J.L. Dussek
Corri
Urbani
Ross
W Within a mile ofE Edinburgh John Kitchen, fortepiano
DELPHIAN
J.C. Bach
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Within a Mile of Edinburgh J.L. Dussek Variations on Within a Mile of Edinburgh [NLS Mus.C.1.242 (7)] Thou art gane awa' Loch Eroch Side Domenico Corri Variations on Loch Erroch Side [NLS MH.e.369] The Banks o' Doon Domenico Corri Variations on The Banks of Doon [NLS MH.273 (1)] Busk ye, busk ye John Ross Variations on Busk ye, busk ye [NLS Mus.D.1.40 (8)] My love, she's but a Lassie yet Roslin Castle J.L. Dussek Variations on Rosline Castle [NLS Mus.E.1.49 (20)] The Lass of Peaty's Mill Sic a wife as Willie had Pietro Urbani Variations on Sic' a wife asWillie had [NLS Mus.D.1.40 (25)] Hamilla The Yellow-hair'd Laddie J.C. Bach Variations on TheYellow-hair'd Laddie [NLS Mus.E.1.49 (20)] Here's a Health to them that's awa'
2.06 7.22 3.59 2.26 4.31 2.40 4.02 2.36 8.23 0.50 4.31 5.44 3.42 1.42 6.39 2.27 2.55 4.32 0.37
John Kitchen is a Senior Lecturer and University Organist at the University of Edinburgh. He also directs the Edinburgh University Singers and is organist of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church. For many years he played regularly with the Scottish Early Music Consort as harpsichordist, organist and fortepianist, and he is a member of several other ensembles, covering a wide range of musical styles. He gives many solo recitals both in the UK and further afield, and is much in demand as a continuo player, accompanist, lecturer and reviewer.
Malcolm Green began singing at an early age, making his opera debut as Miles in Britten's The Turn of the Screw with the English National Opera. As a treble he performed several solo roles with major opera companies, including the ENO, the Royal Opera House and the Theatre de Complicité, both in London and on tour to Russia and the Ukraine, and Germany, France and Italy. As a Choral Scholar at St John's College, Cambridge under Christopher Robinson, he featured in television and radio broadcasts and recordings of works by Duruflé, Fauré, Howells and Britten, and toured extensively in Europe, and to Japan and South Africa. During study at the Centre of African Studies in Edinburgh University, Mal was a regular soloist in various venues across the city.
John Kitchen has made a number of recordings, including a disc of keyboard music by the early 17thcentury Scottish composer William Kinloch, recorded on two instruments in the Russell Collection. He is at present engaged in recording the complete solo organ music of Bach's pupil, Johann Ludwig Krebs, along with various other projects.
Now resident in London, he still finds time for recital work, regular Chapel services and concerts with choirs across the southeast.
Also featuring John Kitchen: Instruments from the Russell Collection
Total 71.46
John Kitchen fortepiano Malcolm Green baritone
John Kitchen, harpsichords and fortepiano DCD 34001 A stunning programme of works performed on a variety of keyboards from Edinburgh’s venerated musical museum. Repertoire includes works by Byrd, Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Greene, Couperin, and Forqueray. Photographs and descriptions of all nine instruments enhance this must-have item for early keyboard enthusiasts worldwide.
Song source: Scots Musical Museum ed. Johnson (1787) Keyboard works: National Library of Scotland Collection
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‘Something for everyone in a recital that is both entertaining and instructive.’ - BBC Music Magazine “...Technical surety, stylistic awareness and musical sympathy in perfect balance” - The Organ
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Recorded at the Barnes Collection, Edinburgh, July 2001 Produced and Engineered by Paul Baxter Executive Producer: Kevin Findlan Design and Photography: © Delphian Records Ltd Cover artwork: Edinburgh and Leith from theWest by James Skene (1818) reprinted by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries. 2002 Delphian Records Ltd © 2002 Delphian Records Ltd Delphian Records Ltd PO Box 17179 Edinburgh EH12 5YD www.delphianrecords.co.uk Tel: 0709 215 7149
Here's a Health to them that's awa Here's a health to them that's awa, Here's a health to them that's awa, Here's a health to them that were here short syne But cann-a be here the day. It's gude to me merry and wise, It's gude to be honest and true, It's gude to be aff wi' the auld love Before ye be on wi' the new.
