[The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and The Isles, Communicated in an Original, Pleasing & Familiar Style, Having the Lively Airs Introduced as Medleys, by Simon Fraser, Niel Gow, John McMurdo, and others - [1816]: to Form a Sequence to Each Slower Movement, With an Admired Plain Harmony for the Piano Forte, Harp, Organ or Violoncello, Intended rather to preserve Simplicity, than load with Embellishments; Edited by Capt S Fraser, Chiefly acquired during the Interes

SIMON FRASER [Lacks title page and the 10 introductory pages including the Index, Letter and Prospectus to the Highland Society]. [The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and The Isles, Communicated in an Original, Pleasing & Familiar Style, Having the Lively Airs Introduced as Medleys, to Form a Sequence to Each Slower Movement, With an Admired Plain Harmony for the Piano Forte, Harp, Organ or Violoncello, Intended rather to preserve Simplicity, than load with Embellishments; Edited by Capt S Fraser, Chiefly acquired during the Interesting Period from 1715 to 1745, through the Authentic Source narrated in the Accompanying Prospectus.] Edinburgh: Walker & Anderson, no date [1816]. First edition. Collation: [iv blanks; v-vii English titles in manuscript, alphabetized; xxi blanks; pages 11 – 104 engraved, numbered pages; x blanks]. White, watered silk endpapers. 232 two-voice pieces of music notated on two staves, G- and F-clefs, numbered consecutively 1 – 232. 35 cm x 26 cm. Titles engraved on the page above each musical selection in Gaelic first, then in English. Written in a contemporary hand above selection number one is "No. 2908 S. Fraser." It is believed this is Simon Fraser's copyright signature together with the number of the copy. Copyright signatures were necessary for printed music in 1816 as composers and editors saw the increasing need for authorizing each copy sold. To the left of Fraser's signature is a presentation signature of Dr. George Dickson dated 1907: "To Mary from her affectionate Pa' G. Dickson, M.D.F.R.C.E."


The first selection is "The Langour of Love." There is an asterisk, with a footnote at the foot of the page, which states: "The airs marked thus * have Notes relating to them in the Appendix, to which the Numbers will lead." No publisher's appendix is present. The engraver and printer's name, Walker & Anderson, appears at the bottom of the page. A printing plate flaw is in evidence on p. 90, not affecting musical notation or text. Bound in cloth, with quarter morocco spine and corners, now worn. Raised bands evident on the damaged gilt backstrip. The hinges are cracked but holding. Page edges gilded all around. Two twentieth century leaves of notated music are laid in loosely. The musical selections are identified as song, strathspey, jigg, dance and song and dance, and there are footnotes as to the history of various tunes. On selection 5, "The Highland Society of Scotland," there is this note on the word "Society": "rather an Association of the 1745." On selection 60, "How shall we abstain from Whiskey," there is this note: "The Editor has great pleasure in asserting his Countrys claim to this Melody lately introduced as Irish, under the name of the Legacy and supposed new, whereas it has been current in the North for Sixty Years as the Composition of John McMurdo of Kintail, since emigrated to America." Please contact us for a full description.