Much of the figuration is similar to early Northumbrian smallpipe music, but the compass of many of the tunes is 9 notes, from F to g, with no sharps or flats, rather than the single octave of the unkeyed Northumbrian smallpipes of the time. Almost all of the 40 pieces in the manuscript are long variation sets on dance tunes – one, Dorrington, running to 14 strains. The importance of the manuscript as a musical source, apart from its antiquity, is the almost unique nature of the music. It was transposed up a tone from the source, to suit modern Border pipes, which are generally notated in A. He was able to publish a transcription that same year, with extensive notes, as The Master Piper this has recently been reissued in a third edition. The manuscript was more definitively identified as pipe music from south of the border by the piper and fiddler Matt Seattle in 1995 previously it had been considered by some as fiddle music, albeit rather odd.
This book, and the other music books in her personal collection, known as the Atholl Collection, were bequeathed to Perth Public Library on her death in 1938. She correctly recognised the music as "a collection of pipe jigs of the border country". Offended, he answered "In that case, I will put it in the fire." She pulled it out, before it was damaged. She replied "This is a curiosity, I would rather not rob you. In 1909, he offered it to the music collector, Dorothea Ruggles-Brise, reportedly saying "I have an old torn book upstairs it is of no use to anyone you may have it if you like". His grandfather had been a pupil of Niel Gow, who lived in the same village. Nothing is definitely known of the whereabouts of the manuscript in the 18th and 19th centuries.Īt the beginning of the 20th century, however, it was in the collection of the composer and cellist Charles Macintosh, of Inver, Perthshire. Julia Say has conjectured that this is how the manuscript reached Scotland.
'Dixon's Blazes' survived as a business in Glasgow until 1958, and still has a placename there. One son of colliery owner John Dixon, another William (1788-1859), founded an important iron business with five blast furnaces in central Scotland later in the century, which was further developed by his son. If this William Dixon was indeed the author of the manuscript, he would have been 55 when he started compiling it, and 60 when he ceased. However it is clear from these that the book is William's - for example one reads 'William Dixon His Book May ye 10th 1733'. It is recorded that Parcival was apprenticed as a scrivener this suggests that some of the inscriptions in the book, in an ornate hand, but different styles, are his work. Many of the family were buried in Stamfordham church where there is a fine memorial to them. The tracing of this family is made easier by their tradition of using the names William and Parcival in many generations, especially as Parcival is so rare on the other hand, the shared names make identification of individuals harder. Julia Say has found that these belonged to a branch of the Dixon family living at Ingoe South Hall, near Fenwick, where some of the family lived until recently. Baptismal records for that county show that a William Dixson was christened in Stamfordham, Northumberland, in 1678, and that Parsivall and John, sons of William Dixson, were baptised nearby at Fenwick, near Stamfordham, in 17. Many of the tunes in the manuscript were, and some remain, current in Northumberland, or are named after places in the region. The only direct evidence for the author's identity comes from the manuscript itself, giving his name and two others, Parcival and John, who may have been his sons. Little is known of William Dixon's biography, except what has been learned from this manuscript, and from parish records in Northumberland. The William Dixon manuscript, written down between 17 in Northumberland, is the oldest known manuscript of pipe music from the British Isles, and the most important source of music for the Border pipes. Hay for Newbiggen by William Dixon - modern facsimile (note only four lines)
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