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"There
is no more impressive sight in the world than a Scotsman on the
make."
Well, maybe it's a bit
unfair to apply J.M. Barrie's famous line to James Oswald,
but besides being a musician of many varied talents, he was
clearly a shrewd businessman and careerist. 
In Edinburgh, and then in
London, he made his way as a collector, arranger and publisher of
the traditional music which had been his stock-in-trade as a
dancing master in his native Fife, and eventually he was
appointed court composer to King George III. No mean achievement.
But
he didn't just play the professional Scot (always a temptation
for the Caledonian abroad). Besides the reels and jigs which crop
up from time to time in his Airs for the Seasons, his
music shows a comfortable familiarity with a wide range of styles.
The Italian cantata gets ridiculed in his Dustcart
cantata, he wrote a fair number of songs for the London theatres,
including the catalogue of insults Ballance a Straw, the
French ballet makes an appearance in the Allegro of The
Almond, which could easily be mistaken for a tambourin by
Rameau, and he wrote comfortably in the very English style of the
trio sonatas of Boyce, in his 12 Serenatas.
Perhaps
it’s his insistence on composing only miniatures that’s
led him to be taken less seriously than he would have been, had
he completed an opera or written concertos: certainly it’s
rare to find a piece by him that covers more than one page of
music. But knowing your limitations is a form of wisdom:
in the song cycle Colin’s Kisses he takes the
simplest of musical styles and allows it a gentle but generous
range of expression.
THE
CD
We
had a lot of fun recording this, which I hope comes through. In
its livelier moments it sounds like a tinkly 18th century ceilidh
band, and having Chris Norman around on flute encouraged us all
to have a healthy disregard for the notes in front of us from
time to time. Catherine Bott proved as usual that she sings
baroque English theatre repertoire better than anyone, and Iain
Paton did his 'Scots romantic light tenor' thing, which was great.
And
even if you decide you hate the music, buy the CD for Joseph
Davie's wonderful illustrations of Colin's many Kisses ...
© 1999
David
McGuinness
- hear
part of 'The Thistle' from Airs for the Seasons here (73 sec, 1.4MB .mp3)
- read
the reviews
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concerto caledonia