The 27th meeting of SLEGS will take place on Saturday 15th September, 2018. Visitors are most welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. Time: 1pm for a 1.30pm start. Two or three hours, depending on contributions from members. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop with some details: robmackillop@gmail.com. Otherwise, just turn up at the address stated above. Any questions, ask Rob.

Well, a very busy and somewhat unusual meeting, with new faces, and some interesting discussion. It was good to see new attendees – always welcome. Many thanks to all for turning out on such a dreich day. Rob MacKillop started proceedings with a 15-minute recital, on a completely gut strung theorbo by Jiri Cepelak. It was great to hear a theorbo played with appropriate strings, made by Damian Dlugolecki ( http://damianstrings.com ) Rob played a Passacaglia in Dm, Capona, and Kapsberger, by Kapsberger; Corrente VI sopra l’Alemana, and Variations on the Romanesca by Piccinini; and La Royalle by Robert de Visée. He discussed the origins and construction of the theorbo, and one over-excited reviewer 😉 claimed the performance was “Brilliant. A very convincing performance of subtle music”. Bill Samson played the twin guitar of the one he played at the last meeting. This time it was a spruce-top Samson guitar (after Manuel Ramirez), thought by some to be brighter than the...

The 26th meeting of SLEGS will take place on Saturday 16th June, 2018. Visitors are most welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. Time: 1pm for a 1.30pm start. Two or three hours, depending on contributions from members. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop with some details: robmackillop@gmail.com. Otherwise, just turn up at the address stated above. Any questions, ask Rob.

Despite the bad weather, there was a decent turnout for our 25th meeting. Thanks as ever to Chris Elmes for use of his excellent venue. Much appreciated. Bill Samson started off proceedings with a “Show and Tell’ on his newly-made cedar-topped classical guitar, after Manuel Ramirez. Bill gave a potted history of the Torres-Ramirez lineage, and put to bed the myth that it was José Ramirez who was the first to use cedar for the soundboard – the practice dates back to at least the mid 19th century. Bill then treated us to the sounds of his new instrument, easily the best he has made so far. And it has a twin of sorts: a spruce-topped version, all other things being as equal as possible. Hopefully the spruce version will get an airing at the next meeting. Bill played a waltz by Calatayud, followed by Tárrega’s famous Lágrima – both items sounded beautiful: warm basses and singing trebles, and...

The 25th meeting of SLEGS will take place on Saturday 9th December, 2017. Visitors are most welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. Time: 1pm for a 1.30pm start. Two or three hours, depending on contributions from members. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop with some details: robmackillop@gmail.com. Otherwise, just turn up at the address stated above. Any questions, ask Rob.

Bill Samson chaired the meeting, in Rob MacKillop’s absence, with Philip Lord taking photos and dealing with administrative matters. First to play was Bill Samson, playing his tiny mandore (mandour, mandurgen, pandurina . . .).  After briefly introducing the instrument and speculating on its use Bill played a Courante and ‘Pantalon’ (a.k.a. The Buffens, Bergamesca . . .) both from the Ulm mandore manuscript.  He finished the set with his own arrangement of ‘Patientia’ – a courante/air and double which appears in several sources.  Panmure 5 was the source that Bill used for his arrangement.  One source names the composer as Gaultier, but there were several Gaultiers.  It was perhaps Jacques Gaultier (a.k.a. ‘English’ Gaultier) David Bateman (baroque guitar) and Oreste de Tomasso (bass viol) played a lovely Adagio from a suite by Nathaniel Diesel. Yasuhiro Nakamura brought his French Theorbe de Pieces – a small theorbo in D – and played a stylish Prelude and Allemande by Robert...

The 24th meeting of SLEGS will take place on Saturday 9th December, 2017. Visitors are most welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. Time: 1pm for a 1.30pm start. Two or three hours, depending on contributions from members. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. IMPORTANT NEWS: Following on from the contribution made by Oreste De Tomasso, who played some viola da gamba music at the last meeting, we have decided to open up our doors to the Scottish viol community. This is long overdue, as the viola da mano and viola d’arco are sister instruments. It is our hope that more viol players come and join our quarterly meetings. You could perform one very short piece,...

Our usual Master of Ceremonies, Rob MacKillop, was unable to make it to this meeting, so Bill Samson and Philip Lord did what was needed. Words by Bill, photography by Philip. After an initial chat and introductions of new attendees, the playing began.  All of us had pieces to play, which is just how it should be. First to play was Stuart McLuckey.  Stuart played two pieces by Marco d’Aquila – one called ‘Casa Cossa’ – essentially the same music as that to which Thomas Wyatt’s song ‘Blame not my Lute’ is set.  Next came a Ricercare which was played beautifully with all its subtleties brought out.  Finally Stuart played an arrangement by Linda Sayce of ‘Kensington Court’ from Playford. New member Oreste De Tomasso brought along his lyra viol.  The instrument was made for him by Alexander Batov and as well as the six stopped strings it has six metal sympathetic strings that pass under the main bridge...

The 23rd meeting will take place on Saturday 16th September, 2017. Visitors are most welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. Time: 1pm for a 1.30pm start. Two or three hours, depending on contributions from members. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop: robmackillopATgmailDOTCOM

When the world seems to be tearing itself apart, it is somehow comforting to know that people can still come together to share peaceful interests. Long may it continue. Ours is a small society, arguably a support group, and there is nothing wrong with that. Each of us struggles to play beautiful music as best we can, and in so doing bring a little more beauty and, yes, harmony into the world. Thankfully we are far from being alone. Bill Samson started with a Show And Tell session, with two new terz guitars he has recently made for his granddaughters. A terz guitar is tuned a minor 3rd higher than standard, with a string length (in this case) of 54cms. They were popular in the 19th century, with Giuliani writing concerti for terz guitar and orchestra. Rob MacKillop joined Bill for a performance of two duets – the 3rd and 6th Leziones from the Method by Carulli, which were...