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Review: British Minstrelsie
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Subject: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Les in Chorlton Date: 17 Aug 10 - 12:35 PM Just spotted volumes 2 - 5 (II - V) of "The British Minstrelsie" in the Oxfam Book Shop. Looks like a collection of 19C popular and a bit posh songs. Any body have a view on its worth as a collection of old songs? L in C# |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: IanC Date: 17 Aug 10 - 12:44 PM I have a full set ... as usual with these collections, it's a mixed bag. A bit "arty" but some nice poems, and with one or two gems. I've always though you could adapt a few of the songs quite nicely. All in all if there's one good song I can use in a songbook, I'll think it's worthwhile though. Just my way of thinking. :-) |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST, Sminky Date: 17 Aug 10 - 12:48 PM Les - there's a complete set on eBay right now - starting price £60 + £8 p&p. If the Oxfam price is markedly lower than that, then I'd go for it. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: IanC Date: 17 Aug 10 - 12:53 PM Lot of difference between a full set and 4 of 5 in terms of price! If it's in the Oxfam shop, I'd look through them and judge for myself whether they're any interest to you. :-) |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: IanC Date: 17 Aug 10 - 12:58 PM BTW ... do they really have II-V? The Amazon listings have it as a 4 volume set, which is what I recall (I'm away from home so can't look at them at the minute). The cheapest on Amazon is £37.99. :-) |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST, Sminky Date: 17 Aug 10 - 01:40 PM Definitely six volumes on eBay. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jack Campin Date: 17 Aug 10 - 03:11 PM Its okay as far as it goes, but the Scots Minstrelsie (same format, same period) is VERY much better. Much more traditional material and superb historical notes. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Les in Chorlton Date: 17 Aug 10 - 03:12 PM Deffinietly II to V not VI L in C# |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Matthew Edwards Date: 17 Aug 10 - 03:34 PM Loking at the British Library Catalogue it seems there were two editions of British Minstrelsie: a representative collection of the songs of the four nations; the arrangements by John Greig, Joseph Parry, F W Bussell, H Fleetwood Sheppard and W H Hopkinson. The first edition was in four volumes about 1899 by T C & E C Jack, Edinburgh, while volumes 5 & 6 were added in a second edition by Caxton Publishing Co. in c.1915. So looks like the Chorlton Oxfam shop has got part of the 1915 edition with the first and last volumes missing. Matthew |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jack Campin Date: 17 Aug 10 - 04:07 PM If you're looking for a big collection of late 19th century parlour-ish songs: the Scottish Students Song Book probably has everything you'll want and it's more easily available. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Steve Gardham Date: 17 Aug 10 - 06:32 PM The English Minstrelsie in the same series is much more interesting from a folk point of view. There are 8 volumes and most of them contain songs from the editor, Baring Gould's collection plus some excellent notes on the songs and the singers. 2 volumes are currently going cheap in Philip Martin's music book shop in York. I need vols 1-3 to complete my own set. Scottish Students SB, also The British Students Song Book which is a little scarcer. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: The Borchester Echo Date: 17 Aug 10 - 08:07 PM I have English Minstrelsie with Volume 7 missing. It's nearly always missing, people will snap up the entire set just to get this volume and dump the rest on charity shops. As Steve Gardham says, it's well worth acquiring (if heavy to lug home from Oxfam). |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST,Keith Beck Date: 24 Aug 10 - 02:22 PM I have a complete six volume set of British Minstrelsie and the original owner, Ethel Michael, has conveniently pencilled her name and the date '1912' on the fly sheet. Also I note that the index to volume one includes the song 'God Save the Queen' but the actual text has been changed to 'King'. So the editing has not quite caught up with the succession. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Les in Chorlton Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:31 PM ll to V were still in Chorlton Oxfam Book shop this morning L in C# |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST,Is this unusual? Date: 31 Mar 19 - 07:08 AM Interested to read this thread as i have all 6 volumes but they are all published by TC & EC Jack. The first 4 volumes say “In 4 volumes” and the 5th and 6th say “in 6 volumes”. I particularly love the plates of famous singers and writers in the front of the books. