Musicians' Biographies II
From The Flowers of Scottish Melody, Biographies and Criticisms,
1935.
PETER MILNE -
JAMES SCOTT SKINNER -
JAMES DAVIE
PETER MILNE (1824-1908)
Peter Milne, the "Tarland Minstrel", was born in Kincardine
o' Neil on the 30th of September, 1824. In his early boyhood
he removed with his parents to Tarland and attended school
there. While employed on a farm outside the village he often
acted as herd on the adjoining Muir o' Gellan. In 1841 he
began violin playing in Aberdeen, and though he was self-taught
in music his outstanding gifts soon brought him widespread
fame. He became a member of The Theatre Royal, Marischal Street,
in 1847 and in 1851 succeeded James Young (q.v.) as leader
of the band. Later he earned a livelihood teaching the violin
and playing at dances throughout the country. By
1852 he had made the acquaintance of the then youthful J.
Scott Skinner and engaged the latter as 'cello player.
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The close friendship which rapidly sprang up between this
illustrious pair was broken in 1855 when J. Scott Skinner
joined Dr. Mark; but before he had completed his six years'
course the future "Strathspey King" hied back to his mother
and Peter. About 1862 the two set off to Edinburgh - J. Scott
Skinner to return to Aberdeen in about three months' time
after touring the south of Scotland and the north of England
with an amateur opera troupe called the New Orleans Company;
Peter Milne to rise to be successively leader of M'Gork's
Theatre, Leith, The Prince's and Gaiety Theatres, Edinburgh.
During his stay in the south Peter made six or seven visits
to England as a professional player and there, in Manchester,
began to take opium as a cure for rheumatism. He then transferred
his activities to the ferry boats plying across the Forth
and for many years, in company with a blind musician, Willie
Grant, charmed the water and the passengers with his delightful
music.
James
Hook's Down the Burn Davie and J. Young's Bridge of Dee Strathspey
were considered his master-pieces. The building of the Forth
Bridge displaced not only the boats but Peter, so by 1890
he had left Burntisland and retraced his steps north. During
his short stay with his sister in Tarland he gave a concert
in the Cromar Hall on the 24th of April, 1890. Finally he
settled in Aberdeen, played for one winter in the Alhambra
Theatre, Market Street, and for some years eked out a rather
precarious existence teaching the violin and playing at dances.
After meeting with an accident in 1898 he was taken to Nelson
Street Hospital, there to spend the remaining ten years of
his life. He died on the 11th of March, 1908.
At
the instigation of Mr. Innes, Tarland, himself a pupil of
Peter Milne, funds were raised for the erection to the Tarland
Minstrel of a fitting memorial which was unveiled by the late
Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair on the 20th of February, 1932.
It has often been said, not without good reason, that even
the country's best composers allowed too many of their compositions
to be published. The same cannot be said of Peter Milne. Indeed
only 24 of his airs have previously been printed, whilst about
a dozen more are known to us. Peter Milne's style of composition
is reminiscent of that of Wm. Christie (q.v.). He evinces
a distinct feeling for pleasing melody, but the beauty of
one or two of his airs, particularly The Marchioness of Huntly
- Aboyne Castle, is considerably marred by their lack of poise.
In addition to those printed for the first time in the present
volume, we regard as Peter Milne's best efforts The Countess
of Crawford, Jas. O. Forbes, John M'Neill's Reel, The Marquis
of Huntly's Reel, The Pride of the Dee Waltzes, The pride
of the Don Waltzes, and Bonnie Glen Tanar (Sister or Companion
to J. Scott Skinner's Bonnie Lass o' Bonaccord). All these
airs we consider worthy of a place amongst the country's finest
compositions. It may also be noted here that the first and
third parts of the last-mentioned air are surprisingly like
the corresponding measures of Miss Wellwood's Fancy in M'Glashan's
1786 collection and for this reason, we presume, Peter Milne
did not publish it. Nathaniel Gow's The Fallen Hero in his
Third Repository is even more a plagiarism of the same air.
J. Scott Skinner acknowledged that Peter Milne was one of
the finest native musicians that Scotland ever produced.
Riches
Denied, a pastoral by J. Murdoch Henderson in memory of Peter
Milne
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JAMES SCOTT SKINNER (1843-1927)
J. Scott Skinner, the youngest son of Wm. Skinner and Mary
Agnew, was born in Banchory-Ternan on the 5th of August, 1843.
His father was originally a gardener but, after losing three
of the fingers of his left hand, he became a left-handed fiddler
and a prominent dancing master on Deeside. His mother was
bereaved when J. Scott Skinner was only eighteen months old,
but remarried. When the future "Strathspey King" was about
seven years of age his brother, Sandy, apprenticed him to
the violin and 'cello, and within two or three years he had
gained sufficient proficiency in vamping on the latter instrument
to accompany his bigger brother at the local dances. Soon
afterwards he came under the influence of Peter Milne and
shared some of the latter's joys and sorrows while playing
in and around the district. In
1855, after being in irregular attendance at Connell's School,
Princes Street, Aberdeen, for about three years, he enlisted
in Dr. Mark's celebrated troupe of "Little Men", at that time
in the Granite City, and accompanied them to their headquarters
in Manchester, there to start a six years' course in intensive
musical training, and a tour of the four countries.
