'Robert Burns's Interleaved Scots Musical Museum' or the 'Interleaved Glenriddell Manuscript'[1] is a set of four octavo volumes of James Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum in which Robert Burns provided additional material to the original publication on interleaved sheets and which he eventually gifted to Captain Robert Riddell (1755–94) of Friars Carse, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
Burns started collecting song material from 1787 to send to James Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum. This new project was one of his greatest achievement as a songwriter and collector. He is considered to have contributed a third (220) of his own compositions to the Museum of 600 songs.[2] Burns collected these songs from a wide variety of sources, often revising or expanding them, including much of his own work. The term Museum here made reference to the Muse of song or Euterpe,[2] inspiration for the lyrics of this, the greatest collection of Scots songs ever produced.[3]
Burns expended considerable energy on the project and whilst preparing for the 1792 expanded edition of his poems he still was able to supply 50 songs for the 'Museum' between 1790 and August 1792 as well as being credited with writing the Preface for the fourth volume issued on 13 August 1792.[4]
Johnson had probably met Burns through their joint membership of the Crochallan Fencibles club however his first volume was already at the press at the time, but Burns still contributed four songs.[2]
The work, planned as a two volume set,[2] eventually became six volumes after considerable encouragement from Burns[3] and was published between 1787 and after Burns's death, volume six was issued in 1803. Acting as the effective editor Burns[3] also collected and 'restored' around fifty songs for the publication. The combination of innovation and his penchant for antiquarianism gave the work a lasting feeling of living tradition.
Audio file of 'Ae Fond Kiss
Although, as stated, Burns was effectively the editor,[3] Johnson was the official editor, engraver, printer and publisher; Stephen Clarke (1735–97) was the musical editor and William Clarke was the musical editor for Volume VI.[3]
Burns accepted no payment and much of this time-consuming project relates to his early years in the Excise when he had included the supervision of twelve parishes and around 200 miles of travel on horseback each week.[5]
A 1794 copy of a letter from Burns to James Johnson was enclosed in the first volume "In In the meantime at your leisure give a copy of the "Museum" to my worthy friend, Mr Peter Hill, Bookseller, to bind for me, interleaved with blank leaves, exactly as he did the Laird of Glenriddel's that I may insert every anecdote I can learn together with my criticisms and remarks on the songs. A copy of this I shall leave with you, the editor, to publish at some after period by way of making the Museum a book famous to the end of time and you renowned forever."[6]
Previous song manuscripts
In 1786 he had already provided a 'parcel of songs' to Mrs Catherine Stewart of Stair, the Stair Manuscript and again in 1791, the Afton Lodge Manuscript. Additionally the so-called 'Geddes Burns' of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh Edition) contains holograph insertions on the end pages of twelve new songs thirteen and poems.Riddell's notes reveal that he had stimulated Burns to not only recover, mend or add to old fragments, but also to examine them as a scholar.[7] The new works in this volume show that Burns's time in the area was highly productive in terms of his imaginative inspirations and resultant songs and poems.[8]
Robert Riddell's interleaved volumes
Title page of 'Reliques of Robert Burns'.
From 1788, Captain Robert Riddell, Burns's Ellisland Farm neighbour at the Friars Carse estate, increasingly became a mentor. After making up an interleaved set of the first four of The Scots Musical Museum in late 1792, Burns provided additional songs and annotative material and made a present of this set to his neighbour.[8] Mackay records that Robert Riddell first supplied Burns with the interleaved volumes[7] as he had done for the poet when he wrote the Glenriddell Manuscripts. These first four volumes had been published between 1787 and 1790.
The notes written on the interleaved sheets of The Scots Musical Museum consist of interleaved sheets with some 140 pages of Burns's explanatory notes on the 160[3] to 184 songs that he contributed.[9] The notes are by Burns and also some by Riddell himself. Upon Robert Riddell's death the 'Interleaved Museum' became the property of his wife and passed from her to Miss Eliza Bayley of Manchester, her niece, who gave the biographer Robert Hartley Cromek full access to it.[10]
A London bookseller, John Salkeld, acquired it in 1871 as part of a job lot, advertised in his catalogue for £110 and it was purchased by H. F. Nicols, a book collector. Nicols left his library to Miss Oakshott who had been his housekeeper. J.C.Dick located the volumes in this lady's possession and it was then sold at Sotheby's on October 30, 1903 to Mr. Quaritch of Piccadilly, who in turn sold them to Mr. George C. Thomas, of Philadelphia. The 'Interleaved Museum' was in John Gribbel's possession before 1913, the date when he purchased the Glenriddell Manuscripts.[9] When John Gribbel died in 1936 his estate was broken up and his collection was sold at auction.
