ABSTRACT
Hamish MacCunn grew up in the Scottish port city of Greenock, located at the mouth of the River Clyde about 25 miles northwest of Glasgow, surrounded by the landscape that inspired some of Scotland's most popular litterateurs. The MacCunns greatly benefitted from the Greenock shipping boom in the 1850s and 1860s. The creative interests of MacCunn's father encompassed music, writing poetry, sculpting, and inventing things. MacCunn picked up some of his father's innovation. By 1897 he was using the camera as a copyist as it "gives the best results at the least cost". MacCunn's education was thorough and provided him with a firm foundation in literature, history, and Scottish culture. Songs, choral pieces, piano works, and duets for piano and cello dominate MacCunn's early output, and all reveal the influence of the Classical era as well as glimpses of his more advanced musical style. London played an important role during his upbringing, though MacCunn rarely mentioned childhood events outside Scotland.
