Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Early Scottish melodies

CHAPTER II.
ANNOTATOES ON SCOTTISH MELODIES.
It is unfortunate that we have almost no history, and scarcely any
record of our early musicians. There is evidence, however, that many of
them had gone south and apparently settled in London, — a fact of which
we are convinced from the number of Scots tunes published in that city,
before they made their appearance in a printed form in Scotland.
Passing over the musicians who were attached to the Court, as well as
those of the academic order, we mean rather to turn our attention to
those to whom we are indebted, either as composers, or at least as pre-
servers of many of our oldest national melodies. Whether our early airs
were composed by real shepherds, musicians, or persons of gentle blood, it
is now impossible to say; one thing, however, is certain, — that they were not
the productions of persons having any knowledge of rules as to the scales,
modes, modulations, and systems which regulate modern music. These
compositions were seemingly the spontaneous product of natural melody,
irrespective of any established principles whatever. In the course of our
research we have found the names of a number of musicians in various
records of the beginning of last century, but we have not been able to
acquire the least knowledge of their attainments. As teachers, or members
of some society, we know, however, that they were in the habit of giving
annual concerts as well as of accepting engagements to perform either as
vocalists or instrumentalists on other social occasions. Printed in the
"Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. i., 1792,
William Tytler, Esq., of Woodhouselee, a musical amateur, informs us of
several musicians who took part in the Feast of St Cecilia, at the Gentle-
men's Concert in 1695, of whom he says Adam Craig was one of the
violinists, Matthew M'Gibbon was "hautbois," and Daniel Thomson was
"trumpet," the two latter being the fathers of William M'Gibbon and
William Thomson, — M'Gibbon known as a violinist, and Thomson as a
vocalist and publisher of the Orpheus Caledonms.
In estimating the efforts of former annotators and essayists on the