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The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson

Logie o'Buchan

By J.F.M. Russell ©2019

Robert Louis Stevenson began studying the piano and composition at age 36 and learned the penny whistle two years later. He played the flageolet, a version of the whistle equipped with keys, almost until the end of his life. His arrangements and compositions include more than 120 pieces. This site describes his complete works through facsimiles, transcriptions, recordings, quotations and commentary.

"An interesting chapter in his life will be written when all his scattered pieces are brought together, and the musical side of his character unexpectedly revealed to the vast public that knows him now only as the winsome versifier and the accomplished romancer."

Robert Murrell Stevenson in Robert Louis Stevenson's Musical Interests, 1957.

Facsimile:

The copyright of this image is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. Any user wishing to obtain a photographic copy of the reproduction must directly contact the Morgan Library & Museum.

Transcription:

Recording:

Manuscript Location:

The Morgan Library & Museum

Heineman Music Collection, S848.L832.

Source:

Brown, Pittman. Songs of Scotland. London: Boosey, [1877]:

Significant References in Works of R.L.S.:

Booth, Bradford A. and Ernest Mehew. The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, v. 6. Letter 2193, Dec. 1889:

Comments:

Although transposed to the key of E, Stevenson's melody is exactly the same as the source. In addition, the piano part is the same except that a few bass notes are in different octaves.

Of the thirteen or so Scottish songs Stevenson arranged, nine are in Songs of Scotland, and five of those are within 12 pages of each other, so he must have copied from that book.