General – Soundyngs

Front of book title Scottish Students Song Book with shield showing lion, and many thistles

The Scottish Students’ Song Book: University Freshers’ Fun, old-style

30 October 2023 by Rosa Michaelson

Editor: as nights draw in and we begin to spend more time indoors, Rosa Michaelson invites us to think about … Read more

A red carpet, with an important man wearing white robes walking down the middle, flanked by a double row of bagpipers wearing tartan trousers and military dress jackets and hats.

Post-colonial Bagpiping: Nigeria in context

10 July 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Featured image: from article, Jane Flanagan, ‘Skirl of the bagpipes thrills Nigeria’, The Times Feb 29 2020 At the end … Read more

Old image of 4 rows of workers, male and female, wearing working clothes - men in flat caps and women with aprons

Review: Thirsty Work and Other Legacies of Folk Song

27 June 202319 June 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Featured image: DUNIH 353.22 Dundee linen workers, c.1865, at Cargill & Co. Bleachworks up by DIghty Burn, with thanks to … Read more

Printed page of psalm 1 with music from the 1564 Scottish psalter

Scottish Psalms Online – A New Split-leaf Resource

26 May 202319 May 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Scottish musical identity has steered a course through national history navigating between the devil’s fiddle and the psalm book of … Read more

Shepherds and Tea Tables text, above a cartoon of two scenes from the 18th century, one a shepherd, the other a lady sitting at a tea table set for afternoon tea. Also listing the artists on this album.

Review: Concerto Caledonia, “Shepherds & Tea Tables: Songs of Allan Ramsay”

15 March 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Concerto Caledonia currently lead the field in historically-informed performances of Scottish music, and bring to their work awareness of both … Read more

Close up image of a concertina in the hands of an informal player

Research Profile: Stuart Eydmann on the Concertina in Scotland

15 February 202315 February 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Soundyngs’ last post discussed the importance of ‘big box’ accordions to Scottish dance music and called for more writing on … Read more

Engraving from a 19th century book illustration of Auld Lang Syne of men amicably shaking hands

Linking Arms for Auld Lang Syne: Celebrating Friendship

23 December 2022 by Jane Pettegree

Image: Illustration to Robert Burns’ ‘Auld Lang Syne’ by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven. The Complete Works of Robert Burns: … Read more

Glasgow Pavilion Theatre: Scottish Music Hall heritage at a crossroads

26 September 2022 by Jane Pettegree

Image attribution: Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons This weekend, it was reported in the Scottish press that … Read more

The Gentle Shepherd meets his long-lost father engraving from 18th century edition

Allan Ramsay’s ‘The Gentle Shepherd’: new scholarly edition with music

25 July 202225 July 2022 by Jane Pettegree

Image: plate by David Allan, from The Gentle Shepherd (Glasgow: A Foulis, 1788), an edition with music, from the University … Read more

Scottish Fiddle: traces of oral culture in printed 18th century collections?

23 March 2022 by Jane Pettegree

Today’s post discusses one area of ongoing research: the relationship between literate and oral cultures of transmission in the 18th … Read more