Nicholson: Roslin Castle - Performed on 19th-c period flute by Jan Boland

Roslin Castle is performed on an 11-keyed wooden flute by Koch, Vienna c. 1830 by flutist Jan Boland. This concert was presented on April 27, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa..
The Scottish folk tune Roslin Castle appears in Charles Nicholson's flute tutor Preceptive Lessons (l821) as a flute solo. Roslin Castle was a well-known tune in the l9th-century, as evidenced by its appearance in several collections.
However, Nicholson's treatment of Roslin Castle is by far the most interesting due to its special effects and ornamentation. Roslin Castle represents nineteenth-century excess at its best! It is chock-full of glides, appoggiaturas, harmonics, and embellishments -- all the stuff for which flutist/composer Nicholson was loved in the concert setting.
Nicholson had a healthy ego and wrote about his performances saying, "The beautifully pathetic Air of Roslin Castle . . . [was] received at the Oratorios of Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres with the most enthusiastic applause & [was] rapturously encored at both places. (Nicholson, Perceptive Lessons, p. 65).
Video by Bill Adams (Iowa City, IA) Audio by Peter Nothnagle (Iowa City, IA)

[@dbadagna]

You have one of the most beautiful flute tones I've ever heard, and all the special techniques are so interesting. Why is the middle C-sharp so flat on this instrument? Isn't that note produced with all fingers raised on a simple system flute? Maybe it's because, in some instances in this piece, it's being played using a non-standard fingering to glide up to the C-sharp from C natural.

[@normanthibodeau8466]

It's pretty low on all my pre-Boehm flutes, maybe because it uses the widest part of the flute bore.

[@javivr]

Thank you for sharing this lovely arrangement of the famous Scots Air and thank you for bringing Charles Nicholson's works back to life after being almost forgotten (mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=music_faculty). It would have been nice to hear it played on one of Nicholson's improved flutes though (www.mcgee-flutes.com/nicholson.html).

[@davidarmstrongcharles]

❤️