At 8, Queen Street, Edinburgh, on the 22d current, Mrs THOMSON, widow of the late John Thomson, Esq. Professor of the Theory of Music in this University, of a son. This notice from Edinburgh newspaper The Caledonian Mercury, on 25 November 1841, caught my eye while I was researching another possible source for our first-year […]

Inspired by one of the students in our 2020-21 cohort, we’re building up a calendar of musical and related events in the year 1841. Gradually, this will include links to primary sources where available, and commentaries on these sources and what they tell us. You can access the Calendar here. We’ll continue to edit it […]

Voting in the 1841 General Election started on 29 June and continued until 22 July. Songs written for the election campaign feature among the primary sources for this project. The election would see the Conservatives, led by Robert Peel, take power from the Whigs, led by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. This was the last […]

What music were people in Edinburgh making, creating, enjoying in the year 1841? What part did this music play in their lives? And how do we know? This blog gathers material on the musical histories of Edinburgh in and around the year 1841. It builds on research conducted by first-year undergraduate students at the Reid […]

  The Reid School of Music is named for General John Reid, who left money to the University for the establishment of a Chair in Music and an annual concert, also to be held in his name. As the portrait featured here shows, Reid was an accomplished flautist and also a composer: his most famous […]