In 1964 the Rabinowitz Library in America held the volumes and via Bernard Quaritch Ltd the trustees of the Burns Monument were contacted with view to a sale that was settled on £5500, a then record sum for a Burns work.[6]
Cromek had published Burn's and Riddell's notes in 1808, with an 1813 second edition. In 1902, as stated, J.C.Dick discovered them and in 1906 he published Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns, distinguishing between Burns's notes from those added by Riddell and in addition categorizing some as spurious.
David Cuthbertson in 1922 was researching in the Laing Collection at Edinburgh University library when he stumbled upon a manuscript of twelve folio pages in Burns's handwriting.[11] This manuscript contained most of what until then had been considered as doubtful material in Cromek's work. The announcement of the discovery was published in the Kilmarnock Standard.[10]
Together with J.C.Dick's "Songs of Robert Burns" and Davidson Cook's annotations thereon, it was re-issued in 1962 as a single volume by Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania.[10]
The notes
Friars' Carse circa 1800
Burns wrote numerous notes or strictures on the songs, some of which are very brief and even terse. He rarely commented on his own verses other than to apologise for them, his emphasis being on the sources for the songs and his reasons for altering them, such as adding political content.[12][13] Riddell's own notes reveal that he had stimulated Burns to not only recover, mend or add to old fragments, but also to examine them as a scholar.[7]
Burns used a system of signature letters to indicate the extent to which he had altered, restored, etc. the songs, such as S, R, X, and Z. In a letter to Frances Dunlop he revealed that Those marked, Z, I have given to the world as old verses to their respective tunes; but in fact, of a good many of them, little more than the Chorus is ancient.[2]
R.H.Cromek, as stated, was able to examine the volumes owned by Eliza Bayley and pages 187 to 306 of his Reliques of Robert Burns, published in 1808, carry a transcript of the Notes. Editors of Burns had relied on the accuracy of the information but considerable and somewhat justifiable doubts existed as to their veracity. When the Interleaved Museum was 'rediscovered' after an absence of nearly a century a comparison with Cromek's Reliques was possible and it was found that out of 173 Notes printed by Cromek only 127 were verbatim copies; eighteen were garbled or imperfect, four differing entirely from the manuscript. Another four were written partly by Burns and partly by Robert Riddell; fourteen were written entirely by Riddell or by someone other than Burns; finally, fourteen were never in the manuscript, and the leaves of four had been cut out and are missing.[14]
Famously, when David Cuthbertson discovered the twelve folio manuscripts in Edinburgh the crucial page carrying the note on The Highland Lassie O was not one of them. Cromek's reputation having been somewhat repaired the veracity of this story (see ix below) has been strengthened.[11]
Examples of Notes from Cromek's Reliques
i. Auld lang syne - Ramsay here, as usual with him, has taken the idea of the song, and the first line, from the old fragment, which may be seen in "the museum", vol.v.[15]
ii. Wllie brew'd a Peck o' Maut - This air is Masterton's; the song mine. The occasion of it was this. Mr. Wm. Nicol, of the High School, Edinburgh, during the autumn vacation being at Moffat, honest Allan, who was at the time on a visit to Dalswinton, and I went to pay Nicol a visit. We had such a joyous meeting that Mr. Masterton and I agreed, each in our own way, that we should celebrate the business.[16]
The title page of The Scots Musical Museum.
iii. I love my Jean - This air is by Marshal; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs. Burns. N.B. It was during the honey-moon.[17]
iv. Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes - This beautiful song is the true old Scotch taste, yet I do not know that either air, or words, were in print before.[18]
v. The Braes o' Ballochmyle - This air is the composition of my friend Allan Masterton, in Edinburgh. I composed the verses on the amiable and excellent family of Whitefoord's leaving Ballochmyle, when Sir John's misfortunes had obliged him to sell the estate.[18]
vi. The bonie Banks of Ayr - I composed this song as I convoyed my chest as far on the road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica. I meant it as my farewel Dirge to my native land.[19]
vii. Galloway Tam - I have seen an interlude (acted as a wedding) to this tune, called "The Wooing of the Maiden." These entertainments are now much worn out in this part of Scotland. Two are still retained in Nithsdale, viz. Jilly Pure Auld Glenae, and this one, "The Wooing of the Maiden".[20]
viii. The Beds of sweet Roses - This song, as far as I know, for the first time appears here in print --- When I was a boy, it was a very popular song in Ayrshire, I remember to have heard those fanatics, the Buchanites, sing some of their nonsensical rhymes, which they dignify with the name of hymns, to this air.[21]
ix. The Highland Lassie O - This was a composition of mine in very early life, before I was known at all in the world. My Highland lassie was a warm-hearted, charming young creature as ever blessed a man with generous love. After a pretty long tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met by appointment, on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot by the Banks of Ayr, where we spent the day in taking a farewel, before she should embark for the West-Highlands, to arrange matters among her friends for our projected change of life. At the close of Autumn following she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days, before I could even hear of her illness..[22]:237
x. My Jo, Janet - Johnson, the publisher, with a foolish delicacy, refused to insert the last stanza of this humorous ballad.[22]:236
xi. O'er the Moor among the Heather - This song is the composition of a Jean Glover, a girl who was not only a whore, but also a thief; and in one or other character has visited most of the Correction Houses in the West. She was born I believe in Kilmarnock, I took the song down from her singing as she was strolling through the country, with a slight-of-hand blackguard.[23]
Legacy
Burns's notes have provided a good number of insights into his personality, literary style, influences, etc., however the one to one communication on a friendship based 'correspondence' is not as revealing as his business style letters with George Thomson in particular, editor of A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice to which Burns contributed 100 songs.
