Music Collections

Gow & Fraser Collections

On the 21st June 2022, the Wighton Heritage Centre in Dundee held an open day. This made their incredible collection of music books available to the public to view, and included music performances throughout the day.

I went along after work, saw the books on display and joined the chat with music enthusiasts who were still there. These included Dr Andrew Lendrum, who was looking for a home for a collection of original Niel Gow books on behalf of a private owner. We kept in touch, and this is how the books came into my hands.

They were crumbling and in need of restoration to save them from further deterioration, so, with advice, I took them to a specialist in Glasgow to have the work done.

Some years before, my husband had been given an original Simon Fraser of Knockie Collection, from a music dealer who ‘couldn’t sell it due to its poor condition’. This seemed like a good time to take it to Glasgow with the Gow books. On closer inspection, we discovered that the Fraser book was bound together with others, and at the back we found three other Gow books.

These have all now been repaired and bound in three separate volumes;

  • The Gow books received via Dr Lendrum.
  • The Simon Fraser of Knockie Collection.
  • The other Gow books that were discovered later.

I am grateful to the following people for donating to the GoFundMe campaign that helped pay for the restoration; Fiona Driver, Jenny Smith, Nigel Gatherer, Leanne Knight, A. A. E. Austin, James MacKay, Graham Topping, Gavin Marwick, Robbie Leask, Eva Smith, Ceylan Hay, Eileen Bresnan, Ross Paton, Ian Ramsay, Alena Shmakova, Helen Edgar, Michael Vass, Anne C. Tavendale, John Ironside, R Gates, Peter Neil Gow, Sheila Le Mottee, David Kett, Catherine Wooldridge, Barbara Glass, Patrick Gallagher, Martin MacLeod, Sarah Deere-Jones, Fiona Wilson, Ian Reid Hunter, Kae Sakuari, Kathleen Fleming & John Cameron.

Thanks to the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust for their contribution, and to Dr Karen McAulay for all her wisdom and guidance throughout this project.

Peter Baird of Tranent

Peter Baird was a coal miner, born in 1870. He taught piping at St Joseph’s Industrial School in Tranent. He seems to have been in the military, perhaps as a piper, as a young man, and he signed up again to the Haddington Royal Territorial Artillery in 1902. He was ‘discharged by purchase’ in 1903. He died shortly afterwards, at the age of 33.

He kept this manuscript book with him throughout his short life, and filled it with the tunes that he learned and composed. I found it in 2006 in a junk shop in Aberdeenshire, under a stack of damp books and fabric.

Since then I have pieced together the information I can find about his life, and played some of his music – I would be pleased to find out more. Many of the tunes are well known still, others less so. They are interesting versions, and particularly as a non-piper it is curious to see how they were written down.

Nigel Jelks

I met Nigel not long after I moved to Angus, around 2004. He was organising the Hairst summer festival, finding musicians to lead sessions and performances around the area. He was especially keen to encourage children and young people to learn their own traditions and get involved in the scene.

Nigel playing the guitar with Angus Youth Folk Group in 2019.

He was a prolific collector of music – books, sheet music, records, tapes and hand written manuscripts.

He was an excellent guitarist and had played in both jazz and Scottish dance bands throughout the 70s and beyond. He ran the Ceoltas branch in Dundee in the 1990s, supported his then wife Maureen in her singing career, and learned to play a multitude of instruments, including the banjo, mandolin, harmonica, fiddle, concertina, and even at one stage the vibraphone.

Lindsay Ross, Malcolm Ross and Nigel Jelks.

He published the book of Lindsay Ross’ tunes, and planned another book about music in Angus. I had offered to help him put this together, but as his health declined he wasn’t able.

In the summer of 2023 I helped Nigel and Maureen’s sons to find homes for the music collection. It wouldn’t have been possible to keep it all together, considering the quantity and variety of the contents.

  • Guitar books and CDs went to David Sutherland in Lochaber.
  • More guitar books and Nigel’s hand written jazz charts went to Paul Morrison in Fife.
  • Song books went to Steve Byrne and Chris Wright in Edinburgh.
  • One book of Japanese songs went to Kae Sakurai in Glasgow.
  • The records from Ceoltas Dundee, cassette tapes, some LP records, and all other miscellaneous items went to Steve Byrne for the TRACs archive centre in Edinburgh.
  • Piano and flute music went to Lesley Mines in Angus.

I have kept and archived the remaining collection – this includes; Irish, Scottish, Canadian, Scottish dance band music, Northumbrian, Shetland, Orkney, Highland pipe music, history and music history books, tapes, CDs, LP records and Nigel’s hand written manuscripts of dance music and old collections of tunes.

Sharing The Music Collections

We do not have a public exhibition space to display the collections listed above, but we would be happy to share them with friends and like-minded music enthusiasts.

If your event or establishment would like to feature any of our collections, please get in touch. We would need to ensure that they would be safe and handled with care.

If you are an individual who would like to visit and see the collection, also contact me and we can arrange a suitable time. We cannot let you borrow items, but you can take photographs.

We do hope to have the historic collections available to view in a public space in the near future, and will post on social media as it happens.