Peter Andrew Hall, 1936–1996
1997; Routledge; Volume: 108; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0015587x.1997.9715942
ISSN1469-8315
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Studies of British Isles
ResumoPeter Hall's death from cancer in December last year after a mercifully short illness, following close upon the similarly premature deaths of David Buchan, Alan Bruford and Kenny Goldstein, comes as a severe blow to the world of traditional music and song, for Peter possessed the very rare ability to combine the roles of performer, collector, musicologist and scholar. Born in London, he was brought up in Aberdeen and Newcastle. He came to Aberdeen University in 1955 to read first medicine, then after National Service, for a science degree. He entered the teaching profession, graduating B.Ed. from Aberdeen University in 1972, and spent a professional lifetime in the region as a dedicated and stimulating physics teacher, standing down only weeks before his death. In 1959 he married a fellow student Marion Maclennan, who was later to become an obstetrician and gynaecologist of international repute. With her he shared a love of music, and with the advent of the Folk Song Revival his obsession with jazz band playing turned to a passionate interest in folksong and folklore. The northeast of Scotland has been known to scholars for hundreds of years as one of the richest areas in the world for its vibrant tradition of folksong. When Francis James Child initiated a search for the great balladry of Britain in the middle of the last century he was directed to Aberdeenshire; at the beginning of this century the region produced the 3,500 songs of the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection. Thanks to collectors such as Hamish Henderson, it became clear in the 1960s that the area was still rich in singers, especially amongst the travellers, of whom Jeannie Robertson became a famous example. Peter opened this treasurehouse, reading widely and collecting from tramps and travellers, farmworkers and northeast folk. In 1962 he was a founder member of the Aberdeen Folk Song Club, and went on to establish a group to perform the rich northeast material in 1967. The final line-up of the Gaugers (Peter Hall, Tom Spiers and Arthur Watson), issued Topic's Beware of the Aberdonian in 1976, and were completing an important series of commercial recordings for Aberdeen City Library at the time of his death (The Fighting Scot, SPRC 1031, 1990; Awa' wi' the Rovin' Sailor, CACD 101, 1994). He tape-recorded over six hundred items of folksong and folktale in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, and in the west of Ireland. Many were employed in commercial recordings, or in broadcasts, and many were lodged with the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh. He was a spirited singer and able musician (having exchanged the jazz trumpet for the concertina and melodeon), and was invited to perform on radio and television and at concerts and festivals throughout Britain, France, Germany and Belgium. …
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