What do you know of the Herschels?

Sir William Hershel was the British astronomer who discovered Uranus and became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society^[1]. Caroline Herschel, his sister, was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science, to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and to be named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society^[2].

Both were also musicians. William played the oboe, violin, harpsichord, and the organ, and composed a number of symphonies, concertos, and church music. Caroline accompanied William’s musical performances as a vocalist and acquired a reputation as a musician in her own right.

The Open Books collection from The University of Edinburgh Library contains two openly licensed documents of organ music compositions by Sir William Herschel.

 

• Six Fugues for the Organ, by Sir William Herschel
• Sonate per L’Organo, Sir William Herschel

 

The PDF’s have been scanned by the Centre for Research Collections and supplied under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 Licence.

 

Stephanie (Charlie) Farley

Open Educational Resources Advisor, EDE

The University of Edinburgh