New archive to reflect 'flourishing creativity' of Scotland's folk scene
A new initiative from the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Music Centre aims to gather together contemporary works by Scottish folk musicians, writes Jim Gilchrist
Timely archiving is currently underway on both folk and jazz scenes. A recently launched initiative involving the University of Edinburgh and the Glasgow-based Scottish Music Centre, both of whom already hold major music archives, has embarked on preserving dynamic contemporary works by Scottish folk musicians. Reflecting the flourishing creativity of the current folk scene, it is preserving this emerging new music for future consultation as part of a national music collection.
In the first instance, some 100 compositions by Scottish folk musicians over the past 40 years or more will be added to the Scottish Music Centre’s existing collections and will continue to expand, with a complementary archive at Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies.
The project has been shaped by research on the relationship between traditional music practice and creativity, carried out by Dr Lori Watson, a respected Border ballad singer and fiddle player who is also a lecturer in Edinburgh University’s Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies. Initially developed as a simple database, it has already expanded considerably, reflecting the development of often sophisticated compositions such as Celtic Connections New Voices commissions and output from Distil composition workshops.
Artists whose compositions have been acquired so far include such weel-kent names as Simon Thoumire, Aidan O’Rourke, Karen Marshalsay, Patsy Reid and James Ross. Watson regards the advent of more complex compositions as “partly a response to the ambitious performances of Ireland’s Shaun Davey and Brittany’s Alan Stivell in the 1980s.”
Compositions are stored in notated and recorded form, but Watson stresses that other documentation might be of studio sessions or improvised works. “It will be a great resource for ensembles, students, educators and composers. But these materials aren’t just for someone to re-stage an existing work; traditional musicians are more likely to re-interpret it.”
The project is at its midway point, with a “soft launch” perhaps at the Scottish Music Centre expected by the end of the year, and public access enabled in 2025, through the SMC (for updates, see www.tradmus.com).
There’s archiving underway too in Scotland’s flourishing jazz scene. Broadcaster, tireless jazz promoter (and current voice of BT’s Speaking Clock) Alan Steadman has been compiling an audio-visual documentation of the monthly Jazz at Hospitalfield evenings he has run for almost 35 years in Arbroath.
Steadman, who is arranging a showing of his audio-visual presentation at Hospitalfield House on Saturday, 3 August, says he couldn’t have imaged the 35-year lifetime of the place, a notable Arts and Crafts mansion and arts centre, as a jazz venue when he first investigated it in 1990 with a view to running some evening classes on jazz appreciation. “The director at the time offered me a room, opened the door and said, ‘This would be quite a good place for live music.’ I said ‘This would be absolutely fantastic for live music.’
“I put on a night with the East Coast Jazzmen trad band and it sold out, then another a couple of months later and it sold out. I thought we might be on to something and it would probably last about six months.”
Steadman was already established as a jazz broadcaster, and still presents his Jazz Waves show on Care Radio and some other stations, making it the longest running jazz programme on radio. The 2022 Scottish Jazz Awards presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Also honoured by trumpeter Colin Steel’s composition affectionately titled The Earl of Hospitalfield, he plans to present the compilation to the Scottish Jazz Archive. In the meantime, tickets for 3 August are going well and anyone interested in otherwise accessing the resource can contact him on 01382 774648.
The last Hospitalfield concert was in April. “I don’t think anybody really believes that it’s finished but I think it has,” he laughs, although doesn’t sound entirely sure.