Special thanks to the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall, the University of Edinburgh Faculty of Music, the Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, Mr John Raymond, Mrs Sheila Barnes, Ms Claire Nelson, And the National Library of Scotland.
John Kitchen at the keyboard of the c.1805 Rochead piano.
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D
uring the eighteenth century, Scotland was unique among the nations of Europe in possessing a folk-song culture that was upheld as enthusiastically by its upper-classes as it was by the remainder of the population.The Edinburgh poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), for example, published his song collection, the Tea-Table Miscellany (1723) especially for the many Edinburgh ladies who sat around their tables each evening after tea to sing old familiar airs, perhaps with the accompaniment of a guitar. Elsewhere such a predilection for national music was unimaginable, but in Scotland it led to the publication of a huge number of national song collections, and later to the evolution of many instrumental works that incorporated traditional melodies within the latest musical styles. Certain genres (such as sonatas, rondos, variation sets and even orchestral overtures) emerged as ideal vehicles for medleys or variations on Scottish themes, and their popularity expanded well beyond Scotland's borders. By the end of the eighteenth century the inclusion of a familiar melody within a piece of 'serious' music was seen, sometimes resentfully, as a quick route to popularity.As the English composer and singer Charles Dibdin commented, music sellers would 'give immense sums for whatever is heard at the theatres, not because of their merit, but because they [stood] a chance of being popular'. Popularity was the key to commercial success, and with the rise of the middle classes a new type of market for music began to emerge. More and more families owned a piano and provided their daughters with keyboard tuition, together with vast quantities of sheet music. Often viewed as a passport to a better marriage, the ability to perform on demand was a much-valued skill in a young woman, and nothing pleased the drawing room audience more than the performance of a song or keyboard arrangement of a popular or 'favourite'
Scottish air, as Mary Bennett discovered to her disgust in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813). Men were not excluded from music making, but their role tended to be rather different from that of their female companions. Scotsmen were renowned, as the Englishman Edward Topham noted in his account of his extended stay in Edinburgh in the mid-1770s, for their overwhelming obsession with musical pursuits of all types, and an enthusiasm for their native music in particular. As he observed, 'almost every one above the common rank of mankind has some knowledge and taste in music', and national culture clearly played an important role in the social life of the Edinburgh literati, including a number of the eminent philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment such as Adam Smith or Henry Home, Lord Kames. In his description of the role played by men at 'Scotch Dances', Topham is explicit in his incomprehension of their attitude: A Scotchman comes into an assembly-room as he would into a field of exercise, dances till he is literally tired, possibly without ever looking at his partner, or almost knowing who he dances with. In most countries the men have a partiality for dancing with a woman; but here I have frequently seen four gentlemen perform one of these Reels seemingly with the same pleasure and perseverance as they would have done, had they had the most sprightly girl for a partner. . .
The almost universal enjoyment of music by the male population of the city led to the establishment of The Edinburgh Musical Society at the specially built St. Cecilia's Hall in the Niddry Wynd. As numbers were restricted, the opportunity to become a member of the society was eagerly sought and jealously retained 'none were admitted but people of fashion'; women were admitted only on 'ladies nights'; and many of the members also took part in the music making alongside 2
paid professionals. Many Italians, such as Domenico Corri (1746-1825) and Pietro Urbani (1749-1816), were among the professional musicians specifically invited to the city in order to participate in the concerts, but their activities were not merely restricted to a weekly performance. Each also had an active life as a teacher of both keyboard and singing, and their students included both upper-class men and women. Relatively few amateur pianists were male although during the eighteenth century the majority of professional pianists were men as the rigours of the travelling virtuoso life were generally considered unsuitable for the gentler sex but singing was an extremely popular pastime, and many others played either the violin or cello.
