Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

;
SJOGREN SKENE MANUSCRIPT 479
20th impression, 1903, p. 106.) No explanation
is offered concerning the freedom of motion however were rarely correct, either in their
for a lute with five strings. As amateur scribes
which is admittedly allowed. The fact is that barring or in marking the lengths of the notes,
the chord was used commonly by the polyphonic a translator into modern notation requires
masters long before the dominant seventh was much patience, as well as knowledge and
considered as an essential part of the key. The ingenuity, to decipher and correct the uncertainties
of these MSS. In the present
circumstance that each of the upper parts makes
a concord with the lowest was held to excuse instance the work of translation was undertaken
the discord between the two upper parts, and by George Farquhar Graham, whose fitness for
the same liberty of movement was given as in the task is sufficiently shown by the article
the case of an undoubted concord. Its occurrence,
'
Music which he wrote ' for the 7th edition of
with this obvious freedom of motion, in compositions
of the madrigalian era, is too common William Dauney, F.S. A.Scot., urged by his
the Erwydopxdia Britannica. In 1838 Mr.
to need citation.]
friends and encouraged by the members of the
SJOGREN", Emil, born June 6, 1853, at Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, published the
Stockholm ; studied first at the Conservatoire ti"anslation in 4to with a very learned preliminary
dissertation on the music of Scotland, and
there, and afterwards at Berlin under Kiel for
composition and Haupt for the organ. In an appendix by Finlay Dun containing an
1884-85 he made tours through Europe, visiting analysis of the structure of Scottish music.
Vienna, Munich, Venice, and Paris. During a [See Daunet, vol. i. p. 6646.]
stay at Mcran, he was for six months under the The MS. contains 115 airs ; of these 85 were
influence of Lange Miiller, which affected his published, 11 were found to be duplicates, and
work very deeply. Since 1891 Sjogren has been the rest were rejected as being either unintelligible
or uninteresting. The airs of Scottish
organist at the Yohannes-kyrka at Stockholm,
where he has been employed in teaching, and in origin appear to be about 45, of which 25 were
composition of aU kinds ;
chiefly for piano solo, previously unknown. Many of the latter are
violin and piano, and songs. He is a composer no doubt sufficiently commonplace in style, but
whose works do not display the almost exclusively
Scandinavian character of Grieg ; but who in our present collections, and worthy of the
a few are really fine melodies, worthy of a place
shows an infusion of German ideas. Among his attention of rising poets. In some instances
best -known works are 'Der Contrabandista,' the airs are in a simple unadorned vocal state,
op. 9, forbassvoice ; ' Erotikon,' op. 10, for piano a few being even pentatonic ; of which Lady
'
Novelettes, op. 14, for piano ; the three Sonatas, Rothiemay'sLilt,' 'LadyLaudian's Lilt,' and the
op. 19, op. 24, op. 32, in G minor, E minor, and first part of 'Kilt your coat, Maggie,' may be
G minor, for violin and piano ; the two sonatas, named as examples. In most cases the first
op. 35 and op. 44, in E minor and A major half strain of the air is simple, the repetition
for piano. Besides these Sjbgi-en has written more florid ; this is frequently followed by
a great number of melodies, and detached pieces variations—or divisions as they were then called
for the piano, but up to the present time (1907) —consisting of scale and other passages well
he has not produced any compositions in the fitted to show the dexterity of the player.
symphonic style. He has also written much for Like many other Scots tunes, a considerable
the voice, asweU as manypiecesfor the organ. His number of the airs are either 'pentatonic or
music shows a certain amount of Scandinavian modal as regards their scale.
style, coupled with a warm emotionalism which The fact of so many duplicates being found
is derived from more southern countries. D. H. in the MS. has caused the remark to be made
SKENE MANUSCRIPT. A collection of that the seven parts must have belonged to
airs, chiefly Scottish, though with a considerable
admixture of foreign dance tunes and as to the date of either part. Part III., how-
different individuals. Nothing can be inferred
English vocal melodies, supposed to have been ever, differs from the others in certain respects,
written at various dates between 1615 and and not improbably belonged to some other
1635. In 1818 the MS. came into the possession member of the family. It is written for a lute
of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, along tuned CFADG, all the others being for a lute
with a charter chest of documents, by bequest tuned ADADA. The only air that is said to
from Miss Elizabeth Skene of Ourriehill and bring the MS. down to a later date than has
Hallyards in Midlothian. She was the last been claimed for it (1635) occurs in Part VI.
representative in line of the family, and greatgreat-granddaughter
of John Skene of Hallyards, souldier. ' This is the tune of an English ballad
and is named Peggie ' is ouer the sie with the
who died in 1644, and was the original possessor included in the catalogue issued by Thackeray
and probably also the writer of some parts of in 1689. There is a copy of the ballad, printed
the MS. It consisted originally of seven about 1655, in the Euing collection of Glasgow
distinct parts, but these have since been bound University, and a still earlier copy in the Roxburghe
Ballads ; and we learn from Chappell's
together, and now form one tiny oblong volume
6J inches by 4^. It is written in tablature list of the publishers of black-letter ballads