Well, December got rather busy! Concert life was naturally a bit hectic at the beginning of the month with my group Ensemble Hesperi, and then I had a bit of an energy crash afterwards. But, as everything quietened down this week, and e-mail traffic has died down, I've finally been able to spend a few peaceful days at home, with the Christmas tree and my PhD.
This week, I've been planning a conference paper ahead of the British Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) annual conference at the beginning of January. During a PhD, it's a really good idea to present at a few conferences; it's a great opportunity to meet like-minded people, but also to get really valuable feedback on your ideas, and to get a sense of where your research fits into the field. The BSECS conference is a highlight of my year; it is extremely welcoming to postgraduate students and early career researchers, and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved. This is the first in-person conference since the pandemic, and I'm so much looking forward to meeting many friends and colleagues who have till now been squares on a Zoom call!
When Bremner arrived in
London, he opened a new branch of his business on the Strand, while his associate,
John Brysson, continued to run the Edinburgh shop. Despite living in London,
Bremner was still focused in many ways on all things music and all things Scottish.
As soon as he arrived, he joined the congregation of Crown Court Church, Covent
Garden, which today remains a religious home for the Scots diaspora community
in London. He also remained in very close contact with the EMS, sourcing new music
for them from London and other European capitals, and acting as an agent when
the society needed a new singer/violinist/chorus master, etc. Clearly a
networker extraordinaire, Bremner moved in the same circles as J.C. Bach and
C.F. Abel, and was able to guarantee the quality of musicians to Edinburgh through
their personal recommendations. So, this week, I was revisiting some of the
material I collected at Edinburgh Public Libraries last year, particularly the
Minute Books of the Edinburgh Musical Society, which contain several letters to
and from Bremner in London. When I was consulting these the first time round,
we were still pretty deep in Covid regulations, and I had only a 2 hour slot in
the library to consult 4 huge tomes: a you can imagine, I was grateful that I
was allowed to talk as many images as I wanted! So now I can revisit those, and
it’s lovely to be reminded of happy (if pressured) times in the archive last
year.
One of the challenges when consulting historic documents is the temptation to read parts you don't technically need to, because they look so interesting! I have found this to be very much the case with the Edinburgh Musical Society records, because much of the story of Edinburgh's eighteenth-century musical life can be found in the Minutes and Accounts. I’m always struck by the fact that organisations like this face very similar issues to today… The other day, I came across a Minute which addressed an issue of musical quality within the society’s orchestra. The orchestra was composed of ‘Masters’ (professional musicians) and ‘Gentlemen’ (wealthy amateurs presumably of varying degrees of musical competency!), and the latter were causing some difficulty:
[Transcription into modern English] April 1791: "To the Performers of the Ripieno Violins. The Gentlemen performers of the Ripienos are desired to attend the Forte and Piano passages & to play their parts plain as marked in the musick without any flourishes. In accompanying the songs, the Ripienos are always too strong for the Voice; they are therefore desired to play Piano when the Voice comes in. From the Directors."
Problems with balance - some things never change!
Have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas - see you in 2023!