alone) of the Scots songs contained within Johnson's volumes. Although often described as 'lazy' by Burns, Clarke's minimalist approach seems rather to have been a conscious stance in opposition to that of many of his contemporaries, who not only added opening and closing instrumental phrases to the songs, but arranged them for large instrumental groupings or with elaborate decorations. A statement inserted on the title-page of the sixth part of the series (1803), and subsequently reprinted on the title-pages of the earlier volumes reads: 'In this publication the original simplicity of our Ancient National Airs is retained unencumbered with useless Accompaniments & graces depriving the hearers of the sweet simplicity of their native melodies.' Such sentiments were common in the latter part of the century, probably because they attempted to preserve the performing traditions of the earlier part of the century, and it would seem that Johnson and Clarke made a clear decision to present their work in the traditional form of their homeland. This idea is supported by Burns, who again and again portrays Johnson as 'a Patriot for the Music of [his] Country', imploring Johnson to 'let us go on correctly; and your name shall be immortal'. Johnson, Burns and Clarke were all motivated by patriotic impulse rather than commercial gain, and to them this was the only justifiable approach.
O
ne of the most significant figures in the annals of Scots song was the Ayrshire-born poet, Robert Burns (1759-96). Burns' contribution to the development and redefinition of the repertory is the single most important influence on the profile and availability of these works today, and his sensitive approach to the relationship between poetry and music was undoubtedly the primary reason for their popularity within his own lifetime. Burns first met James Johnson (c.1750-1811), editor of the Scots Musical Museum (SMM), during a visit to Edinburgh in 1787. His interest in writing songs had begun as early as 1783, when he was only twenty-four, but the meeting with Johnson was to inspire the composition of many hundreds of songs during the remaining nine years of his life. Johnson's collaborator was the composer and musical editor of the SMM, Stephen Clarke (c.1735-1797). Clarke, a folk-song enthusiast, was regarded as the best organist of his generation in Scotland, yet provided the simplest possible arrangements (comprising melodies and figured bass
In June 1796, only a few weeks before his death, Burns wrote to Johnson, 'Your Work is a great one . . . I will venture to prophesy, that to future ages your Publication with be the text book & standard of Scotish Song & Music'. Such a prophecy was well founded; in 1794 Burns had already written to Johnson enquiring 'how many, & what are the songs Urbani has borrowed from your Museum', although other letters suggest that B u r n s h i m s e l f b o r r owe d t h e m u s i c a n d 3
Auld baudrans by the ingle sits, An' wi' her loof her face a-washin; But Willie's wife is nae sae trig, She dights her grunzie wi' a hushion; Her walie nieves like midden-creels, Her face wad fyle the Logan-water; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
The Yellow-hair'd Laddie In April when primroses paint the sweet plain, And summer approaching rejoiceth the swain. The yellow-hair'd laddie wou'd oftentimes go, To wilds and deep glens, where the hawthorn trees grow. There under the shade of an old sacred thorn With freedom he sung his loves ev'ning and morn; He sang with so saft and enchanting a sound, That silvans and fairies unseen danc'd around.
Hamilla Look where my dear Hamilla smiles, Hamilla, heavn'ly charmer! See how with all their arts and wiles, The loves and graces arm her! A blush dwells glowing on her cheek, Fair seat of youthful pleasure! There love in smiling language speaks, There spreads the rosy treasure.
The shepherd thus sang, Tho' young Mary be fair, Her beauty is dash'd with a scornfu' proud air; But Susie was handsome, and sweetly could sing, Her breath like the breezes perfum'd in the spring. That Maddie, in all the gay bloom of her youth, Like the moon was inconstant, and never spoke truth; But Susie was faithful, good humour'd and free, And fair as the goddess who sprung from the sea.
O fairest maid, I own thy power; I gaze, I sigh, and languish; Yet ever, ever will adore, And triumph in my anguish. But ease, O charmer, ease my care, And let my torments move thee; As thou art fairest of the fair, So I the dearest love thee.
That Mamma's fine daughter, with all her great dow'r, Was awkwardly airy, and frequently sour; Then sighing he wished would parents agree, The witty sweet Susie his mistress might be.
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The Lass of Peaty's Mill
I'd promise and fulfil, That none but bonny she, The lass of Peaty's mill, Shou'd share the same with me.
The lass of Peaty's mill, So bonny blythe and gay, In spite of all my skill, Hath stole my heart away. When tedding of the hay, Bareheaded on the green, Love 'midst her locks did play, And wanton'd in her een.
