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Reviews

Book cover with title, editor, and a photograph of a smiling man with a tweed hat and coat (Jock Duncan) in a farm landscape

Review: Jock Duncan: The Man and His Songs

8 December 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image: cover, Jock Duncan: The Man and his Songs, compiled and edited by Peter Shepheard (Perth: Rymer Books, 2024) Jock … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 20thCentury, Aberdeenshire, BothyBallads, Doric, Folksong, Song Leave a comment
Two books John M Mason collection with the man himself in tartan

Review: The John M Mason Collection

1 December 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Soundyngs’ workplace recently received an impressively weighty 2 volume hardback collection of fiddle tunes by John M Mason (1940-2011), co-founder … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 20thCentury, 21stCentury, Argyle, Fiddle, FiddleOrchestra, Fiddletunes Leave a comment
Photograph of the approach to Dundee from the south looking at the city skyline from the road bridge

Review: Take It To The Bridge

27 October 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image: Tay Road Bridge, approaching Dundee in the slow land (2001), Colin Smith CC BY-SA-2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tay_Road_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_97596.jpg Dundee: once, jute, jam … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 20thCentury, Dundee, Popular Music Leave a comment
A strange round fiddle

Review: Alexander ‘Battan’ Grant, 1856-1942

13 October 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image – the rondello, from Inverness Museums, in Smartify.org Art is long, and life is short, alas; people often need … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 19thCentury, 20thCentury, Fiddle, Inverness, Scott Skinner Leave a comment
Book cover showing 2 people on a hill looking out over a landscape with a loch in the distance

Review: Scottish Life and Society – A Compendium of Scottish Ethnography (14 vols)

4 August 2025 by Jane Pettegree

This review covers books which have been out for a few years now, but which are part of a larger, … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 16thCentury, 17thCentury, 18thCentury, 19thCentury, 20thCentury, Education, MusicEducation, Organ, Psalms, Religion, Song Leave a comment
a cartoon drawing of a woman dressed in a fancy tartan bonnet and dress

Review: Mary-Jannet Leith, on Scottish Musicians, Music-Making and Culture in Eighteenth Century London 1741-1815

14 April 202514 April 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image: cartoon by Isaak Cruikshank of Jane, 2nd Duchess of Gordon as ‘A Tartan Belle’ (1792) (p.165) Mary-Jannet Leith is … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 18thCentury, 19thCentury, bagpipes, HighlandSocietyofLondon, JamesOswald, JohnGow, RobertBremner, ScottishDance Leave a comment
Album cover photo of a middle aged women singing, with a tartan border and Jeannie Robertson The Queen Among the heather

Review: Jeannie Robertson: The Queen Among the Heather

31 March 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Following up on our previous post about the music associated with the Battle of Harlaw, Soundyngs is reviewing a recording … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 20thCentury, FolkRevival, Folksong, JeannieRobertson, ScottishMusic, Songs, Travellers Leave a comment
album cover HARLAW with image of a desolate hillside and an effigy of a knight in armour

Review: Harlaw Scotland 1411

18 March 202517 March 2025 by Jane Pettegree

When Soundyngs started back in January 2022, we were already 11 years after the 600th anniversary of the Battle of … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags bagpipes, Ballad, Fiddle, Gaelic, GaelicSong, Harlaw, ScottishMusic 3 Comments
Book cover Understanding Scotland Musically Folk Tradition and Policy with title, author names and abstract colour design (not tartan)

Review: Understanding Scotland Musically: Folk, Tradition and Policy

3 March 20253 March 2025 by Jane Pettegree

In Soundyngs’ very first post in January 2022 we suggested that this site had a working definition of ‘Scottish Music’ … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 18thCentury, 19thCentury, 20thCentury, 21stCentury, ClassicalMusic, FolkMusic, Historiography, Popular Music, PopularMusic, TraditionalMusic Leave a comment
Hamish Henderson as an older man, raising a glass of whisky in a toast

Hamish Henderson: centenary and legacy

17 February 2025 by Jane Pettegree

This post is something of a late ripple washing back from the tsunami of writing that celebrated, back in 2019, … Read more

Categories Articles, Reviews Tags 20thCentury, Folksong, FolksongRevival, HamishHenderson Leave a comment
A Georgian country house set in lawns with a backdrop of forested hillside

Review: The Eliza Ross Collection

3 February 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image: Raasay House, photo attribution John Darcy, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. . This, the … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 18thCentury, 19thCentury, bagpipes, ElizaRoss, Gaelic, Raasay, Skye, Song Leave a comment
Book cover The Scottish Orpheus a collection of the most admired songs of Scotland

Review: A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity Scotland’s Printed Music 1880-1951

6 January 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Karen McAulay has, until this summer, been a librarian at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, and she brings her skills as … Read more

Categories Reviews Tags 19thCentury, 20thCentury, CommunitySinging, Glasgow, MusicEducation, MusicPublishing, Printing, Publishing, Victorian Leave a comment
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