Captain S. Fraser of Knockie's Collection of Highland Music : Fine Binding

The Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles communicated in an original pleasing manner...

By Captain Simon Fraser (of Knockie)

Edited by William Mackay

Published by Hugh Mackenzie in Inverness, 1874. Second Edition (Originally published in 816). Folio (35 x 25cm), full leather fine binding with gilt decoration. Gilt to all page edges. Marble endpapers and inner cloth joints. Engraved title page, xii, [i], 109pp.

A landmark historical collection containing over 230 traditional Scottish Highland and island airs, tunes, and melodies. The text notes that these melodies were "Chiefly acquired during the interesting Period from 1715 to 1745". This directly refers to the height of the Jacobite Risings in Scotland, bridging the gap between the 1715 rebellion and the fateful 1745 uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. The arrangements are intended for "Piano Forte, Harp, Organ or Violoncello", keeping the harmonies intentionally plain to preserve the original structural simplicity of the melodies.

GIFTED BY THE EDITOR
This book was gifted from the editor William Mackay . . his inscription reads; "To Miss Petrie / On the occasion of her marriage / With the best wishes of the Editor of this Edition / Blairbeg, Glenurquhart, April 1 1880". Mary Jane Petrie's high-society wedding took place right at the dawn of spring in the Highland district, drawing gifts from the region's top professionals—including Mackay, who gifted this beautifully bound, gold-gilt volume of Highland history as a marquee wedding present.

WITH LETTER FROM PREVIOUS OWNER
The book also contains a letter written on October 8, 1982, by a previous owner of your book, Capt. N. R. Henderson, who was living in Skinidin on the Isle of Skye. He was writing to publishers in Nova Scotia, Canada, who were attempting to preserve and reprint the Simon Fraser collection. Capt. Henderson mentions that he used to own "the Old Music shop in the Market at Inverness", which was originally founded by the famous Logan family. He sold the shop upon his retirement to Bruce Miller of Aberdeen. 

The letter is addressed to Paul Cranford, a famous Canadian lighthouse keeper and traditional fiddle music publisher based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Paul Cranford founded Cranford Publications to track down and preserve rare, out-of-print 19th-century Scottish fiddle tune books. He placed advertisements in international music circles seeking clean historical copies of Captain Simon Fraser's work to use as templates for a new modern reissue.  Capt. Henderson, seeing Cranford's advertisement from his retirement home overlooking Dunvegan Bay on the Isle of Skye, wrote these letters to offer his own impeccably bound 1874 William Mackay edition as a point of historical reference.

Henderson laments that while modern violinists can play the notes perfectly, they often lack the rhythmic "feeling" of the music if they don't know the original spoken Gaelic words. He notes that when he owned the Old Music Shop in Inverness, he actively collected rare local songs—including one called "Lorg Mho Brudaix"—which had been carried across the Atlantic by highlanders cleared from Strath Glass to Nova Scotia during the Highland Clearances.

CONDITION
A very good copy. The leather binding is in very good condition with light rubbing to corners and spine-ends. Endpapers very good. All contents present and pages very nclean throughout. Overall a fine copy.