Arts & Crafts Movement

During the last third of the 19th Century, an important artistic movement called Arts & Crafts emerged in Great Britain with the aim of offering an alternative to the mechanized and impersonal art of the moment, product of the Industrial Revolution. Different writers, artists, architects and philosophers of the period joined their forces to develop an
aesthetic reform. The most representative figure of this movement was William Morris (1834-1986), poet, craftsman, printer, designer and political activist.

The recent upsurge of interest in early twentieth-century cultural nationalisms has raised the profile of the Scottish rôle in the cultural and nationalist revival movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Especially during the key period between the 1890s and the First World War, the Scottish Celtic Revival movement witnessed a flowering of artistic, literary, and cultural activities that helped to shape incipient political and cultural nationalisms, both Scottish and pan-Celtic.

This interdisciplinary conference (1-3 May 2014) will be organised by the University of Edinburgh's department of Celtic and Scottish Studies and part-hosted by the National Galleries of Scotland. It will be supported by the Modern Humanities Research Fund and co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), and the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), University of Edinburgh. The conference will bring together scholars working on the art, music, folklore collection, literary production, scholarship, politics, Gaelic linguistic revival, architecture, and material culture of the period, in order to reassess the role played by the Celtic Revival in the creation of modern Scottish identities. Through an examination of the roots, rise, and withering of the Celtic Revival in Scotland, the conference will reassess the successes - and failures - of the movement in its widest context.

Dublin-born Phoebe Anna Traquair's "The Progress of a Soul" is a central work of the Scottish Arts & Crafts movement. William B. Yeats' 'little singing bird', she is but one of many connections between Ireland and Edinburgh around 1900. Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, from a family where 'Home Rule' was frequently discussed, worked with the eager Celtic Revivalist Patrick Geddes in the 1890s, and was deeply influenced by Yeats' œuvre – 'Land of Heart's Desire' is a well-known song of hers. William Sharp (Fiona MacLeod) met Yeats in London and raved about his work, but Yeats was less enthusiastic, and, with Oscar Wilde, he made witty comments about Sharp. Nonetheless, in 1905, Yeats cast Sharp's horoscope, at the request of his widow, Elizabeth A. Sharp, "Lyra Celtica"'s editor. Yeats' Dundee-lecture in 1905 was organised by Scottish romantic poet Rachel Annand Taylor and her husband – friends of Kennedy-Fraser and of Symbolist painter John Duncan, instrumental to the Celtic Revival in Scotland. On Eriskay, they had all immersed themselves in things Celtic, meeting Fr Allan McDonald, the priest and Celtic scholar. Together with most Edinburgh literati, they also frequented the salon of André Raffalovich, whose sister married Irish MP William O'Brien – Parnell spoke at their wedding – and whose friend, Fr John Gray, once part of the bohemian circles of Oscar Wilde and Yeats in London, was priest to Irish immigrants in Edinburgh. My paper will focus on the connections between Scotland and Ireland around 1900 by discussing a circle of then well-known and influential individuals.


Book Summary:

The long nineteenth century, arguably the most significant period in Irish history, is marked by a series of events that changed the political landscape of the nation forever and gave rise to art and ideas of international importance. At one end of this tumultuous period, we have Grattan's Parliament, the United Irishmen, the Rebellion of 1798 led by Wolfe Tone, and the Union of 1801, and at the other, the fall of Parnell, the Easter Rising, Civil War and partition. Between times there are the great hinge events of Catholic Emancipation, the Famine, and the Land War. From Wolfe Tone to Maud Gonne, Ireland went through a period of enormous upheaval that carved out the culture and politics of the modern nation. Irish Studies has not yet fully engaged with the range and richness of this material, nor have critics in the various Anglophone literary fields grasped the extent to which Irish and Scottish events and authors contributed decisively to the development of their own areas.