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Mick Pearce (MCP) Date: 31 Mar 19 - 08:26 AM I have hard copies of EM vol1, and the Scottish Students songbook, but digital editions of and 8 vol EM and the SSB. These can be found at archive.org: English Minstrelsie and The Scottish Students' Songbook. I don't know of a downloadable Scots Minstrelsie, but the Electric Scotland site has scans: Scots Minstrelsie. Mick |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST,Julia Date: 02 Apr 19 - 08:28 AM Decided to sell my set of English Minstralsie plus copies of other antique books of folk songs and some publications and recordings by the Workers Music Association. Any suggestions for places to advertise them please? |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jim Carroll Date: 02 Apr 19 - 01:28 PM Put them on line - please (Facebook maybe?) I am left with the impression that the market for these is extremely limited and reducing by the minute in the UK We vhave bequeathed our Library and Collection to Limerick University's thriving 'World Music Department' because have failed even to give a digitised copy of our large sound archive to anone in Britain I already have a substantial Library but would love an opprtunity to fill in a few gaps Good luck Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST,JohnH Date: 05 Apr 19 - 10:27 AM I have the set and it's mainly Victorian Parlour songs. Jockey to The Fair with words is about the only song of interest that I can recall. There may be others. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jack Campin Date: 05 Apr 19 - 02:27 PM Nobody seems to be offering more than six volumes for sale right now. Check here: AddALL persistent search link I'd guess an 8-volume set would fetch 200 quid (i.e. if one was donated to our shop next week that's the price tag I'd put on it). |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jack Campin Date: 08 Apr 19 - 04:56 AM Oops. Got confused there. Obviously there never were 8 volumes of British Minstrelsie, which is why I didn't see any such set for sale. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jim McLean Date: 08 Apr 19 - 10:58 AM I didn't want to contradict you right away, Jack, I wasn't sure. I have six volumes, beatutiful olive green hard covers. There is an interesting tune setting for Ae Fond Kiss, neither the Burns' setting nor the one attributed to Alfred Scott Gatty which, I think, is an arrangement of Hi Oro s' na Horo Eile. Greig just says 'Old melody'. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Apr 19 - 05:26 PM OK, so here are EIGHT volumes of English Minstrelsie (Baring-Gould) online: And are the SIX volume sets for sale of British Minstrelsie: A Representative Collection of the Songs of the Four Nations available online anywhere? I am quickly running out of shelf space, so it really helps when I can find books online. There seem to be four-volume and six-volume sets titled British Minstrelsie. Are they the same? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: GUEST,Chris Wright Date: 13 Apr 19 - 12:29 PM I have the six vol Scots Minst. and four vol. Brit. Minst. editions, both picked up in Edinburgh bookshops (not necessarily antiquarian shops either). From how seldom I make the tour round the book shops of Aulsd Reekie these days, and how often I encounter copies (though not usually complete sets), I'd say there is still a decent likelihood of obtaining full sets of both here. I agree with Jack and Jim that there are some very interesting commentaries and early printings of several Scots songs, such as Gin I Were a Baron's Heir, with good notes. Does anyone know which bindings are from which editions? I have a full set of blue leather bound Scots Minst. and red leather bound Brit. Minst. I generally only see the khaki-green coloured Scots volumes in shops though. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jim McLean Date: 13 Apr 19 - 02:13 PM I also have the for volume set of British Minstrelsie, red leather bound, but no date. Pub. TC and EC Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jack Campin Date: 13 Apr 19 - 03:53 PM Look at the listings on http://used.addall.com to see which editions were published in which bindings. It was common at that period for an edition to be bound several different ways, maybe a change in binding colour with each print run. Leather was unusual. I've never seen a full leather set of these books. Be sure what you've got really is leather and not just something that looks like it. You're talking about at least a tenfold difference in market value. The really odd format for late Victorian stuff was publication in "divisions" rather than volumes. These were often issued to pre-publication subscribers. They issued the books in a fixed page count and just chopped each book off when they hit it, no regard to logical structure. Not sure if that was ever done with the Minstrelsie books but the same publishers used it for other large publications of similar complexity. The inconvenience means they're not specially valuable. |
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Subject: RE: Review: British Minstrelsie From: Jim McLean Date: 14 Apr 19 - 07:42 AM You're right Jack, my red leather covers are really red hard covers with gilt writing. |
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