Sic a wife as Willie had Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they ca'd it Linkumdoddie; Willie was a wabster gude, Cou'd stown a clue wi' ony bodie. He had a wife was dour and din, O Tinkler Maidgie was her mither, Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
Her arms, white round and smooth, Breasts rising in their dawn, To age it would give youth, To press them with his hand; Through all my spirits ran An ecstasy of bliss, When I such sweetness fand, Wrapt in a balmy kiss.
She has an e'e, she has but ane, The cat has twa the very colour; Five rusty teeth, forbye a stump, A clapper tongue wad deave a miller; A whiskin beard about her mou, Her nose and chin they threaten ither; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
Without the help of art, Like flow'rs which grace the wild, She did her sweets impart, Whene'er she spoke, or smil'd. Her looks, they were so mild, Free from affected pride, She me to love beguil'd; I wish'd her for my bride.
She's bow-hough'd, she's hem shin'd, Ae limpin leg a hand-breed shorter' She's twisted right, she's twisted left, To balance fair in ilka quarter: She has a hump upon her breast, The twin o' that upon her shouther; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
O! had I all that wealth Hopetoun's high mountains fill, Insur'd long life and health, And pleasure at my will; 11
adapted the words for more or less all the songs from previously published collections. Suc h interdependency is unremarkable given that the majority of music based on Scottish traditional melodies was derived from a relatively pre-determined body of songs. Many other composers and publishers –some native, others of English or foreign origin like Pietro Urbani–tackled the native song repertory; some merely compiling new vocal arrangements of the songs themselves, while others expanded selected airs into full instrumental pieces. Their work achieved varying degrees of success, but all were motivated by commercial gain, unlike the participants in the SMM.
the Scottish theme, but which allows some harmonic development within an otherwise rather restrictive idiom. Another to use this popular approach was the rather better known composer Johann Christian Bach (17351782), J S Bach's youngest son, and not only the first to play the piano in public in Britain, but also a mentor to the young Mozart during his visit to London (1764-5). This London-based German made arrangements of several different Scottish tunes in the late 1770s, probably due to the influence of his friend, the Italian castrato G F Tenducci (c.1735-1790). Tenducci had recently returned from a period in Edinburgh where he had been attempting to escape his creditors, and where he had gained an enormous reputation as the singer of Scots songs. For Tenducci, Bach made elaborate instrumental arrangements of four songs, but he also incorporated two other melodies within piano concertos, the most popular of which was his variation set on The Yellow-hair'd Laddie found in the third movement of his piano concerto Op.13 No.4 (1777), a work often republished due to its enormous success. Bach compiled a set of five variations, in succession putting the melody up an octave; utilising an Albertitype arpeggiated bass; moving the melody into the bass; chromaticising the melody; and finally tripletising it in arpeggiated figures.
J
ohn Ross (1763-1837) was an English-born composer and organist who spent his adult life in Aberdeen, where he played a prominent role in musical life, even meeting Burns during his visit there in 1787. An astute businessman, Ross retained contacts with several London publishers, his output including a volume of Ancient and Modern Scots Airs (some of which he had written himself) and more than twenty sonatas, some of which included Scots airs, for piano with an accompaniment for violin or flute.The final movements of many of Ross's sonatas were tuneful rondos that became great favourites in the drawing rooms of the period. Ross's approach to the melody Busk ye, Busk ye is through another commonly employed technique: the variation. Ross utilises the technique in a relatively advanced manner, writing not only three variations of increasing virtuosity (in one of which the underlying rhythm of the theme itself is altered from a slow 4/4 to a more lively, dance-like 6/8), but also what Ross himself terms a 'Minore Digressione'–a section in A minor which contrasts completely with the A major of the remainder of the work.This 'Digressione' is literally that–a deviation that bears little thematic correlation to
P
ietro Urbani and Domenico Corri were two of many Italian musicians active in Edinburgh during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Corri arrived in 1771, his invitation to Edinburgh originating in a favourable account of his musical activities in Charles Burney's journal of his travels in Italy, and he remained there for eighteen years before moving to London around 1790. Urbani's arrival was ten years later, 4
his first few years in Scotland being spent in the less prestigious musical centre of Glasgow, before he settled in Edinburgh in 1784. Both published volumes of Scots songs under their own publishing labels–Corri publishing only two, while Urbani's popularity as a singer created the market for his six. Burns was one of the many who admired Urbani's abilities as a singer, but he strongly disapproved of Urbani's efforts to 'harmonize and improve' Scots songs, although it is clear that Urbani himself considered that he had 'acquired the true national taste'.
