Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1 October 1857 – 22 November 1930) was a Scottish singer, composer and music teacher and supporter of women's suffrage and pacifism. According to Ray Perman, Kennedy-Fraser "made a career of collecting
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
songs in the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebr ...
and singing her own
Anglicized
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...
versions of them."
Biography
Marjory Kennedy was born in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
to a well-known Scottish singer,
David Kennedy and his second wife, Elizabeth Fraser. As a child she used to accompany her father on his tours in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
and abroad, playing the piano while he sang. Various of her
sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separa ...
s were also professional musicians, and three of them (Lizzie, Kate and James — soprano, contralto and baritone respectively) died in the fire that burnt down the
Théâtre municipal of
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, in 1881. Her youngest sister Jessie married the pianist and teacher
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 185815 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.
Biography
Matthay was born in Clapham, Surrey, in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised Brit ...
. Their father David Kennedy died aged 61 in 1886 in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada, while on a tour.
She became an extra-academical student at the University of Edinburgh school of Music, gathering a collection of Breton and Gaelic folksongs from 1882 onwards, which were later published.
In 1887, she married her mother's younger cousin, the mathematician
Alexander Yule Fraser (1857–1890), whom she had first met in 1882 in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. Alexander (Alec) had completed in 1881 his MA with Honours at the
University of Aberdeen
, mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research universityAncient university
, endowment = £58.4 million (2021)
, budget ...
and in 1885 was made a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1889, he was appointed headmaster of
Allan Glen's Technical School in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and the family moved there. However, his health began to deteriorate and he was diagnosed with
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
. The couple travelled to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
, where the hotter weather contributed for Alec's health to improve considerably, but as soon as they returned to Glasgow, he became ill again and died in November 1890. Marjory thus found herself a widow at the age of thirty-three, and with her two small children,
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and Patuffa, to look after. She settled at 5 Mayfield Road in southern
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
with her mother and two sisters and made her living as a music teacher and lecturer.
In the 1890s, Kennedy-Fraser gave lecture recitals at the Summer Meetings which
Patrick Geddes
Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a British biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning ...
organised at University Hall Extension in Edinburgh. In 1911 she is listed as a piano teacher at 95a George Street in the centre of Edinburgh.
She developed a close friendship with the painter
John Duncan John Duncan may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* John Duncan (painter) (1866–1945), Scottish painter
* John Duncan (artist) (born 1953), American artist and musician
* Big John Duncan (born 1958), Scottish punk musician
* John Duncan (harpist) ...
, with whom she shared a deep interest in the
Celtic Revival
The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gael ...
. They made a trip to
Eriskay
Eriskay ( gd, Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is ...
in 1905, in which occasion he painted her against the island's landscape. While in Eriskay, Kennedy-Fraser witnessed many Gaelic folk songs endangered of disappearing as a result of population decline, and, being herself a singer, began a personal project to record and transcribe the music of the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebr ...
.
![The Kennedy-Fraser grave, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/The_Kennedy-Fraser_grave%2C_Grange_Cemetery%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
In the following years, she visited many of the islands to the west of Scotland, recording the traditional songs with a
wax cylinder
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...
phonograph. She later arranged them for voice and piano, or sometimes for
harp or
clàrsach
The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring grea ...
—an instrument her daughter Helen Patuffa played. The arrangements, with words translated to English by the Rev. Kenneth MacLeod, were published in her three-volume ''Songs of the Hebrides'' in the years 1909, 1917 and 1921. A fourth volume, ''From the Hebrides: Further Gleanings of Tale and Song'', followed in 1925. One of the songs included in this collection eventually came to be widely known by the title "Eriskay Love Lilt".
Incidentally, the Rev. Kenneth MacLeod with whom she often collaborated was a famous poet in both Gaelic and English and the long time Church of Scotland minister of
Gigha
Gigha (; gd, Giogha, italic=yes; sco, Gigha) or the Isle of Gigha (and formerly Gigha Island) is an island off the west coast of Kintyre in Scotland. The island forms part of Argyll and Bute and has a population of 163 people. The climate is ...
. He is perhaps best known for "
The Road to the Isles
"The Road to the Isles" is a famous tune composed by Pipe Major John McLellan DCM which was originally called ‘The Bens of Jura’, though it previously had other titles. It is part of the Kennedy-Fraser collection and it appeared in a book enti ...
" and "
Thou Isle of Mull" and was related to such other literary figures as the journalist
James Cameron and the writer Dr.
John Cameron of St. Andrews.
For her contributions, Kennedy-Fraser was awarded with a
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, together with an honorary degree of
Doctor of Music
The Doctor of Music degree (D.Mus., D.M., Mus.D. or occasionally Mus.Doc.) is a higher doctorate awarded on the basis of a substantial portfolio of compositions and/or scholarly publications on music. Like other higher doctorates, it is granted b ...
from the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, awarded in 1928.