Bringing together an international line-up of established and emerging scholars, Romantic Ireland: "From Tone to Gonne" takes Irish Studies in new directions, in particular in terms of a cross-cultural comparison with Scotland and the distinct phenomenon of Unionism, thus breaking out of the double binds of Anglo-Irish approaches. The Irish-Scottish interface throws up fascinating insights that enhance our awareness of the interaction between colonialism, nationalism and culture. All of the major figures of the period are represented here, from Edgeworth and Moore to Yeats and Synge, but there are other, often less noticed but hugely significant writers, such as Charles Robert Maturin, Dion Boucicault and May Laffan. There are non-Irish commentators on Ireland like Cobbett and Engels, as well as a series of key Scottish figures – including Burns and Scott – in addition to lesser-known or lesser-noticed Scottish writers with strong Irish interests such as R. M. Ballantyne and Robert Tannahill – whose work opens up new and promising avenues into Irish writing.

Scottish musician Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (née Kennedy, 1857–1930) is mainly known for the several volumes of "Songs of the Hebrides" she brought out in collaboration with Kenneth MacLeod (1871–1955), based on her years of painstaking work collecting Gaelic songs. Increasingly popular and famous since the publication of the first volume in 1909, her work received official recognition in the 1920s, when she was awarded both the CBE and an honorary Mus.D. (Edinburgh). Gaelic songs were Kennedy-Fraser's second career, however, having previously travelled the world as her father's accompanist, studied music in Milan, in Paris, and – as one of its first women students – at the University of Edinburgh, subsequently building up a flourishing music teaching practice in the Scottish capital. Widowed at an early age, with two small children to support, in the 1890s, the young professional was busy teaching, performing and lecturing in Edinburgh, where she soon became part of the city's artistic avant-garde circles and met with Alexander Carmichael, Patrick Geddes, John Duncan and Phoebe Traquair – leading lights of the Arts & Crafts movement in Scotland. My paper will ask what sparked Dr Kennedy-Fraser's passion for Gaelic music and culture, outline her multifarious undertakings in public life generally, and discuss how her œuvre became increasingly exposed to criticism after her death, particularly in Scotland, where she was virulently attacked by trendsetting intellectuals, who accused her of having misrepresented Gaelic songs. I will conclude by considering the place of the "Songs of the Hebrides" in today's song recital repertoire.

Scottish musician Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (née Kennedy, 1857–1930) is known mostly for her "Songs of the Hebrides". From the publication of the first volume in 1909, her popularity and fame grew – in Scotland and England as well as abroad; her work received official recognition in the 1920s, when she was awarded both the CBE and an honorary Mus.D. (Edinburgh). After her death in 1930, her songs were still widely performed, but her work was increasingly exposed to criticism. While appreciated as a respected, albeit somewhat unfashionable, arranger of songs among musicians generally, both in Britain and beyond, Marjory Kennedy-Fraser was virulently attacked by trendsetting Scottish intellectuals, who accused her of having misrepresented Gaelic songs, publishing what was by then considered romanticized drawing-room arrangements, lacking in authenticity. Though still frequently maligned, her songs have been subject of a renewed interest in recent years, and have slowly begun to find their place among European art songs of the period, a repertoire which is largely based on, or at least influenced by, vernacular folk-songs from the different nations.

Apart from her memoirs from 1929, "A Life of Song", no biography has so far been published of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. The aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed survey of Dr Kennedy-Fraser's professional life, and, furthermore, by relating her life and œuvre to her own time, to place her in context. It draws extensively on her own, hitherto unpublished working material, held by Edinburgh University Library, a multitude of newspaper articles and biographical publications, as well as letters from a wide range of sources. It thus offers as complete and nuanced a picture as possible of a long, comprehensive, and indeed impressive, career. Following an introductory overview of the Arts & Crafts movement, the mainly chronological biography explores her family background, international concert tours, and music studies in Milan and Paris. Her rôles as performer, teacher, lecturer, and author are assessed, as is her work as a suffrage activist and a parish councillor. The second phase of her career, when a collector and arranger of Gaelic songs, her publication of the "Songs of the Hebrides", as well as her numerous Hebridean recitals, given both throughout Britain and abroad, are all covered in detail. Her interaction with several important individuals of her time, including Sir Patrick Geddes, Dr Frederick Niecks, Dr Kenneth Macleod, Sir Granville Bantock, and Dame Ellen Terry, is also discussed.

