The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: Jumping on the Festival of Britain Bandwagon?

Research output: Contributions to books, editions, reports or conference proceedingsChapterpeer-review

Details

Scottish music publishers flourished in Glasgow and Edinburgh until the mid-twentieth century, declining due to provincialism, the increase of recorded media and decrease in domestic music-making. Publishing tartan-covered Scottish songs, fiddle tunes and other dance repertoire was core to the success of Kerr’s and Mozart Allan.

Mozart Allan’s The Glories of Scotland differs from earlier songbooks, as proprietor Jack Fletcher seemingly had the Festival of Britain (1951) in mind.

Post-war Britain pushed to inspire optimism at home and abroad; tourism was encouraged. Fletcher approached the Scottish Tourist Board and British Railways for illustrations to accompany his book, but shrewdly, half of the repertoire derived from the slightly earlier, Scotland Calling. The numbers of surviving copies of each are telling.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Visitor Attraction
Subtitle of host publicationPrint for Tourists
PublisherPeter Lang
Chapter8
Number of pages9
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 28 Apr 2022

Publication series

NameCentre for Printing History and Culture (CPHC) series
PublisherPeter Lang

Keywords

  • Scottish culture
  • Tourism
  • Scottish songs
  • Music publishing
  • Scottish social history

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