Naming Rights · Est. MCMLXXVI
A single composition from the archive of David Duncan Mackay, named by you, and entered into the record with the National Library of Scotland.
The naming of a tune is an act older than publication. Niel Gow composed for the Atholl family; William Marshall dedicated pieces to the Marquis of Huntly; James Scott Skinner named works for his patrons across Scotland. The patron's name, once entered into the manuscript, remained there, carried through every subsequent printing, teaching, and recording. It is not a transaction; it is an inscription.
David Duncan Mackay has composed more than thirty-two thousand original works for the Scottish fiddle, and the archive continues to grow. Destined for deposit with the National Library of Scotland, it invites a small number of patrons to continue this tradition, to assume the ancient role of the one who names.
The composer
David Duncan Mackay was born in 1976 and has spent more than thirty-four years composing original music for the Scottish fiddle. The compositions span every form of the tradition: reels, strathspeys, slow airs, jigs, marches, hornpipes, and laments. Each is an original work, not an arrangement; each was written at the instrument, by hand, in the long tradition of Scottish fiddle composition that runs from Niel Gow through William Marshall and James Scott Skinner to the present day.
Mackay performs and teaches as well as composes, and has played in many of the great houses and institutions of Scotland. No other composer of Scottish traditional music has produced a body of work of comparable scale.
The archive is a living manuscript catalogue: every composition recorded with its date, its key, its form, and, where one has been given, its name. Of the more than thirty-two thousand works, approximately twenty-seven thousand remain without a name. A tune without a name is a tune without a home in the historical record. The naming of a tune gives it one.
The National Library of Scotland has agreed in principle to accept the complete works of David Duncan Mackay, to be catalogued alongside the named works of every other Scottish composer in the Library's collection: Gow, Marshall, Skinner, and those who came before and after them.
A tune named in this archive will be encountered by musicians, scholars, and historians a century from now, in one of Scotland's great national institutions. A descendant born long after the patron will be able to find the name there, and the connection it records.
Not a novelty
Many organisations offer to name things. Stars. Park benches. Bricks in a walkway. Those are commercial arrangements within a commercial life. A tune named in this archive enters the cultural record of Scotland itself, catalogued alongside the named works of every other Scottish composer in the Library's collection.
The tune outlives you, the patron. The name outlives you. And the named tune will still be played, taught, and recorded a century from now, by fiddle players and historians who will encounter the name in the archive and know the occasion of its naming.
Precedents
The sale of a naming right is a commercial arrangement. The tradition it enters is not. For as long as Scottish fiddle music has been published and performed, composers have named their works for the people who mattered to them and to their patrons.
1727–1807
Patron: The Atholl Family
Gow spent much of his career under the patronage of the Dukes of Atholl at Blair Castle, composing and performing for the family and their guests. Many of his finest works bear the family's name or the names of those who moved in their circle.
1748–1833
Patron: The Marquis of Huntly
Marshall served as butler to the Duke of Gordon and enjoyed the sustained patronage of the Marquis of Huntly, to whom many of his strathspeys and reels were dedicated. The relationship spanned decades and produced some of the finest compositions in the canon.
1843–1927
Patron: Various patrons
Skinner, known as the Strathspey King, dedicated compositions to patrons across Scotland and beyond, from aristocrats to professional men and women who commissioned tunes for family occasions. His published collections are a register of those relationships.
Included in the naming right
The naming right.
The name is registered to the composition permanently in the archive manuscript and the working catalogue. No two compositions share a name; no name is reassigned. The dedication is entered as the composer intends and remains unchanged in all subsequent records, including the deposit with the National Library of Scotland.
The hand-written original manuscript.
The composition's original score, written by the composer's hand on heritage paper, signed and dated, with a dedication line if desired. Suitable for framing. This is the primary document of the naming: the physical inscription from which all subsequent records derive.
A recording of the tune.
A studio recording of the named composition, performed by the composer, delivered in both physical form and as a downloadable file. The family may hear the tune as it was intended to be played, in the year of its naming.
The process
Confirm the name.
The patron supplies the name to be attached to the tune: a person, a family, a place, or an occasion. A brief note on the significance of the name is welcome and may inform the composer's selection.
Tune selection.
David Mackay selects a composition from the unnamed portion of the archive that best suits the sentiment. You, the patron, are consulted if a particular mood or style matters: a march, a strathspey, a lament, a reel, a slow air.
Manuscript preparation.
The composer writes the original manuscript on archival paper, signs and dates it, and adds a dedication line if desired. The manuscript is the primary document of the naming right.
Recording.
The composition is recorded by the composer and delivered in both physical and digital form.
Archive registration.
The name is entered into the master catalogue, the manuscript is copied and held for deposit, and the composition becomes permanently part of the archive destined for the National Library of Scotland.
Terms
The archive does not publish a price list. Each naming right is discussed in correspondence, with terms confirmed in writing before any work begins. Payment may be made in two instalments if preferred: half on commencement, half on delivery of the manuscript and recording.
All invoices are issued by Euterpia Ltd, Scotland, in pounds sterling. Enquiries are answered personally by the composer.
Correspondence
Thank you.
Your message has been received. It will be dealt with personally by the composer, and you can expect a reply within 48 hours.
A brief conversation about the occasion, the name, and any preferences on mood or style is all that is required to begin. Please supply your name, an address for reply, and a brief note on the occasion or name you have in mind.
By electronic mail
By post
David Duncan Mackay
Dalsangan, Scotland, KA5 5TW
Invoiced by
Euterpia Ltd, Scotland
All invoices in pounds sterling.
