(Please note: A description of the surviving Römhildt boudoir grand piano can be found here.)
Eleven volumes (listed here) make up a small collection of music at Leith Hall. The earliest comes from the last years of the 18th century, with four volumes of the Thomson Collection of Original Scottish Airs published in the 1790s (though this copy is a later edition). Four volumes of Urbani's Selection of Scots Songs were published in Edinburgh a little earlier, around 1794/5. A marbled volume with brown leather spine, labelled 'Music', contains two songs by Domenico Corri, and A Collection of Strathspey Reels & Country Dances by Robert Petrie was published around 1795. The Grand Romantic Romance–The Forty Thieves by the Irish tenor and composer of the early nineteenth century, Michael Kelly, is a rarity. A marbled volume with brown leather spine and corners contains an attractive variety of 36 items of piano music, together with dances and songs. This music dates from late eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century.
There are also three more recent volumes. Boosey's National Glee Book dates from the late nineteenth century, as also a volume of old songs and dances with accompaniments by the French organist Widor. Songs ... from A Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson, with music by Rev. Thomas Crawford, comes from the early twentieth century.
Unfortunately there are very few signatures or other marks on the copies, and close 'cropping' of several pages precludes any realistic attribution of ownership. Marks on the Petrie collection of Strathspey Reels, and a duet – See from the Ocean Rising, by Mazzinghi – suggest that Mary, the third child of General Alexander Leith-Hay and Mary Forbes, might have owned these pieces.
The volumes of Thomson, Urbani and Petrie indicate an interest in Scottish music. Thomson's collections, in particular, were important as attempts to 'legitimise' the Scottish song repertoire. These classically stylised versions, often with sophisticated opening introductions and links between verses (titled Symphonies), were intended to bring a certain respectability to native music. There is a feeling of added 'artfulness' about something which was, and still is, a wide ranging genre, with correspondingly stronger emotional impact than in these carefully crafted 'art songs'. The drawing room is the arbiter here, not the croft nor the shepherd's bothie.
The presence of The Forty Thieves by Kelly, is an unexpected find. This is an Entr'acte (dating from around 1806) – an incidental piece for the theatre with music, to go between acts of a larger evening entertainment. The vividness of the characterisation, and the attractive and varied music, tells us something of the light-hearted and open quality of this genre.
The Favorite Guaracha Dance, and variations on Ah vous dirai-je Maman for harp, and variations on God save the King and The Celebrated Austrian Hymn, are included in volume 8. The major part of the volume, however, is given over to songs, ranging from Scots songs and ballads to single items and arias taken from longer works, in addition to duets as performed by celebrated singers at various fashionable venues in London. Sets of dances, collections of the popular dances – Quadrilles and Waltzes – arranged for the piano, are reminders of the need for families in relatively remote areas to provide their own amusements for entertainments or dances.
There might once have been a larger collection of music at Leith Hall; it is difficult to be sure. What has survived, however, is comparable with other collections in nearby properties – a further indication of the importance of music to landed families in this part of Scotland at the turn of the nineteenth century.
© Roger B. Williams 2019