In 1930 she presented her archive of songs to the University Library, including her original wax cylinders of recordings.
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser died in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
in the same year.
In order to preserve the original wax cylinder recordings, they were re-recorded on tape several decades later for the Sound Archives of the School of Scottish Studies. More recently, they have been digitized and are held in the collections at the University of Edinburgh, with her archived papers, including related to her libretto for
Granvile Bantock’s opera '
''The Seal Woman'
'', and proofs of Life of Song''
' (which became her autobiography, 1929).
Although her parents and husband are buried in the
Grange Cemetery
The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hil ...
in south Edinburgh, the substantial gravestone lying against the southern boundary wall, her own grave is in the island of
Iona.
Recitals
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and her daughter Patuffa used to present the collected songs in recitals. Below is a description of one such recital given at the
Aeolian Hall,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, on 17 March 1916.
The Russian tenor,
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...
, frequently performed Kennedy-Fraser's songs in his recitals in England and North America.
Ezra Pound, reporting as William Atheling in the ''New Age'', declared that Rosing was "the first singer who has been adequate to the music."
Politics
Kennedy Fraser supported
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
and
Scottish independence, and used her knowledge of Scots and Gaelic song traditions to give examples which reinforced her views.
In 1909 she chaired a large meeting of the
Women's Freedom League
The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality. It was an offshoot of the militant suffragettes after the Pankhursts decide to rule without democratic support fro ...
, at the Oddfellows Hall, which had overflow meetings to meet demand.
She first introduced the keynote speaker, Mrs
Ethel Snowden
Ethel Snowden, Viscountess Snowden (born Ethel Annakin; 8 September 1881 – 22 February 1951), was a British socialist, human rights activist, and feminist politician. From a middle-class background, she became a Christian Socialist thro ...
(wife of
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
politician
Phillip Snowden, and national activist of
NUWSS). Kennedy Fraser explained briefly that 'it is not the outcome of the noisy clamour of un-womanly women but is on the contrary a symptom of the gradual awakening of women to their social responsibilities' that was encouraging support for women's enfranchisement, and referred to the 'seed sown' by women 'such as
Josephine Butler
Josephine Elizabeth Butler (' Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture ...
', and a growing recognition that without the vote, women's aims for improving society will be limited.
Mrs Snowden then also countered the argument that (some) women did not actually want the vote by saying at least 1.5 million women did and at least 6 million people were for equal suffrage of both men and women. Kennedy Fraser's meeting also voted for Mrs Snowden's motion for a change in law.
![Marjory Kennedy Fraser, WFL notes 16 Feb 1909 p](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Marjory_Kennedy_Fraser%2C_WFL_notes_16_Feb_1909_p.1.jpg)
Kennedy Fraser was also involved with
Frances Tolmie in the Labour movement. Recent studies indicate that she was one of the women members of the Edinburgh
Parish Council, through engagement with the Edinburgh Women's Citizen Association.
Kennedy-Fraser had formally applied during
World War One
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, to travel to The Hague in April 1915, as one of 180 women activists and
pacifists
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigne ...
, including
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...
, to represent their country as part of the
Women's International Congress, demanding peaceful resolution to disputes and women's formal engagement in international affairs. Her permission to travel, as with most of the group, was denied for military reasons, and only 3 British delegates were among the
Women at the Hague
Women at the Hague was an International Congress of Women conference held at The Hague, Netherlands in April 1915. It had over 1,100 delegates and it established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) with Jane Addams as pr ...
.
She later became one of the founders of the
Bangour Village Hospital
Bangour Village Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located west of Dechmont in West Lothian, Scotland. During the First World War it formed part of the much larger Edinburgh War Hospital.
History
The hospital was modelled on the village system ...
, West Lothian which provided care and new ways of treating WWI soldiers with '
shell-shock
Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a reac ...
'.
See also
*
John Lorne Campbell
Dr John Lorne Campbell FRSE LLD OBE ( gd, Iain Latharna Caimbeul) (1906–1996) was a Scottish historian, farmer, environmentalist and folklorist, and recognized scholar of Scottish Gaelic literature.
Early life
According to his biographer, R ...
*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Kennedy-Fraser for Kennedy-Fraser's WFL notes pp1–4
References
External links
*Biography by th
Edinburgh University Library*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedyfraser, Marjory
1857 births
1930 deaths
British anti–World War I activists
British women composers
Musicians from Perth, Scotland
Scottish composers
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
20th-century Scottish women singers
Scottish suffragists
Pacifist feminists
Women's Freedom League