Song – Soundyngs

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

A title page of the 16682 edition of the Songs and Fancies, showing a woman and a man in 17th century dress on either side of the title page print details

Songs and Fancies: Aberdonian music-making in the 17th Century

15 September 2025 by Roslyn Potter

Image: Title page from the 3rd edition of Songs and Fancies, 1682, from an ABE Books sales page (other versions … Read more

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

Street in Dysart, Fife, in 1920s, with a traditional Scottish towerhouse shown in foreground

‘Give Me Your Hand’: Fife connections for this traditional tune

7 July 2025 by Keith Sanger

Image: The Towers, Dysart, Fife image from author’s own collection. The Towers, in Dysart’s East Quality Street, was an elegant … Read more

3 women laughing at a soldier pushing another soldier in a wheelbarrow

Orcadian war songs: new flytings, old tunes

23 June 202523 June 2025 by Jane Pettegree

Image: Five naval colleagues at Lyness, Isle of Hoy, Orkney, Scotland, where the main naval base for the British fleet, … Read more

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

Songs of the Hebrides album cover with water colour suggesting waves and heather colours

Review: Marjory Kennedy Fraser’s Songs of the Hebrides: a virtual concert-lecture

2 December 2024 by Joan Busby

Soundyngs editor writes: recently I visited Joan Busby, and a cup of tea turned into a wonderful private 2 hour … Read more

A house plaque with Ronald Centre 1913 to 1973 Composer lived here

Review: Ronald Center (1913-73) : Centenary and Beyond

30 September 2024 by Jane Pettegree

This week’s post on a talented but undeservedly neglected composer has been prompted by some recent chat with Jamie Reid … Read more

Engraving of a man in early 19th century dress with his finger to his cheek

Review: Robert Tannahill Songs. 250th Anniversary recordings

13 May 202413 May 2024 by Jane Pettegree

Robert Tannahill’s (1774 to 1810) contribution to Scottish song lyrics is known to Scots song enthusiasts but, in this 250th … Read more

Book cover The life and legacy of Alexander Carmichael

Review: The Life & Legacy of Alexander Carmichael

2 April 20241 April 2024 by Catherine Helferty

Soundyngs welcomes guest writer Catherine Helferty, BMus BEd, who is an MLitt candidate in Sacred Music at the University of … Read more

Portrait of Robert Burns with landscape background

The Burns 1859 Centenary

25 January 202425 January 2024 by Jane Pettegree

As its local supermarket is currently awash with haggis, neeps, tatties, shortbread and that bright orange fizzy drink that provokes … Read more

Christmas tree made from quilted squares, Barra community centre in the background

A Gaelic Christmas

25 December 2023 by Jane Pettegree

Image: Castlebay, Barra’s, 2020 Christmas tree made by islanders who spent the Covid lockdown making squares for this wonderful thing. … Read more