Luisa Del Giudice wrote:
>
> The University Press of Kentucky has just released Mary Ellen Brown's
> William Motherwell's Cultural Politics. See
> http://www.uky.edu/UniversityPress/books/motherwell.html
>
> William Motherwell (l979-1835) journalist, poet, man-of-letters, wit, civil
> servant, and outspoken conservative participated in a loose-knit movement
> that might be designated cultural nationalism. Interested in preserving
> relics of the past that suggested a distinctly Scottish culture and
> nation, he was adamantly against changes he saw as eroding Scottish
> identity.
>
> Motherwell worked out his ideological stance in a variety of contexts: he
> founded the Paisley Magazine, collaborated with James Hogg on a collection
> of the works of Burns, edited the Glasgow Couriera leading Tory newspaper,
> served as Sheriff Clerk Depute of Renfrewshire, wrote poetry and essays
> for the expanding periodical press, and edited and collected vernacular
> literature. His l827 edition of ballads, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern,
> offered views on authenticity, editorial practice, the nature of oral
> transmission, and the importance of performance which anticipated much
> later scholarly discourse.
>
> W.F.H. Nicolaisen says the study is "a must for all ballad scholars. The
> depth, height, and breadth of this study comes as a real eye-opener. This
> is ballad scholarship at its best."
>
> Price $39.95, plus postage.
>
> Luisa Del Giudice, Director
> I.O.H.I.
> Italian Oral History Institute
> P.O. Box 241553
> Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553
>
> Tel: (310) 474-1698
> Fax: (310) 474-3188
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> www.iohi.org
Presumeably his Burns scholarship was later, because his version of
"Lang a growin" in 'Minstrelsy' is Burns revision and extention of a
2 verse fragment from David Herd (Hecht's 'Herd', XXXIX expanded to
Burns' "Lady Mary Ann" in the Scots Musical Museum, #372, 1792)
I can't help wondering if Motherwell actually collected any ballads
himself. He got Andrew Blaikie to note some tunes for him, but at least
some, and maybe all of his texts were brought to him by others (as per
F. J. Child).
PS: My copy of the Paisley Magazine, 1828, has MS attributions of all
pieces in it. [Motherwell held 2 of the 21 shares of the joint stock
company that issued the magazine.]
Stan Hugill's 'Shanties from the Seven Seas', p. 7, quotes from
'Landsman Hay', The Memoirs of Robert Hay, 1953. Robert Hay also held 2
shares, and his 'biography' was printed in the series entitled 'Sam
Spritsail' in The Paisley Magazine, 125 years earlier.
Bruce Olson
Old English, Irish and, Scots: popular songs, tunes, broadside
ballads at my website (no advs-spam, etc)- www.erols.com/olsonw
or click below <A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw"> Click </a>
|