The Society for Early Scottish Culture

We're Tim and Jeremy, and we're committed to promoting early Scottish culture in its various forms, especially music, dance, art, and literature.

Scotland's been home to some very interesting people and ideas: from John Knox and the Scottish Reformation to the Highland clan system to David Hume, Adam Smith, and other literati of the Scottish Enlightenment. Its artistic output kept pace. Instrumental music, ballads, poems, plays, and more were written to capture every aspect of human life, from the death of a loved one to falling in love, from the beauty of nature to the atrocities of war. This work can still speak to us in a special way today. Despite this, it is easy for us to forget the relevance and humanity of cultures hundreds of years before us.

The Society for Early Scottish Culture seeks to promote understanding of the culture of pre-Victorian Scotland by cultivating research and sharing it for the enjoyment and betterment of the world at large. All funds gathered will support one of those two goals. Specific projects include:

• A free video series on the music of great Scottish composers and music publishers, starting with Niel Gow and William McGibbon.
• A periodical containing academic research.
• Music and dance workshops, as well as other teaching.
• Publishing an edition of the James Singer Manuscript (a recently rediscovered music notebook from the turn of the 19th century).
• Grants for artists working on projects in line with the Society's goals.

We hope that—like many Scots and non-Scots before you—you find fulfillment and meaning in this art.