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
