Description
Macmath: The Silent Page is all about breathing new life into a paper based collection and singing it back to life: reinventing the collection with new tunes, arrangements and re-writings and in doing so showcasing some of Dumfries and Galloway’s best and most respected traditional musicians. William Macmath (1848-1922) grew up in Galloway before moving to Edinburgh as a young man and his huge and largely unacknowledged legacy was in helping the American ballad collector and academic Francis Child with his definitive publication, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898). Although working entirely in his spare time, Macmath worked tirelessly and meticulously over a period of almost thirty years, to track down and verify details relating to the Scottish ballads included in Child’s collection. The National Trust for Scotland’s Broughton House and Garden, Kirkcudbright holds many of the letters between Macmath and Child written over their long association. More pertinently to this project there are two books of mostly unpublished songs and song fragments written down by Macmath, which have been used here. MUSICIANS: Aaron Jones, vocals, bouzouki, cittern; Claire Mann, flute, fiddle, whistle; Emily Smith, vocals; Jamie McClennan, guitar, fiddle, whistle; Robyn Stapleton, vocals; Wendy Stewart, harp, concertina; The Feral Choir, backing vocals