The Scots Musical Museum was an influential collection of traditional folk music of Scotland published from 1787 to 1803. While it was not the first collection of Scottish folk songs and music, the six volumes with 100 songs in each collected many pieces, introduced new songs, and brought many of them into the classical music repertoire.
The Buchanites were the late 18th-century followers of Elspeth Buchan, a Scottish woman who claimed to be the Woman Clothed with the Sun, one of the figures named in the Book of Revelation.
Captain Robert Riddell (1755–1794), Laird of Friar's Carse, near Dumfries.
"Ye Jacobites by Name" is a traditional Scottish folk song which goes back to the Jacobite risings in Scotland (1688–1746). While the original version simply attacked the Jacobites from a contemporaneous Whig point of view, Robert Burns rewrote it in around 1791 to give a version with a more general, humanist anti-war, but nonetheless anti-Jacobite outlook. This is the version that most people know today.
Robert Burns, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is in a "light Scots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
Friars' Carse is a mansion house and estate situated 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of Auldgirth on the main road (A76) to Dumfries, Parish of Dunscore, Scotland. The property is located on the west bank of the River Nith and is known for its strong associations with Robert Burns who lived for a while at the nearby Ellisland farm. The mansion house is unlisted, however the stables and hermitage are Category B listed buildings.
Alison Begbie, Ellison Begbie or Elizabeth Gebbie (1762–1823), is said to have been the daughter of a farmer, born in the parish of Galston, and at the time of her courtship by Robert Burns she is thought to have been a servant or housekeeper employed at Carnell House, then known as Cairnhill, on the River Cessnock, situated about 2 miles from Loudoun Mill. It is thought that Burns's youngest sister Isobel Burns confused her name, which was really Elizabeth Gebbie.
Mary Campbell, also known as Highland Mary, was the daughter of Archibald Campbell of Daling, a sailor in a revenue cutter, whose wife was Agnes Campbell of Achnamore or Auchamore. Mary was the eldest of a family of four. Robert Burns had an affair with her after he felt that he had been "deserted" by Jean Armour following her move to Paisley in March 1786. The brief affair started in April 1786, and the parting took place on 14 May of that year. Her pronunciation of English was heavily accented with Gaelic and this led to her becoming known as 'Highland Mary.'
James Johnson was a Scottish engraver, publisher and music seller known for his connection with the songbook The Scots Musical Museum and the poet Robert Burns.
John Gribbel was an American businessman, industrialist and philanthropist. He is best remembered for his donation of the Glenriddell Manuscripts to the National Library of Scotland.
The Hermitage was a folly first built by Captain Robert Riddell of Friars Carse as part of his enthusiasm for antiquities. It is famous for its connection with the bard Robert Burns who through his friendship with Riddell was permitted to use it to compose poetry in this secluded and tranquil sylvan spot. Burns also used his diamond point pen to engrave lines on the window pane at the Hermitage following the premature death of Riddell. The original Hermitage fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1874. It was further restored to its former glory more recently (2009).
The Glenriddell Manuscripts is an extensive collection written in holograph by Robert Burns and an amanuensis of his letters, poems and a few songs in two volumes produced for his then friend Captain Robert Riddell, Laird of what is now Friars Carse in the Nith Valley, Dumfries and Galloway. The two volumes of the manuscript were handsomely bound in calf leather. The first volume of poems and songs was completed by April 1791 and was presented to Robert Riddell, however their friendship ceased due to the unfortunate 'The Rape of the Sabine Women' incident and Robert Riddell died shortly after before any reconciliation could take place. The first volume is partly in Burns's hand with one main amanuensis contributing much of the text in a far neater hand than the author himself and a possible third person contributing to the text. The second volume is entirely in Burns's hand.
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was issued during the poet's lifetime In Two Volumes. The Second Edition Considerably Enlarged. It is a collection of poetry and songs by the poet Robert Burns, printed for T. Cadell, London, and W. Creech, Edinburgh. M,DCC,XCIII The date of publication for this edition was 16 February 1793 as advertised in the Edinburgh Courant. The successful demand for the 1787 Edinburgh Edition seems to have encouraged Creech to publish this new edition as the 1787 volume had been sold out since around 1791.