Dublin-born Phoebe Anna Traquair's "The Progress of a Soul" is a central work of the Scottish Arts & Crafts movement. William B. Yeats' 'little singing bird', she is but one of many connections between Ireland and Edinburgh around 1900. Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, from a family where 'Home Rule' was frequently discussed, worked with the eager Celtic Revivalist Patrick Geddes in the 1890s, and was deeply influenced by Yeats' œuvre – 'Land of Heart's Desire' is a well-known song of hers. William Sharp (Fiona MacLeod) met Yeats in London and raved about his work, but Yeats was less enthusiastic, and, with Oscar Wilde, he made witty comments about Sharp. Nonetheless, in 1905, Yeats cast Sharp's horoscope, at the request of his widow, Elizabeth A. Sharp, "Lyra Celtica"'s editor. Yeats' Dundee-lecture in 1905 was organised by Scottish romantic poet Rachel Annand Taylor and her husband – friends of Kennedy-Fraser and of Symbolist painter John Duncan, instrumental to the Celtic Revival in Scotland. On Eriskay, they had all immersed themselves in things Celtic, meeting Fr Allan McDonald, the priest and Celtic scholar. Together with most Edinburgh literati, they also frequented the salon of André Raffalovich, whose sister married Irish MP William O'Brien – Parnell spoke at their wedding – and whose friend, Fr John Gray, once part of the bohemian circles of Oscar Wilde and Yeats in London, was priest to Irish immigrants in Edinburgh. My paper will focus on the connections between Scotland and Ireland around 1900 by discussing a circle of then well-known and influential individuals.

In the late nineteenth century, a wave of nationalism and interest in vernacular arts and languages swept over Europe. Architects, painters, writers, and composers - all looked for inspiration among surviving folk traditions in remoter areas of their countries. In music, the treasures of songs and melodies that still existed were discovered, a heritage that seemed threatened, however, due to changing ways of life. Studies and documentation projects were initiated in the Czech and Hungarian areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Imperial Russia, and in the Scandinavian countries. The Celtic areas of Europe were no exception, and Brittany, Wales, and Gaelic Scotland and Ireland all attracted numerous researchers and musicologists.

It might seem a contradiction that the interest in the past was so pronounced in the late Victorian period, an era when everything seemed to be oriented towards the bright future. But, at least in certain circles, there was the feeling that something important was being lost, that the quality of life had deteriorated, and that it was important to search for ancient traditions, revive old techniques, and return to the roots. William Morris, John Duncan, and the Arts and Crafts movement are well-known examples within the fields of architecture and fine and applied arts. The same tendencies are equally evident in literature, where old myths and sagas fascinated both the writers and the readers of the period. Authentic material was generally used rather freely, the results often being an amalgamation of facts and fiction, ranging from scholarly adherence to actual observations to sheer imaginary follies.

Less well-known is perhaps the rather similar development in music. In the same way as painters and architects looked for inspiration in a distant past, composers made use of surviving folk material from remoter parts Europe. Brahms, Grieg, and Sibelius all built upon traditional material in various ways. Wagner's operas are based on German mythology. Vaughan Williams and others found inspiration in the English folk songs. In Scotland, Marjory Kennedy-Fraser became interested in the Gaelic folk song tradition of the Western Isles, where she would note down and record traditional songs, many of which became internationally well-known, both through her published arrangements and her concert tours in Britain, the US and Canada, and on the Continent. Successful in her lifetime, but later ridiculed for publishing 'parlour songs', most of her work seems to have sunk into oblivion after WWII.

In my PhD research on Mrs Kennedy-Fraser and the Celtic Revival in Scotland, I have often asked myself if some individuals possibly have a more obvious right to traditional material than others. There is a marked difference between reactions in Scotland and other parts of Europe, e.g. the Scandinavian countries, where classical compositions based on folk material have remained popular. My paper will discuss how Celtic material has influenced classical music, focusing in particular on the Scottish Gaelic influence, and draw parallels to other parts of Europe, e.g. Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia.

An interpretation of the work of James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer in the context of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. From the exhibition catalogue for 'Copper, Stone and Fire: James Metcalf, Ana Pellicer and the Artisans of Santa Clara Del Cobre.'