John Gunn: Musician Scholar in Enlightenment Britain by George Kennaway (review)

S cholars and students of historical Scottish music are, owing to a lack of modern studies, over-reliant on antiquarian sources. These are loaded with myth and inaccuracy, which tends to perpetuate both. Major figures, such as John Gunn (1766–1824), are consigned to footnotes or simply fade into perhaps undeserved obscurity. George Kennaway’s book John Gunn: Musician Scholar in Enlightenment Britain should therefore be met with rejoicing, for it provides the first full account of Gunn’s life, career, and writings and places him within the context of Enlightenment ideals. Gunn was himself an antiquarian, as well as a music teacher and writer of pedagogical books in Cambridge, Edinburgh, and London. He is now best known for his pedagogical works for flute and cello, but as Kennaway shows by a thorough investigation of archival sources and contemporary publications, Gunn was a significant figure in late eighteenth-century British musical culture. Kennaway starts by resolving the question of where and when Gunn was born; previous writers have been undecided as to the Highlands or Edinburgh, in 1765. As Kennaway reveals, no John Gunns were baptized in Scotland in 1765, making that year extremely unlikely. Baptismal records for the parish of Glospie, Sutherland, list a John, son of the farmer Donald Gunn, in 1766. Since his burial record in 1824 lists his age as fifty-seven, he was most likely born in 1766 or early in 1767. This is the first of many inaccuracies Kennaway corrects. Others include Gunn’s education; dates of his residences in Edinburgh, London, and Cambridge; his international travels, especially in France; the date of his marriage; and the fate of his wife. Chapters 2–5 are devoted to analyses of each of Gunn’s nine books (and one translation):