The Gesto Collection of Highland Music [Spiral-bound] Keith Norman MacDonald — Good

The Gesto Collection of Highland Music [Spiral-bound] Keith Norman MacDonald

From the Forward: This collection of Highland music is a tribute to the memory of the McLeods of Gesto, in the Isle of Sky, and especially to that of the late Kenneth McLeod of Gishornish and Orbost, one of the ablest and most successful of the sons of the "Isle of Mist" who built and endowed the Gesto Hospital for the benefit of his fellow countrymen. Pleasant as the task is to me, after having carried most of these beautiful and heart-stirring airs, pibrochs, marches, and laments, about with me for upwards of 30 years, in divers climes, it is more than enhanced y the fact that I am now able to record them almost as the Gusto family were accustomed to play them, and in the pure Highland fashion which they loved so well. And if any further stimulus were necessary, it is supplied in the now recognised principle that music is an agent which has got a wonderfully soothing effect upon invalids, and so far as the present undertaking is concerned, the patients in the Gesto Hospital will, in future, have the advantage of being able to choose their own music, which, for a long time to come, they will prefer to any other kind. Highlanders are invariably dissatisfied when too much science is applied to their music, and the reason for this is not far to seek. It is a music "suigeneri8", and any one who is not versed in the language, poetry, and music of the Highlands, can hardly succeed in imparting to others the true feeling and spirit of which it is the echo. It is full of romance, pathos, love, sorrow, and fiery martial sentiment, and these points can never be brought out with effect by either altering the original airs, or drowning them with left-handed embellishments foreign to the original, even though based upon scientific principles...The enthusiast must not expect to find every piece of Highland music that has been composed or published, in this collection, ... but he can [expect] choice specimens of the best compositions with as little adulteration as possible.