If Corri's works of this type–some variation sets, some rondos–are less demanding than those by Urbani, the distinction is very slight. Corri, formerly a pupil of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) in Naples, was an accomplished composer and moreover an entrepreneur with an excellent eye for a business opportunity (though little of the acumen required to make a success of any of his projects). His works were not dedicated to any specific person, but instead were published with amazing rapidity by his son's company, Corri & Sutherland, in sheet music form.This, together with his high profile in Edinburgh's musical life as conductor of the Edinburgh Musical Society, manager of several other enterprises and teacher of keyboard and singing, guaranteed almost continuous sales for as long as the company was in business. Like Urbani, Corri had a tendency to ornament the original airs somewhat more than many purist Scots would have liked. Unlike Urbani, however, Corri also favoured rhythm-based alterations, which distil the essence of the melody or incorporate the famous dotted rhythm known as a 'Scotch-snap'. His rondo on The Banks of Doon, better known as the song 'Ye banks and braes' (perhaps one of the most famous songs for which Burns wrote the lyrics) is one of Corri's simplest works. Here motifs derived from the theme are re-worked in the interludes between statements of the melody. Corri, like Ross, utilising a shift to the relative minor in the middle of the work.The variation set on Loch Erroch Side, on the other hand, shows quite a different aspect to Corri's abilities. Based on a tune originally composed by the famous Scottish fiddle player Niel Gow of Dunkeld, Corri (like Urbani) has utilised increasingly rapidly executed scalic passages and various combinations of arpeggiated figures. The extended closing flourish is surprisingly virtuosic and seemingly foreign to his otherwise
In common with many of their contemporaries, both Italians wrote rondos as well as variation sets on Scottish airs. Rondo movements had become increasingly popular from the 1770s onwards, particularly in Britain, and even the most established composers, such as Mozart and Haydn, included rondos based on popular melodies in their sonatas and symphonies. Audiences loved the episodic structure, in which the opening melody was revisited up to eight times in the course of the piece, and although originally incorporated in sonatas, many of these movements became popular in their own right. Urbani's rondos, such as that on Sic' a wife asWillie had, were very much in the tradition of his contemporaries, but they also display his characteristically over-ornamented themes combined with clearly virtuosic passage-work. Between relatively simplistic re-statements of the theme, Urbani intersperses almost continuous, dynamically-detailed, rapid chromatic movement, which only occasionally pauses for a brief, quasiimprovisatory flourish. Whether the pianistic abilities of the young ladies to whom these works are dedicated matched the aspirations of their teacher can only be imagined. 5
My love she's but a Lassie yet
Awake, sweet muse! The breathing spring With rapture warms; awake and sing! Awake and join the vocal throng, Who hail the morning with a song; To Nanny raise the chearful lay, O! bid her haste and come away; In sweetest smiles herself adorn, And add new graces to the morn!
My love she's but a lassie yet, My love she's but a lassie yet, We'll let her stand a year or twa, She'll no be half sae saucy yet. I rue the day I sought her O, I rue the day I sought her O, Wha gets her needs na say he's woo'd, But he may say he's bought her O.
O hark, my love! on ev'ry spray, Each feather'd warbler tunes his lay; 'Tis beauty fires the ravish'd throng; And love inspires the melting song: Then let my raptur'd notes arise; For beauty darts from Nanny's eyes: And love my rising bosom warms, And fills my soul with sweet alarms.
Come draw a drap o' the best o't yet, Come draw a drap o' the best o't yet: Gae seek for pleasure whare ye will, But here I never misst it yet. We're a' dry wi' drinking o't, We're a' dry wi' drinking o't: The minister kisst the fidler's wife, He could na preach for thinking o't.
