Francis Collinson

Francis Collinson, folk song collector, arranger and musicologist, 1898–1984.

Musical director of the BBC's Country Magazine rural affairs radio programme from 1941, with Francis 'Jack' Dillon as its overall editor.

In the 1940s Collinson had a country home at Old Surrenden Manor near Bethersden in Kent, and collected a number of songs from local singers.

He became the first musical research fellow at the newly established School of Scottish Studies in 1951, concentrating on the collection, study, and transcription of traditional song in both Scots and Gaelic.

Collinson's papers are held at the School of Scottish Studies, but copies of his Kentish song collections are now lodged in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

Publications

• Collinson, Francis M., and Francis Dillon, (eds) Songs from the Countryside, As Featured in ‘Country Magazine’ (London:Paxton, 1946)
• Collinson, Francis M., and Francis Dillon, (eds) Folk Songs from ‘Country Magazine’ (London: Paxton, 1952)
  

Songs collected for the BBC radio programme

• Francis Collinson, The traditional and national music of Scotland (London: Routledge, 1966)
• Francis Collinson, The Bagpipe: the History of a Musical Instrument (1975). Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and Boston, MA, USA. Reprinted 1976. ISBN 0710079133.

External references

• Ian A. Olson, Collinson, Francis James Montgomery (1898–1984), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53950
• Francis James Montgomery Collinson (1898-1984) - brief biography on VWML Online
• list of singers from whom Collinson collected songs - VWML Online