Heather Coates - soprano
Lawrence Dunn - baroque violin
Leon Coates - harpsichord
e-mail quern@selville.abel.co.uk
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"So uncommonly friendly and forthcoming"
"Sluttish slothful and nasty people"
Two conflicting views of the Scots from visitors to Scotland. During the second half of the 18th century it became very popular, particularly among people from England, Wales and France, to make what was then the difficult and dangerous journey to the Highlands of Scotland, visiting country houses and admiring the spectacular scenery. Some of them kept journals or wrote letters home, and these were sometimes published as early "tourist guides".
The ensemble has been giving recitals since 1990. Their programmes are carefully researched and aim to create the atmosphere of 18th century Scotland by performing songs and music of the period using harpsichord and baroque violin - and by including readings from contemporary letters, journals and newspapers.
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HEATHER COATES studied singing with Winifrid Busfield, Jean Allister and Jane Manning. She is known to a wide audience through her appearances in oratorio and recitals in music clubs, and has also performed in operas and operettas, including "Johnny Strikes Up" for Scottish Music Theatre during Glasgow's year of culture. She has undertaken short tours in North Germany, Italy and Northern Ireland and gave a recital in the Reid Concert Hall, as part of the 100th anniversary series of The University of Edinburgh, Faculty of Music.
ROGER LANG sings with many vocal and choral groups in Scotland - principally with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, the Chorus of Scottish Opera and Perth Festival Chorus. He has also sung with Sinfonia Opera and Perth Festival Opera. Apart from singing he has acted as narrator since 1990 in various performances during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
LAWRENCE DUNN studied violin with David Hume in Edinburgh and Malcolm Layfield in Manchester. He gives regular solo and chamber recitals during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and throughout Scotland on both modern and baroque instruments. As a freelance player he has performed with various orchestras including the Scottish Baroque Players, Newcastle Baroque and the City of Glasgow Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of Edinburgh Barock and Edinburgh Galante, and has recently taken over as director of Philomusica of Edinburgh, and leader of the Edinburgh Light Orchestra.
LEON COATES is a lecturer in music at Edinburgh University. He has been a harpsichordist with the Scottish Baroque Ensemble and has conducted various amateur orchestras including the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has also written various works including concertos for viola and for harpsichord, a string quartet and various song-cycles, some of which have been broadcast on Radio 3 and Radio Scotland. His song-cycle "North-West Passage" (A Child's Garden of Verses - 1885), marking the centenary of Robert Louis Stevenson, was published in 1985. The year 1996 saw the premiere of a commissioned work "Concerto Killearn", performed by the Scottish Bach Consort, of which he is harpsichordist, at the Killearn Festival. His suite for Viol Consort was performed in 1997 by the Squair Mile Consort.
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SAMPLES FROM CURRENT PROGRAMMES
1) "I Smell You in the Dark" - words and music from 18th and early 19th century Scotland.
Readings from James Boswell, Edward Topham, Henry Mackenzie, Tobias Smollett, Lord Cockburn and "The Mirror".
Fiddle tunes from the Gow collections, Pibroch by David Young, Harpsichord solo by Corri.
Songs by Robert Burns and others from the Scots Musical Museum.
2) A View from the Kirk - words and music from late 18th century Scotland.
Readings from the "Statistical Account of Scotland" (1790's) - comments by ministers of the Church of Scotland and others.
Fiddle tunes from the Gow Collections, Piano Sonata in G minor by Haydn
Songs by Robert Burns and others arranged by Corri, Haydn, Pleyel and Robert Riddell
3) Eminent Victorians - words and music from the reign of Queen Victoria.
Readings from Queen Victoria, Mendelssohn, James Scott Skinner , Chopin and Charles Dickens.
Fiddle tunes by Scott Skinner, William Marshall and a Set of Variations from a fiddle book of 1872, piano music by Mendelssohn.
Songs by Mendelssohn, Corri, Sir Henry Bishop and Prince Albert.
4) "A Barbarous Music" - words and music from late 18th and early 19th century Scotland.
Letters between Edinburgh publisher George Thomson and Robert Burns, Haydn, Beethoven, Weber and Hummel.
Songs from the George Thomson Collections.
Airs from the Corri Collection of 1793.
5) "The Highland Jaunt" - The pleasures and perils of perambulation in 18th century Scotland. A portrait in words and music. Readings from travellers' letters and journals, fiddle tunes from the Gow Collections and James Oswald 's "Collection of Curious Scots Tunes, 1742" and songs by Robert Burns.
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