O! come my love! Thy Colin's lay With rapture calls, O come away! Come, while the muse this wreath shall twine Around that modest brow of thine; O! hither haste, and with thee bring That beauty blooming like the spring, Those graces that divinely shine, And charm this ravish'd breast of mine!
Roslin Castle 'Twas in that season of the year, When all things gay and sweet appear, That Colin with the morning ray, Arose and sung his rural lay. Of Nanny's charms the Shepherd sung, The hills and dales with Nanny rung; While Roslin Castle heard the Swain, And echo'd back the chearful strain.
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The Banks o' Doon
Busk ye, busk ye
Ye Banks and braes o' bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair; How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu' o' care! Thou'll break my heart thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: Thou minds me o' departed joys, Departed never to return.
Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bride; Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow, Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bride, And let us to the braes of Yarrow. There will we sport and gather dew, Dancing while lav'rocks sing in the morning: There learn frae turtles to prove true; O Bell, ne'er vex me with thy scorning.
Oft hae I rov'd by bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine; And ilka bird sang o' it's luve, And fondly sae did I o' mine. Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree; And my fause luver staw my rose, But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.
To westlin breezes Flora yields, And when the beams are kindly warming, Blythness appears o'er all the fields, And Nature looks more fresh and charming, Learn frae the burns that trace the mead, Tho on their banks the roses blossom, Yet hastily they flow to Tweed, And pour their sweetness in his bosom. Haste ye, haste ye, my bonny Bell, Haste to my arms, and there I'll guard thee; Wi' free consent my fears repel; I'll wi' my love and care reward thee. Thus sang I saftly to my fair, Who rais'd my hopes with kind relenting O queen of smiles, I ask nae mair, Since now my bonny Bell's consenting.
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proficient, but rather old-fashioned style. Written in the early 1790s, this work shows a profound shift to a new type of compositional approach most likely to have derived from the influence of a new member of the family.
common in the works of later nineteenth-century composers appearing in his music on a regular basis. His works incorporating Scots airs again include both rondo and variation set formats, one of which, Rosline Castle, even introduces a further Scottish air, The Lass of Peatie's Mill, in a 'pot-pourri'. A term that implied a musical composition that was a medley of tunes from pre-existing sources, the 'pot-pourri' technique was particularly common amongst composers of Scotsinfluenced keyboard sonatas. In this, as in most other works of the type, the two melodies are linked by the similarity in their thematic material, providing, in essence, further possibilities in the variation of the original tune. In contrast the variations on one of Scotland's most beautiful melodies, Within a mile of Edinburgh, display the virtuosic character that Corri so wanted to imitate after meeting Dussek in 1791. With four elaborate written-out cadenzas, movement between an Andante 4/4 and an Allegretto 2/4, and some dramatic use of both dynamics and cadential episodes, this is Dussek and the instrumental Scottish air at their best.
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round 1790, following Sutherland's death, the family moved to London, where Corri quickly became established as a music publisher in Soho. Amongst his musically talented family was a daughter, Sophia (1775-c.1828), who made her successful début as a singer at the Hanover Square Rooms on 15 April 1791. Another of the performers on that occasion was Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), an eminent pianist of Bohemian origin, who, later that summer, undertook a recital tour of Scotland in the company of Domenico Corri.Two months later the multi-talented Sophia gave her first benefit concert, in which she performed on the harp, played a piano duet with Dussek, and sang an unspecified 'Scotch song, by Desire'. Just over a year later the two were married, and in 1794 Dussek went into partnership with his father-in-law in a music publishing business, which was to carry on the tradition of printing the works of family members. Several sonatas written by Dussek incorporating Scottish airs were published by the company, together with a number of other Scots melodies arranged for solo piano or harp. Dussek's compositional skills were extremely well developed, many of his works displaying definite Romantic characteristics such as detailed expression markings, frequent modulations to remote keys, deeply chromatic passagework and non-harmonic notes within complex chords. As a composer for piano, his own virtuoso technique is influential, many rapid scalic passages (some in thirds or octaves), cadential episodes and types of pianistic figuration more
S
cotland's national melodies had much more potential than musicians and audiences alike had at first appreciated. The American politician, Benjamin Franklin, writing to the Scottish philosopher Lord Kames in 1765, astutely summed up the effectiveness of Scots music: I have sometimes at a Concert attended by a common Audience plac'd myself so as to see all their Faces, and observ'd no Signs of Pleasure in them during the Performance of much that was admir'd by the Performers themselves; while a plain old Scottish Tune, which they [the performers] disdain'd and could scarcely be prevail'd upon to play, gave manifest and general Delight.
