Please note: A description of the surviving musical instruments at Fyvie Castle can be found here. For the collection of organ rolls go here.
The Forbes Leith music collection comprises around two hundred compositions, gathered together in twenty-six volumes, given to the University of Aberdeen in 1938 by Sir Ian Forbes Leith, Bt. of Fyvie. The eighteenth-century volumes of the collection are sometimes referred to as the Gregory Collection and identified by a bookplate – the family Gregory was one of Scotland's most distinguished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Though most of the music dates from between 1820 and 1860, the earliest volume comes from the 1720s. There are many family signatures on several volumes.
The vocal items in the collection are from a variety of genres, including arias from operas, especially the bel canto Italian tradition from the opening of the nineteenth century. Arias by composers little known today, are juxtaposed with works by major composers – Rossini, Paer, Maer, Cimarosa, Mosca, Bennati and Bellini, Blanghini, Gabusi, Zingarelli, Cherubini, Mercadante, and Donizetti are all included in one volume. Mozart is a favourite, with large numbers of excerpts from operas Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte, arranged both for two flutes and also for piano duet. The Barber of Seville by Rossini, 'altered and adapted to the English stage by Henry Bishop' is complete. A considerable number of items by Handel occur in different volumes and include Hallelujah from Messiah. There are also Scottish songs and ballads as performed at the various pleasure gardens in London and elsewhere. The range of music is well caught by the title page of volume 11 – The Musical Scrap Book by Finlay Dun – 'original and selected ballads, romances, ariettas &c, for the voice, and polonaises, quadrilles, waltzes &c. for the piano forte'.
As a member of the 21st Fusiliers in 1827, Donald Gregory would have found the flute a convenient instrument to carry around. The second edition of the Beale flute tutor bears his signature, and there are two companion volumes of pieces for two flutes, which include the Overture to Lodoiska (Cherubini). A volume of The Tyrolese Melodies, 'arranged for one or four voices with an accompaniment for the piano forte by I. Moscheles' carries the signature of Donald Gregory. If Donald had been of Jacobite persuasion, this would explain the presence of the songs Donald and Prince Charlie, The Lament of Flora McDonald and The Bonny House o' Airly.
Margaret Crawford Gregory's signature appears on a volume which includes L'Anima di Musica, 'An Original Treatise upon Piano Forte Playing' by P.A. Corri, and the eighth edition of Clementi's celebrated Introduction to the Art of playing on the Piano Forte. Piano solos and duets, including The Copenhagen Waltz, The Favorite Dutch Minuet and Nightingale Rondo, The Fall of Paris, and a sonata by J.G. Graeff complete this volume which shows many signs of use, with fingerings, added comments and page turns that are well worn. There is also a third piano tutor – Easy Instructions for the Piano Forte.
Sacred music including a volume of hymns, ending with some anthems and an Ode, dates from around 1766. The Sacred Harmony for the use of St. George's Church in Edinburgh of sixty years later, includes the first printing of the splendidly original hymn tune that bears the church's name. Twenty Anthems and The Morning and Evening Service with twenty Anthems by John Kent (1700-1776), Organist of the Cathedral and College at Winchester, is a rarity. Chappell's Musical Magazine edited by Edward F. Rimbault, includes twelve sacred duets by Handel, Smart, Abt and Thomas Moore for soprano and contralto voices with piano accompaniment. An anthem 'Oh, how lovely are thy Dwellings' by H. J. Gauntlett is signed by the composer. A Collection of Psalm Tunes and Anthems 'used in the Churches, Chapels and Dissenting congregations in Scotland' (c.1830), is a sharp reminder of the difficulties associated with varied religious inclinations in Scotland's history, from a volume of around 1830. A brown folder gathers together ancient chants selected from those in use at Westminster Abbey, a selection of psalms and hymns by Sigismond Neukomm, responses to the commandments as sung at the Temple church with an inscription 'from Dr.Steggart', The Edinburgh Sacred Harmony for the use of Churches and Families, consisting of 'Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Sanctusses, Doxologies, Thanksgivings and Dismissions', and a volume of Psalms and paraphrases published in Edinburgh. The Selection of Sacred Melodies arranged by W. H. Birch and One Hundred Melodies arranged by George Case are two volumes designed to be played on the concertina – not the most anticipated fusion of subject matter and instrument!
Medulla Musicae ... a choice collection of airs is a volume published around 1727 by Cluer, comprising copied extracts from The works of the most Celebrated Masters of eighteenth century provenance, beginning with Corelli and ending with Handel. Of the two volumes, only the one for the Violin remains. The collection is wide-ranging with a predominance of works by Corelli, not only solos but, interestingly, concerto movements. Other Italian composers predominate but Purcell also features and, perhaps the most interesting are twelve movements from a series of XII Sonatas by the French-born but London domiciled Viola da Gamba player Jean Baptiste François de St. Helène.
The presence of Rousseau's opera Le Devin du Village of 1752, in full score which has been heavily annotated with figures added to the bass, sometimes in ink. Are these added marks of a contemporary or of a later provenance? This volume is one of the very few full scores in the Fyvie collection and it seems as though it might well be a first edition. Bellini's complete opera La Straniera was bought in France.
The second edition of Musical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 'preserved, by tradition and authentic manuscripts, from very remote antiquity', printed in London in 1800, and written by Edward Jones, harp teacher and Bard to the Prince of Wales is a surprise. Was this perhaps a Welsh answer to the Ossianic ballads of Scotland? Several of the tunes have variations written for the harp, harpsichord, violin or flute, and a few pencil marks seem to indicate favourite pieces.
Songs feature prominently. Though ballads by Mrs Hemans and her sister are by no means rare survivors from the early nineteenth century, three of her songs in this collection are inscribed with a personal message from the composer. Aristide Verri, presumably Italian, was a composer of songs several of which are present in this collection. Though these have been sold in Edinburgh, at Paterson & Roy, 27 George Street, there is no attribution of a publisher, suggesting they were produced at the composer's own expense. These nine songs seem to be the largest collection of this composer's oeuvre gathered together anywhere.
There are also volumes of arrangements for piano of pieces drawn from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Music by Haydn, Pleyel, Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, Hummel, Rossini, Kozeluch, and Auer (much of the opera Die Stumme von Portici), together with many operatic overtures are included in a wide selection of decidedly catholic tastes. Though there are added fingerings on a few copies, including marks in one of the Hummel Piano Concertos, and some pieces of music have been repaired, in general the condition of the music is good.
This collection has distinctive features, with an emphasis on religious music and compositions for flute and voice, giving it a decidedly 'domestic' feel. The breadth and scope of these twenty-six volumes adds another small piece to the jigsaw of musical interests in the houses of the landed gentry in the north east of Scotland around two hundred years ago.
© Roger B. Williams November 2019