen and, with Town Council funding and the help of schoolmasters, the Forbeses produced one.
Today, around one hundred known copies of Songs and Fancies exist in archives across the world, mainly its third edition published in 1682 (*the featured image for this post). However, there is only one known surviving copy of the first edition of Songs and Fancies, now housed in the Huntington Library, California. While it is sometimes believed that fewer surviving copies of a text mean it must have been very obscure in its day, it is most likely the opposite: the books were used so heavily that very few copies survive.
Despite its early popularity, Songs and Fancies was not mined as a source by the early song collectors of eighteenth century, like James Watson and Allan Ramsay. These collectors/editors saw themselves as being on a mission to save Scottish culture from impeding Anglocentrism/British homogeneity, and so, even if they were aware of the Songs and Fancies, would probably have rejected it because of its non-indigenous content. However, the volume deserves more attention, because Songs and Fancies prefigured the (trans)national song collections that became so prevalent throughout the eighteenth century.
Those involved in the creation of Songs and Fancies had a mixture of agendas: the town council wished to promote Aberdeen’s cultural centrality and reclaim the town’s British and European relevancy; Thomas Davidson wanted to exhibit pedagogic clarity for young learners; the Forbes business wished for a successful commercial enterprise. The resulting document is a valuable mix of sources, influences and functions. Although this fusion contributed to its fading relevancy to later song collectors, Songs and Fancies is a unique collection that provides valuable perspectives on Scotland’s musical, print and wider cultural heritage which incorporated many influences, at home and abroad. Its very existence proves the vibrancy, variety and sophistication of geographical and cultural milieu in which it was created. In fact, the qualities of promoting regionality as part of a national agenda; improving musical skills and engaging with performance; and selling copies far and wide for commercial success were also valued by eighteenth-century Scottish song collectors and editors.
Consequently, Songs and Fancies has played a key role in the very early steps of what became some of the most viable cultural and commercial publishing projects of the eighteenth century. For many readers, singers, and performers, the hidden legacy of Songs and Fancies lives on, and remains a crucial text in the understanding of early Scottish music, song, and poetry.
Songs and Fancies will be on display in Aberdeen’s Art Gallery to celebrate the centenary of the National Library of Scotland and the concert venue Cowdray Hall this year. To celebrate, Soprano Heloïse Bernard and lutenist Eric Thomas will perform selections from Songs and Fancies in a special concert at Cowdray Hall on the 13th of November 2025.
Further Reading
- Kathryn Lavinia Cooper, ‘Cantus, Songs and Fancies: Context, Influence and Importance’ (unpublished M.Mus, University of Glasgow, 2003).
- William Dauney, Ancient Scotish Melodies, from a Manuscript of the Reign of King James VI (Edinburgh: Smith, Elder & Co., 1838)
- Kenneth Elliott, ‘Trip and Goe, Hey: “A Truly Scottish Song”’, in Stewart Style, 1513-1542, ed. Janet Hadley Williams (East Linton, 1996), pp. 153–78
- Alexander Fenton, ‘The Plough-Song: A Scottish Source for Medieval Plough History’, Tools and Tillage, 1 (1970), 175–91
- Ann Dhu McLucas, ‘Forbes “Cantus, Songs and Fancies” Revisited’, in Defining Strains: The Musical Life of Scots in the Seventeenth Century (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 269–97
- Gordon Munro, ‘“Sang Schwylls” and “Music Schools”: Music Education in Scotland, 1560-1650’, in Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Susan Forscher Weiss, Cynthia J. Cyrus, and Russel E. Murray, Jr. (Indiana University Press, 2010), pp. 65–83
- John Purser, Eight Early Scottish Carols: For Three or Four Voices, ed. Kenneth Elliott (Glasgow: Musica Scotica Trust, 2006)
- Helena Mennie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland under King James VI (Cambridge University Press, 1969).
- Charles Sandford Terry, ‘John Forbes’s “Songs and Fancies”’, The Musical Quarterly, 22.4 (1936), 402–19
Further Listening
- Roslyn Potter, ‘In a garden so green’ (Early Scottish Lyrics, University of Glasgow) summary and lead vocal, with additional vocals (Amanda Nizic), guitar (Ryan English), and percussion (Kris Pohl)
- Maria Valdmaa and Mikko Perkola, Aberdene 1662, songs from John Forbes Songs and Fancies (ERP Estonian Record Productions 11520, 2020) on Bandcamp
Websites
- Concert (Heloïse Bernard and Eric Thomas): Music from John Forbes’ Songs and Fancies (voice and lute) – Aberdeen, November 2025
- Early Scottish Lyrics, University of Glasgow website
- Roslyn Potter webpage
- Wayfarers: confronting the past through history and traditional music education in schools (University of Glasgow, Social Sciences Hub, 2024) webpage