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The accessibility and consequent popularity of Scottish music is noted by every commentator on the subject, and, although much of it may be short of intellectual rigour, its place in musical history is vital. The musical public sought to bring elements of the Scottish musical tradition into their homes, encapsulated within the latest musical forms. For some it was an expression of their nationalist pride, but for others it was merely an accessible method of enjoying a good tune. ©2001 Claire Nelson
Within a Mile of Edinburgh
Thou art gane awa'
Loch Eroch Side
'Twas within a mile of Edinburgh town, In the rosy time of the year, Sweet flowers bloom'd, and the grass was down, And each shepherd woo'd his dear: Bonny Jockey, blyth and gay, Kiss'd sweet Jenny making hay, The lassie blush'd, and frowning cry'd, 'No, no, it will not do, I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too.'
Thou art gane awa thou art gane awa, Thou art gane awa frae me Mary, Nor friends nor I could make thee stay, Thou hast cheated them and me Mary. Until this hour I never thought That ought could alter thee, Mary, Thou'rt still the Mistress of my heart, Think what you will of me, Mary.
As I came by Loch Eroch side, The lofty hills surveying, The water clear, the heather blooms Their fragrance sweet conveying, I met, unsought,my lovely maid, I found her like May morning; With Graces sweet, and Charms so rare, Her Person all adorning.
What e'er he said or might pretent, That staw that heart o' thine, Mary; True love I'm sure was ne'er his end, Or nae sic love as mine, Mary. I spake sincere nor flatter'd much, Nae selfish thought in me Mary, Ambition, wealth, nor naething such; No, I lov'd only thee, Mary.
How kind her looks, how blest was I, While in my arms I press'd her! And she her wishes scarce conceald, As fondly I caress'd her. She said, 'If that your heart be true, If constantly you'll love me, I heed not cares, nor fortune's frowns; Nor ought but death shall move me.
Tho' you've been false, yet while I live I'll lo'e nae maid but thee, Mary: Let friends forget, as I forgive Thy wrangs to them and me, Mary. So then fareweel! of this be sure, Since you've been false to me, Mary; For a' the world I'd not endure; Half what I've done for thee, Mary.
But faithful, loving, true and kind, Forever you shall find me; And of our meeting here so sweet, Loch Eroch Side will mind me. Enraptur'd then, “My Lovely Lass!” I cry'd, “no more we'll tarry We'll leave the fair Loch Eroch Side For Lovers soon should marry.”
Jockey was a wag that never would wed, Tho' long he had follow'd the lass, Contented she earn'd and eat her brown bread, And merrily turn'd up the grass. Bonny Jockey, blyth and free, Won her heart right merrily, Yet still she blush'd, and frowning cry'd, 'No, no, it will not do, I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too.'
T
he two extant square pianos by Andrew Rochead in the Russell Collection of Early Keyboards are fine examples of a regional piano building tradition during a period of flourishment. Rochead's Castlehill shop relocated to No. 4 Greenside Place in Edinburgh's fashionable New Town around the turn of the century; in addition to a showy display of Rochead’s handicraft was a plentiful supply of sheet music printed on-site (Rochead printed Corri’s variations on The Banks of Doon heard here). The c.1805 piano heard in this recording has a design and exterior that resembles contemporary square pianos built by the London firm of Broadwood; it is fitted with a pedal, brass underdampers, a treble hammer slot, and a rear wrestplank. Despite lavish mahogany marquetry and filigree cutouts, its design is highly economical, permitting a dulcet singing quality throughout its registers, making it the ideal drawing-room instrument.
But when he vow'd, he wou'd make her his bride, Tho' his flocks and herds were not few, She gave him her hand, and a kiss beside, And vow'd, she'd forever be true. Bonny Jockey, blyth and free, Won her heart right merrily; At church she no more frowning cry'd, 'No, no, it will not do, I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too.'
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