Robert Burns's Commonplace Book 1783–1785 is the first of three commonplace books that were produced by the poet. The contents cover drafts of songs and poems, observations, ideas, epitaphs, etc.
'The Holy Tulzie', 'The Twa Herds' or 'An Unco Mournfu' Tale was a poem written in 1784 by Robert Burns whilst living at Mossgiel, Mauchline, about a strong disagreement, not on doctrine, but on the parish boundaries, between two 'Auld Licht' ministers, John Russel and Alexander Moodie It was followed by "The Holy Fair", "The Ordination", "The Kirk's Alarm", "Holy Willie's Prayer", etc.
The surviving manuscript of the instructional work A Manual of Religious Belief is written in the form of a theological dialogue between father and child written out in holograph by John Murdoch for William Burnes, Robert Burns's father. William had started to compose and compile the work before Robert Burns's birth and wrote the first rough draft that has not survived. This work was originally composed with a stronger Scots language content that Murdoch modified, as well as making grammatical corrections.
'The Geddes Burns' is a copy of Robert Burns's 1787 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect with twenty-seven extra pages with twelve poems and songs in Burns's handwriting bound in, and a letter to Catholic Bishop John Geddes from the poet, written at Ellisland Farm.
The recorded source of the children's story The Marriage of Robin Redbreast and the Wren is Isabella Burns, later Mrs Isabella Burns Begg, the youngest sister of Robert Burns. Isabella recalled that her brother, Robert Burns, was the author and that he was in the habit of telling the tale to entertain the younger members of his family at Lochlea Farm, such as herself, Annabella, John and William. This nursery tale was first published by Dr Robert Chambers in his "Popular Rhymes of Scotland".
John McMurdo (1743–1803) was a friend of Robert Burns who became the chamberlain to the Duke of Queensberry at Drumlanrig Castle where the poet was a frequent visitor. His eldest daughter Jean (1777-1839) was also a close friend of Burns, who wrote the song "Bonie Jean" in her honour. As an old Nithsdale family the McMurdos were related to the Sharpes of Hoddam, the Charteris of Amisfield, the Fergussons of Craigdarroch, Dr James Currie and the Duncans of Torthorwald amongst others.
"The Wee German Lairdie" is a Scottish folk song probably ridiculing George I, King of Great Britain to the discontent of the Jacobite rebels, who instead recognised James Francis Edward Stuart as king, from the formerly ruling House of Stuart. Though taking place around 1715, the song first appears in writing in 1810, in Robert Cromek and Allan Cunningham's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, recalling a song of several versions that was allegedly sung prior. James Hogg, however, mentions "an older collection" in the first volume of his 1819 compilation The Jacobite Relics of Scotland.
References
↑ McNaught, Duncan (1921). The Truth About Burns. Macclehose, Jackson & Co. p.169.
1 2 3 4 5 6 McQueen, Colin Hunter (2008). Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends and Contemporaries of Robert Burns. Colin Hunter McQueen. p.152. ISBN9780955973208.
↑ Hogg, Patrick Scott (2008). Robert Burns The Patriot Bard. Mainstream Publishing. p.241. ISBN9781845964122.
↑ McGuirk, Carol (1997). Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era. Tuckwell Press. p.104. ISBN9781898410874.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.282.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.283.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.273.
1 2 Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.277.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.279.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.295.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.197.
1 2 Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies.
↑ Cromek, Robert Hartley (1813). Reliques of Robert Burns. T. Cadell & W. Davies. p.296.
Further reading
Brown, Hilton (1949). There was a Lad. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Dick, James C. (1908). Notes on Scottish Songs by Robert Burns. London: Henry Frowde.
Douglas, William Scott (Edit.) 1938. The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Glasgow: The Scottish Daily Express.
Hecht, Hans (1936). Robert Burns. The Man and His Work. London: William Hodge.
Hill, John C. Rev. (1961). The Love Songs and Heroines of Robert Burns. London: J. M. Dent.
Mackay, James (2004). Burns. A Biography of Robert Burns. Darvel: Alloway Publishing. ISBN0907526-85-3.
McIntyre, Ian (2001). Robert Burns. A Life. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers. ISBN1-56649-205-X.
McQueen, Colin Hunter (2008). Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends and Contemporaries of Robert Burns. Messsrs Hunter McQueen & Hunter. ISBN978-0-9559732-0-8
Pittock, Murray (2018). The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns. Volumes II and III: The Scots Musical Museum. ISBN9780199683895.
Purdie, David, McCue & Carruthers, G (2013). Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia. London: Robert Hale. ISBN978-0-7090-9194-3
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