The Story of the Gregg Violin and an Interview with Noisemaker.

On Friday in New York's Central Park Emily braved the cold to discover the Burn's statue and listen to the first playing of the Gregg Violin in the United States. In today's blog we explore the history of this famous instrument identified by VisitScotland, Scotland’s national tourist board, as one of ’25 Objects That Shaped Scotland’s History’ in 2017. Alistair McCulloch is the only person to be given the honour of playing the esteemed instrument which normally resides in a glass case in the Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayrshire. During their visit to the big apple Anna and Emily were also lucky enough to hear the Gregg Violin played at the American Scottish Foundation's 25th Burns Night Gala Celebration and the Chicago Scots' event 'A Musical Celebration with Rachel Barton Pine & Alistair McCulloch'. As part of this celebration we discovered the award winning Noisemaker, consisting of the incredibly talented duo Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie, and we delve into their inspiration and musical accomplishments and how they came to be part of the concert tour.

The Gregg Violin, currently on tour in the United States, is an important musical instrument within Scotland’s history. At 270 years old, the violin played a key role in the teenage rebellion of a young Robert Burns, a man who would go on to become Scotland’s national poet. So, the story goes that in around the year 1779, at the age of 17, Robert Burns decided to attend a country dance school in Tarbolton, South Ayrshire; much to his father’s disapproval. In a manuscript he wrote:

Through this act of rebellion, Burns undertook dancing lessons, in spite of his father’s beliefs, in order to learn the etiquette of high society at the time. It is believed that during these lessons Burns’ dance teacher, William Gregg, the instrument’s namesake, played the now famous Gregg Violin.

The violin was passed down from Gregg as a family heirloom but faded into a state of obscurity and disrepair as none of his descendants played the instrument. The violin was lost to history until it was rediscovered in 1995 by Wallace Galbraith of the Ayr Fiddle Orchestra. Galbraith became aware of its existence on a farm near Mauchline, East Ayrshire, in the possession of a Major John Weir, who was curiously the chairman of the Bachelors’ Club at the time. The Bachelors’ Club was founded by Robert Burns in 1780, in the house in which he had learned to dance, as a men-only debating society; thought to be the first of its kind in rural Scotland. This club is said to be the inspiration for many the Burns Clubs throughout the world.

Upon finding the Gregg violin in 1995, Galbraith had the violin restored to its former glory; and until recently played the instrument every year at the Burns Supper at the Bachelors’ Club. Since it was rediscovered in 1995, the instrument had been modernized somewhat, with the addition of a chin cup and modern style strings. In 2016 the Gregg Violin was restored to its 18^th century state. For the most part the instrument can now be found housed in Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Ayrshire.

Claire and I met as students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, however, our first project as Noisemaker wasn’t until a few years later. There was a festival of new work being held in Glasgow in 2012 called On the Verge. I submitted Claire and I as a writing team (without actually telling Claire) and we were selected to create a new piece for the festival. This turned into our first musical together, FREAKSHOW. Following that we formed Noisemaker to continue creating and developing new musical theatre in Scotland.

There are loads of stages of writing that are enjoyable; from first conceiving a story together, then beginning to fill a blank page with that idea, until eventually being a nervous, sweating mess on opening night with an audience ready to watch it all come to life. The part we most enjoy though is sort of in between all that. The moment in the process where we have written enough to hear it out loud for the first time. Although it’s daunting, it’s the moment in every show or story that it stops just being an idea Claire and I are working on together and becomes something that has the investment of a team.

Last year, we opened a show at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut called HI, MY NAME IS BEN. The show is based on a true story of a man named Bernhardt Wichmann III and his extraordinary life. Ben lived in a one room apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and left a lasting impact on the community there. During the writing process, we met with many people who knew Ben and they shared their stories with us. These individuals then became characters in the musical and on opening night at Goodspeed, all arrived at the theatre to see the show. Was very surreal and very moving to see the real people watching themselves be played on stage by actors. Luckily there were no complaints!

Not really. One of the best parts of collaborating with different theatres and producers on different stories is that you get to see your work emerge in ways you’d never have thought possible. We actually had an opera on once in Glasgow’s oldest pub called Sloans, which ended with a ceilidh; good practice for Burns Night!

This will be our first time and we can’t wait!

Every story we’ve worked on has the parts you love and the parts you find a challenge. Since we started our company, we feel lucky to have kept variety at the heart of what we do. One piece in particular that embodies this idea is THE GIRL WHO; our “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” musical. During this, the audience control the protagonist’s choices throughout the show and decide which story they will see. There are over 180 possible versions of the show, which made it a tailored and unique experience for every audience.

We wish we had a really cool origin story, but it just came to us when we started making work together. The real question is can you work out which one is the Noise and which one is the Maker?

Robert Burns has, like many before us, served as an inspiration for a lot of our writing. However, his song Ae Fond Kiss has left its most lasting impact. Both its lyric and melody is a favourite of ours and in 2017, we actually developed a show around the themes and story called ATLANTIC.

There are so many specific traditions to a Burns Supper, and how they’re carried out can vary so much from place to place. What we think makes it special is though is that it brings communities together to celebrate the things that connect us as people; food, music, love (and whiskey!)

Claire’s a McKenzie so she’s the one to watch out for. We don’t own our individual clan tartan but will both be wearing Black Watch tartan for the night.