Sunday 17 May 2009

on a stationary train at Stansted Airport
Unusually, my Easyjet flight south was 80' late, so I've missed two Cambridge trains and I'm sitting on a third, which doesn't leave for another half an hour. But I've been putting the time to good use reading my pristine new copy of Musica Scotica volume 5, Kenneth Elliott's 17th-century Scots songbook, which he's compiled by matching lyrics to old tunes from various sources. Even if I don't necessarily agree with him that the contents all work as 'continuo songs' (whatever that means), they are quite riveting: it's a wonderful collection, and I hope it gets picked up by a wide variety of performers.