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J.
S. S. was in this juvenile orchestra when it gave its command
performance before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace on
the 10th of February, 1858. Fortunately he met Charles Rougier
in Manchester, and to that celebrated French violinist's schooling
in Kreutzer studies, etc., he attributed much of his future
success. Three months before completing his apprenticeship
under the German "Professor" he escaped from Glasgow to his
mother's new home in Aberdeen, there to rejoin Peter Milne.
With almost a year's training in dancing, from Wm. Scott,
"Professor" of Elocution, Stoneywood, J. Scott Skinner now
held dancing classes in the district as far out as Alford.
He actually beat the renowned John M'Neill of Edinburgh in
a sword-dance competition in Ireland in 1862 and the following
year played The Marquis of Huntly's Farewell and The Marquis
of Tullybardine at the grand strathspey and reel competition
in Inverness, thereby gaining the first prize and ousting
perhaps the best players, Joseph Lowe's Edinburgh Band. When
he subsequently extended his field of activities to the Ballater
district his reputation soon reached the ears of the Queen,
who requested him to teach the tenantry at Balmoral callisthenics
and dancing. In 1868 he claimed to have 125 pupils there.
By
1870 Scott Skinner had married and settled in Aberlour, with
his wife to assist him in his duties. He then removed to 2,
South College Street, Elgin, and for some twelve years continued
in the double role of dancing master and solo violinist. As
a concert artiste his name was now on everyone's lips. In
1879 he held a long series of concerts throughout the north
and east of Scotland and, to judge from his programmes, including
De Beriot's 7th Air in E Major and First Concerto, Op. 16
Mozart's Figaro Overture (as a Trio) and P. Rode's Air Varie,
Op, 10, he must then have been a virtuoso of some standing.
By 1880 his adopted daughter, Jeanie Skinner (later Mrs. Frank
Sutherland), was figuring prominently as his pianist. His
partnership with his wife seems to have terminated rather
abruptly about 1881, when the latter was taken to Elgin Hospital,
there to spend the remainder of her days. About
1883 J. Scott Skinner took up residence at 4, Dee Street,
Aberdeen, and advertised his Dancing Academy at 9, Silver
Street, but in 1884 he was alternately at 95, High Street,
Elgin, and 22, Union Terrace, Aberdeen. Not long after the
death of his brother, Sandy, the latter's widow, Madame de
Lenglee, became his partner and continued in that capacity
for several years. His concert advertisements during this
period show that his various abodes were not fixed for many
years. In 1893 he toured the U.S.A. with Willie MacLennan,
the celebrated piper and dancer, but the rather sudden death
of the latter upset the Strathspey King's calculations, so
within eight months he was back in his native Scotland. He
practically gave up dancing now and concentrated on his Andrea
Guarnarius. While staying in Union Grove, Aberdeen, he met
his second wife and by 1897 he had married her and settled
at Monikie, near Dundee. There he wrote some of his best compositions
and devoted much of his time to amateur gardening. In
1899 he went on a concert tour.
About
1909 his wife "resigned" and went to Rhodesia, leaving the
"king" once more on his own. For alternate periods during
the next thirteen years his headquarters were principally
at Alexr. M'Pherson's, Kirriemuir; Wm. F. M'Hardy's, Drumblair
House, Forgue; Glencoe House, Carnoustie; Darling's and The
County Hotels, Edinburgh. His concert engagements, many of
which were organised by J. C. Lumsden, Edinburgh, were at
this period very numerous. In 1922 J. Scott Skinner came to
reside at 25, Victoria Street, Aberdeen, and up to 1925 was
the leading artiste in five different tours, his last public
performance in Britain being given at Oldmeldrum on the 25th
of April, 1925. The following year, after having been an invalid
for some considerable time, he was unwisely tempted to go
to a reel and jig competition in USA There he encountered
his pet aversion, an unsuitable pianist, and marched off the
platform before finishing his test pieces. Nevertheless he
was given a royal reception and later demonstrated that he
was still, in spite of his years, the "Strathspey King." He
returned home to spend most of his remaining days in bed and
died on the 17th of March, 1927. The
pipe band of the Aberdeen City Police led the funeral procession
to Allenvale Cemetery and George S. MacLeannan, the famous
piper, played Lochaber No More over the Strathspey King's
last resting place.
Lochaber
No More, played by David Low
In
assessing J. Scott Skinner's contribution to Scottish music
more than one factor must be considered. There is little need
to stress the fact that he, like most of his predecessors,
had only a rudimentary knowledge of harmony. He made very
full use of what gifts and training he did have and, unlike
several, even skilled harmonists who have ventured to write
accompaniments to Scottish dance music, he never lost sight
of the native message of the strathspey. He has almost exactly
600 different compositions in print, 200 of which died at
birth. Many of his airs are more a reflex of his own nature
than of what might be called the traditional Scots mentality.
