Dundee Street Songs, Rhymes and Games: The voices of these school children captured the vitality of the local dialect, the spontaneity of their language-use outside the classroom. (Audio links included in the notes).
Dundee Street Songs,Rhymes and Games: The William Montgomerie Collection, 1952 - In 1952 when these songs and rhymes were recorded in Hilltown, Dundee there may not have been a street or playground anywhere where the sound of children singing and playing was part of everyday life. Although there had been Scottish collectors of 'bairn sangs' since the 1820s, it was not until the 1940s that anyone in Scotland audio-recorded the actual sound of playground voices. These recordings of school children captured the vitality of the local dialect, the spontaneity of their language-use outside the classroom, their repertoire of songs, rhymes and games, their musicality , as well as the sounds that echo the speed and accuracy of their hand-eye co-ordination. (Audio links included in the notes).
Winner of The Iona and Peter Opie Prize for Children’s Folklore 2022
Folk Music Journal, Volume 12 Number 2 (2022); Tradition Today, No. 10, Dec. 2021
CONTRIBUTORSMARGARET BENNETT is a folklorist, writer, singer and storyteller. Born in 1946, she grew up in Skye, trained as a teacher, then studied Folklore. Widely regarded as "Scotland's foremost folklorist", she lectured at the The University of Edinburgh School of Scottish Studies (1984-96) before joining the part-time staff of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow). A prize-winning author and singer, she is dedicated to handing on Scotland's traditions to new generations. Margaret is also Honorary Professor of Antiquities and Folklore at the Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh) and Honorary Teaching Fellow at the University of St. Andrews. She is interested in sharing community folklore and oral history projects for all ages and abilities, and in contributing to media research. As Hamish Henderson wrote, "Margaret embodies the spirit of Scotland."Born in 1947, LES MCCONNELL hails from Ayrshire. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art and was awarded a graduate scholarship to study in Holland. Les trained as a teacher and settled in Fife, where, in retirement his pencils and artist's palette are part of daily life. He has exhibited widely, including at the RSA, and his recent collaborations with Fife poet William Hershaw, include The Sair Road, depicting striking images from Fife's mining industry, and Saul Vaigers, following the pilgrimages of Scottish saints. Their joint exhibition 'Earth Bound Companions' (2019) was reviewed with critical acclaim and will be published as a poetry pamphlet by Grace Note Publications.WILLIAM MONTGOMERIE (1904-1994) was born and brought up in Glasgow. After graduating from the University of Glasgow, he became a teacher and moved to Dundee, where he met and married NORAH Shargool (1909-1998), an artist with D.C. Thomson. They shared a passion for the Scots language and folklore and published many books for children. William Montgomerie was also a renowned poet and ballad scholar, and, though he was a pioneer in tape-recording traditional songs and folklore, this is the first time any of his recordings have been published.
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