Robert Archibald Smith (1780\u20131829), best know for his song \u201cFlow\u2019r o\u2019 Dunblane,\u201d a setting of a poem by Robert Tannahill, was the son of Robert Smith, a silk weaver. Though proficient at the flute and violin from a young age, Smith was apprenticed to his father\u2019s workshop. Even so, he began singing in church choirs and playing in a volunteer regiment band as a flutist. In 1803, Smith quit weaving, which he hated, and began to teach music. He mostly taught choir music, and, in 1807, became the preceptor of Paisley Abbey, where he developed the church\u2019s choir program and raised its musical standards. As the proficiency and fame of the ensemble grew, people began to travel great distances to hear the choir sing, and people were willing to buy tickets just to sit in on a rehearsal. Aside from developing the choir\u2019s ability to sing psalms, he also taught the Abbey\u2019s Harmonic Choir to sing contemporary sacred works with accompaniment. Smith\u2019s reputation as a choirmaster grew, and in 1823, he took an appointment as preceptor and choirmaster of St. George\u2019s Church in Edinburgh. There he improved the choir\u2019s ability to sing psalms, just as he had at Paisley Abbey.<\/p>\n\n
Smith\u2019s development of church choirs was so great that his return to Scotland in 1800 marks the beginning of a new era in Scottish sacred music. Since the Reformation, no Scottish choirmaster has been as influential as Smith. However, Smith is better known for his compositions, and was considered one of the best Scottish sacred composers of his time. During his life, he composed many volumes of music, including Devotional Music<\/i>, Sacred Harmony for the Use of St George\u2019s<\/i>, Edinburgh<\/i>, the Irish Minstrel<\/i>, and the Scottish Minstrel<\/i>, the last being a collection of over 600 songs released in six volumes. Though these publications were supposed to be collections and arrangements of traditional Scottish tunes, Smith was known to have composed some original works and included them within the volumes as anonymous melodies.<\/p>","biography_sources":"Allan, Jean Mary; Purser, John. \u201cSmith, Robert Archibald.\u201d Grove Music Online<\/i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed January 20, 2015. http:\/\/www.oxfordmusiconline.com\/subscriber\/article\/grove\/music\/26015.<\/a>~Baker, Anne Pimlott. \u201cSmith, Robert Archiblad (1780-1829).\u201d Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed January 20, 2015. http:\/\/www.oxforddnb.com\/view\/article\/25894.<\/a>~McAulay, Karen. \u201cR.A. Smith and The Scottish Minstrel<\/i>: targeting the collection to the audience in the early to mid-C19th Scotland.\u201d Presentation at the Musica Scotica Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 2007.","date_added":"2015-12-04 10:49:34","artist_id":"1","score_id":"40"}],"publisher":[{"id":"1","name":"Robert Purdie","city":"Edinburgh","start_year":null,"end_year":null,"description":null,"description_sources":null,"address":null,"date_added":"2015-12-04 10:49:34","Publisher_id":"1","Score_id":"40"}],"collection":[{"id":"1","title":"The Scottish Minstrel (Volumes 1 and 2)","year":"0","info":null,"date_added":"2015-12-04 10:49:34","ref_id":"scottishminstrel_volonetwo","Collection_id":"1","Score_id":"40","index_start":"47","page_start":null}]}