For a number of years I had become more and more award of the richness of Scottish oral folk tradition. The many manuscripts in which this tradition has been recorded were gradually becoming more familiar to me, along with the books especially where that tradition had been preserved more or less unmodified. I learned that the simple ballads and songs of that oral tradition made a greater appeal to me than the improved printed versions. At first, the collection of single items in a growing anthology satisfied this aesthetic curiosity. Then the great mass of material. which had seamed a wilderness began to reveal little path running, through it. The geography of the country became familiar. It was probably the discovery and examination of Gavin Greig's manuscript that altered most, profoundly my conception. - of the real nature of that country. The significance of the musical element of that tradition was confirmed 'Then I co-operated for a short time with Mr Allan Lomax, the American folklorist and tong, collector: The evening (and half the night)': he spent in my house, playing over his recordings of Lowland and Gaelic conga and ballads helped to clarify the theories forced during and earlier study of the Groin, manuscript.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:534473 |
| Date | January 1953 |
| Creators | Montgomerie, William |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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