Lyres before Harps? recent Scottish archaeology
Image: Burnt Lyre Bridge, from High Pasture Cave – from Steven Birch, Case Study, High Pasture Cave (ScARF – Scottish … Read more
Articles
Historical Harping 2: Who Was Rory Dall?
Image: Da Mihi Manum, from Twelve English and Twelve Irish Airs for the German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord, Vol 2 … Read more
Minding the Gaps: Pre-histories of Scottish Harps and Harpists
Image: Queen Mary Harp, in the National Museum of Scotland, photograph by David Monniaux, CC BY-SA 3.0 The clarsach, or … Read more
Hamish Henderson: centenary and legacy
This post is something of a late ripple washing back from the tsunami of writing that celebrated, back in 2019, … Read more
Reconstructing Sacred Polyphony from Renaissance Aberdeen
Image: Fragment of written notes, found in the Breviarum Aberdonense, from the National Library of Scotland RB.x.002-003, https://digital.nls.uk/103009037 New research … Read more
Pete Shepheard remembers … the St Andrews Folk Club, and the early days of the traditional song revival
Image: Imperial Hotel, North Street, St Andrews – postcard, dated late 1950s “Dig from where you stand” is a precept … Read more
Happy Mid-Winter 2024: A Short Digest of Scottish Christmas Traditions
Image: Fire – I, MarcusObal, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2386768 A short post this one – simply signposting you on to … Read more
Gaelic Boating Songs: Ancient and (more) Modern
Image: Harbour and Castle at Helmsdale, Am Baile ID QZP40_Card_5608 Highland Libraries Postcard Collection It’s a truism that the Gaels … Read more
Review: MacDonald’s Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe
Soundyngs’ reviews are sometimes of recent works, and other times of books that have recently arrived on Soundyngs shelves and … Read more
Edwardian Music Rooms in Scottish Great Houses
Featured image: Fyvie Castle Music Gallery (author’s own photographs) “Domestic music-making” means different things in different homes. Soundyngs learnt recently … Read more
Mats Melin and Scottish Dance: A Short Appreciation
In Soundyngs’ travels this summer, a highland library shelf threw up a rather interesting book called A Sutherland Dance (1977), … Read more
The Sound of Scotland – what is ‘Scottish film music’?
Image: Advert for Rob Roy (Westminster Films, dir. W. P. Kelling, 1922), in The Bioscope, Thursday 21st September 1922, p.7. … Read more