Department of Music,
MacRobert Building,
Kings College,
Aberdeen
AB24 5UA
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Biography
Visiting lecturer in ethnomusicology and Scottish music in the Department of Music, Frances Wilkins studied ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, before completing a PhD in ethnomusicology at the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, in 2009. Her research area is the traditional and sacred music of Scotland and her PhD topic was singing in evangelicalism in North-East and Northern Isles Scottish coastal communities between 1859 and 2009. She has strong links with the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock, where she lectured in Scottish music, Ethnomusicology, and Soundscapes studies, from October 2010 to February 2011.
Frances has been conducting research into the James Bay fiddle tradition in Ontario and Quebec and its links to the traditional music of the Orkney Islands. This involved two months' fieldwork in the James Bay region between October and December 2011. Follow her blog here.
2009 'Gordon Haxton and Peter Donald: English Concertina Players from the Mission Halls of Glasgow', Papers of the International Concertina Association Volume 6.
2008 'Precentors and Pitchpipes: Congregational Singing in Brethren Assemblies in Heirskip (2008).
2007 'The Gospel Singing Tradition and the Fishing Industry of Buchan', Heirskip (2007), 25-7
2007 'The Singing Fishermen', Leopard Magazine 333 (March 2007), 23-4.
2004 Articles on sound archive work at Cecil Sharp House, English Dance and Song Magazine, Music Maker Magazine (2004)
Book Chapters
2011-12 'Onboard Radio Receivers in the Scottish Fishing Industry 1950-1965: Evangelicalism and the Gospel Soloist' in The Sea and the British Musical Imagination (Cambridge University Press), Forthcoming.
2010 'The Fiddle at Sea: Tradition and Innovation Among Shetland's Sailors since the Eighteenth Century' in Crossing Over (Elphinstone Institute and Memorial University, Newfoundland, 2010), pp. 7-18.
2008 'Sacred Song at Work: Gospel Songs and Psalmody in the Workplace Along Scotland's North-East Coast', in Rethinking the Sacred: Proceedings of the Ninth SIEF Conference in Derry, ed. by Ulrika Wolf-Knuts and Kathleen Grant (Derry: Åbo Akademi University, 2008), pp. 125-38.
2007 'The Role of Sacred Song in Religious Awakenings Among the Fisherfolk of North-East Scotland During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries' in The Travels and Travails of the Scots Herring Girls, ed. by Jill de Fresnes (Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Skye: UHI Press, 2007) pp. 20-29.
Multimedia
2011 Website, 'Soundscapes of Rostock: An Ethnomusicological View of City Sound', with Dr Barbara Alge (Rostock: Hochschule fur Musik und Theater, 2011) www.soundscapesrostock.de (2011)
2010 Annotated video collection, 'Musical Traditions of Scottish Evangelical Christians, 2005 – 2009' Indiana University Ethnomusicology Video for Instruction and Analysis (EVIA) digital archive website www.eviada.org (2010). Forthcoming.
Book Reviews
2009 Review of Karen Ahlquist, ed., Chorus and Community (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006) in Folk Music Journal.
2008 Review of Kirsten Sass Bak & Svend Nielsen, Spiritual Folk Singing: Nordic and Protestant Traditions in The Swedish Journal of Musicology Vol. 11.
2008 Review of Fenella Bazin, The Everlasting Hills, in Folk Music Journal 9/4 (2008), 439-41.
Editorial Work
2012 Website Reviews editor, World of Music Journal.
2009 Co-editor with Dr Ian Russell of Musike journal special publication on 'Sacred Singing: Musical Spirituality'.
Selected Recent Conference Papers
2011 1-3 September, 'Strengthening Identity through Community Singing: Praise Nights in North-East Scotland's Deep Sea Missions' at Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, United Kingdom.
2011 15-19 September, 'Retaining Principles or Ensuring Survival? Issues of Intransigence within North-East Scottish Gospel Male Voice Choirs' at the European Seminar of Ethnomusicology, The Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
2010 1-3 June, 'Gifts from the Holy Spirit. Contemporary song composition in North-East Scottish Evangelicalism' at the SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion Conference, 'Experiencing Religion: New Approaches Towards Personal Religiosity, State Ethnographic Museum, Warsaw, Poland.
2008 17-20 September, 'Precenting Christian Praise: A Comparative Approach to Unaccompanied Congregational Hymnody and Psalmody on the East and West Coast of Scotland' at the European Seminars in Ethnomusicology annual conference, Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, Poland.
2008 3-8 August, 'The Fiddle at Sea: Tradition and Innovation in the Cultural Milieu of Fishing and Exploratory Vessels from Scotland's Northern Isles during the Last Two Centuries' at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, Memorial University, St. Johns, Newfoundland.
2008 31 July - 3 August, 'Precentors and Pitch Pipes: Encounters with Melodic Praise among the Brethren of North-East Scotland' at The Third Biennial Conference of the North American British Music Studies Association, York University, Toronto, Canada.
2008 16-20 June, 'Sacred song at work: Gospel songs and psalmody in the workplace along Scotland's North-East coast' at the 9th SIEF (International Society for Folklore and Ethnology) Congress, University of Ulster, City of Derry, Northern Ireland.
2007 17-21 October, 'Technological Advancement in the Fishing Industry and the Use of the Trawler Radio Band to Transmit Gospel Singing among North-East Scottish Fishermen' at the American Folklore Society Annual General Meeting, Hilton Quebec, Quebec City, Canada.
2007 5-8 July, 'Technological Advancement in the Fishing Industry and the Use of the Trawler Radio Band to Transmit Gospel Singing among North-East Scottish Fishermen.' At the Fifth Biennial International Conference on Music since 1900, University of York.
2007 18-21 April, 'Let the Lower Lights be Burning: The Development of Gospel Singing in the Fishing Communities of North-East Scotland' presented at the British Forum of Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, ICMuS, University of Newcastle.
2010-2011 Eurolecturer position at Rostock University of Music and Theatre October 2010-February 2011. Working in collaboration with the ethnomusicologist Dr Barbara Alge to develop teaching in ethnomusicology fieldwork techniques and 'soundscapes' documentation at Rostock University of Music and Theatre.
2011-2012 Royal Society of Edinburgh, Small Research Grant in the Arts and Humanities (£6,500), 'Scots in the Sub-Arctic: Musical Fingerprints among the Cree Fiddlers of James Bay'.
2011-2012 Foundation for Canadian Studies in the UK, Independent Scholar's Award, 'Scots in the Sub-Arctic: Musical Fingerprints among the Cree Fiddlers of James Bay'.
Blyde Lasses - Fiddle and concertina duo performing a repertoire of Shetland music. Claire White on fiddle and Frances Wilkins on English concertina and vocals.
2009 Participant on the Ethnomusicological Video for Instruction and Analysis Digital Archive (EVIADA) two-week Summer Institute in June 2009 at Indiana University, Bloomington. Annotation of ethnographic field video recordings using Annotators' Workbench.
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Department of Music,
MacRobert Building,
Kings College,
Aberdeen
AB24 5UA