He alone of the great Scottish violinist-composers has made
some noteworthy contributions to bagpipe music. As a strathspey
and reel composer his reputation has depended too much on
the popularity of such airs as The Laird o' Drumblair which
definitely are not his finest compositions. By means of his
better training and his unrivalled excellence as an exponent
of strathspeys and reels he has founded a school of Scottish
composition more brilliant in its effect, further-reaching
in its scope and wider in its conception of music as an art
than any of the schools of the past. Too many of his best
compositions are not at all well known and too few of the
Scots players of to-day are sufficiently competent to render
them with that bold, characteristic accent and masterly turn
of phrase which has made J. Scott Skinner's name a household
word. Those
interested in the Strathspey King's Memoirs may be referred
to "The People's Journal," 3rd February - 21st April, 1923.
One
of J. Scott Skinner's finest musical efforts to gain popularity
was his Ettrick Vale Quadrille, arranged about 1861 on popular
melodies. This was soon followed by numerous valses, polkas,
etc. His first collection, Twelve New Strathspeys and Reels,
was published about 1865. In 1868 appeared his Thirty New
Strathspeys and Reels, containing the previous 12 and 20 more.
A second edition of this collection was issued in 1874. In
1881 he published his Miller o' Hirn Collection. This fine
work contains the 32 airs previously issued and a further
90, and is thus, as stated in the inside title-page, a "Fourth
Edition [of his first collection] Greatly Enlarged." His Beauties
of the Ballroom - 59 airs - first appeared c. 1882. His Elgin
Collection (Part I only), also containing 59 airs, was issued
in 1884. In 1888, when residing at Inverurie, J. Scott Skinner
published his Logie Collection. Of its 190 airs several are
songs - scarcely "deathless lays." In 1900 appeared The Scottish
Violinist, perhaps the most popular, certainly the most instructive
violin collection of Scots music ever published. In the third
edition, 1904, three new airs were added, making the new total
148. His magnum opus, The Harp and Claymore Collection, containing
233 airs, appeared in 1904. His Monikie Series - not all written
at Monikie - contains 16 airs. Nine numbers of his Cairngorm
Series - 27 airs - were published in 1922. His last published
composition, Johnnie Walker, 1924, does not appear to be meant
as a compliment to the dedicate. In all a truly marvellous
record!
J.
Scott Skinner, The Strathspey King, a reel by J. Murdoch Henderson,
1933
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JAMES DAVIE (1783-1857)
James Davie was born in Aberdeen on the 6th of October, 1783.
Whether or not he was a shoemaker in early life, certain it
is that by 1813 he had become an established music seller
in Aberdeen. He published a Collection of Psalmody about 1820
and by 1829 had issued the First Series of his Caledonian
Repository, the first book of which may have been completed
before the latter date. Although he had avowed intentions
of publishing another four books, also arranged for the violin,
to form a Second Series, only two appeared, one in 1850 and
the other in 1855. These six books form an outstanding work,
comprising 802 airs and thus, in the number of airs, second
only by 69 to the Athole Collection. The
Athole Collection, 1883-84, we may mention, was compiled by
James Stewart Robertson (1823-1896), Edradynate, the first
president of The Edinburgh Highland Reel and Strathspey Society,
instituted in 1881. The material for Davie's big undertaking
was culled from his own very extensive library, supplemented
mainly by that belonging to Andrew J. Wigton (1804-1866) and
later presented to Dundee. The first four books were republished
by Wood & Co., Edinburgh, in 1848. James Davie issued his
Caledonian Flautist about 1842. During his life as a music
seller his premises, known as "Davie's Musical Repository,"
were successively removed to at least six different addresses,
most of them in Castle Street and Union Street. In addition,
he played for some time in the theatre orchestra and taught
vocal and instrumental music. Most
of his family, eight in number, died very early in life. James
Davie, himself, died at 16, Huxter Road on the 19th of November,
1857, and was buried in Old Machar churchyard.
In
his Caledonian Repository in particular, James Davie has displayed
elegant taste and distinct musical ability in revising hackneyed
sets of several airs, but, we are afraid, he has carried his
improvements too far by introducing into some of the reels
"strings" of triplets which perhaps he, as a flautist, could
negotiate with facility. Of the airs published when in business
on his own account and after having taken as partner a pianoforte
maker, Michael Morris, we may mention Mrs. Tulloch, Earnhill's
Strathspey and Reel by "Mr." MacKenzie and "The St. Andrew's
Lodge of Glenkindy" (instituted in 1814), Strathspey
and Reel by Alex. Strachan, Drumnagarry. Davie's own compositions
include Mrs. Young of Cornhill's Strathspey and Reel, Mr.
And Mrs. Gordon of Cairness' Waltzes, The Beaver Hunt, The
air Caledonian and The Gordon's Strathspey - the first measure
of the last-mentioned air being taken from an old Highland
Song of one part called My Dear Highland Laddie O'.
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