The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson

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 173 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.

Profile

J.F.M. Russell was Special Collections cataloger for the Northwestern University Main Library for more than twenty years. This experience was fundamental to understanding Stevenson’s frequently obscure musical works and provided the opportunity to collect and thoroughly describe them in an unprecedented way.

Additional insight into these works stems from musical studies at Northwestern University, as well as practical experience as solo timpanist with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra, avid recorder playing with various groups at the Music Institute of Chicago and elsewhere, and performances on keyboards and the violin.