Gavin Greig

Gavin Greig (1856–1914)[1] was a Scottish folksong collector, playwright, novelist and teacher.

He edited James Scott Skinner's biggest collection of music, The Harp and Claymore Collection,[2] providing harmonies for Skinner's compositions,[3][4] and he was jointly responsible for compiling The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, with the Rev J.B. Duncan (1848–1917). A selection from this collection of over 3,000 songs and tunes was published in 1925. Two volumes were published in 1981-1982, but the full collection, in eight volumes, was only finally published between 1981 and 2002.[5][6]

He was also the author of the Doric Scots play Mains Wooin', which was very popular[7] in the North East of Scotland before World War II. His novels include Morrison Gray: or, Life in a Buchan Schoolhouse serialised in the Peterhead Sentinel between May 1896 and January 1897, The Hermit o' Gight serialised in the Buchan Observer between 1898 and 1899. and the historical romance Logie o' Buchan published in Aberdeen in 1899.[8]

Greig was related to Robert Burns on his mother's side and to Edvard Grieg on his father's side.

References

1. Short biography. Accessed 11 October 2007
2. Ballantyne, Pat The Harp & Claymore Collection Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 26 January 2009
3. How I wish Gavin Greig to clothe that... Accessed 14 January 2009
4. Note from Skinner to Greig re The Valley of Silence. Accessed 14 January 2009
5. Purser, John The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Musical Traditions, 20 December 2002. Accessed 11 October 2007
6. Olson, Ian A. The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Musical Traditions, 5 February 2003. Accessed 26 January 2011
7. Barron, Charles Doric Drama Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Elphinstone Kist. Accessed 11 October 2007
8. Donaldson, William (1984), Gavin Greig and Popular Fiction in Victorian Scotland, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), Cencrastus No. 18, Autumn 1984, pp. 20 - 22, ISSN 0264-0856

Further reading

• Donaldson, William (1984), Gavin Greig and Popular Fiction in Victorian Scotland, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), Cencrastus No. 18, Autumn 1984, pp. 20 - 22, ISSN 0264-0856
• Shuldham-Shaw, Patrick (1973), The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Manuscripts, in Maisels, Chic K. (ed.), Folk Song and the Folk Tradition, Festival issue of the New Edinburgh Review, August 73, pp. 3 - 5