CLICK HERE TO WATCH a harvest reel by Marjory KenedyFraser played by Yuki Negishi
Marjory KennedyFraser’s autobiography reflects that, in 1887, marriage was regarded as ‘the end of a professional woman’s career’. Too often we assume that late Victorian and Edwardian women led sheltered lives, going unnoticed among an army of ambitious men. However, although it required determination, women with talent certainly could make their way as musical performers. Marjory was this kind of woman. Starting her career at an early age as a pianist and singer, her name lives on in a multitude of copies of Songs of the Hebrides and From the Hebr ides hiding in pianostools and music cabinets.
If you were an amateur singer wanting to perform classy arrangements of highland songs in the early 20th century, then Marjor y Kennedy-Fraser’s books would have been your go-to anthologies. They have been controversial, because her albums were certainly based on Gaelic folksongs, but they had been arranged, combined and generally turned into drawing-room artsongs, far removed from the original songs that she would have recorded and transcribed.
However, I have been researching another Scotswoman who had much in common with Kennedy-Fraser, but who is now entirely forgotten: the contralto superstar, Madame Annie Grey. Newspapers and magazines document a busy, active career for this ‘queen of Scottish minstrelsy’ and ‘foremost exponent of Scottish song’, giving recitals and lecture recitals; a Balmoral royal command performance boosting an already promising start; an anticipated trip to South Africa; and a documenteded seven-month trip to America, as well as her teaching practice running in parallel with the performing activities.
Childhood and early adulthood
The two were born just a year apart – Annie in Edinburgh in 1856, and Marjory Kennedy in Perth the following year. Music was in their blood: Annie’s mother was a capable pianist, whilst Marjory was born into a family which was without doubt the Von Trapps of the 19th
