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Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 31

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 31
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periodical Publisher
Clementi & Co., London, 1809
periodical Editor
Edward Bunting
periodical Title
Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland
volume Number
1
issue Content
20gether ninety-eight strings; the two outer ones arediatonics, and both tuned unisons, to give a body oftone: the middle row constitutes the sharps and flats .By musical compositions, which Mr. Jones says (butwe know not upon what authority) are extant, as playedabout the year A. D. 520, it would appear that the WelshHarp extended from G, the first line in the bass, to P inalt, that is twenty-six diatonic tones; and that there areothers, pieces of about the year 1100, which extend fromdouble C, in the bass, to G in alt: according to Mer-sennus, the citizara antiques, or ancient Harp has, as theIrish, but one row of strings, which consisted of twentyfour chords, from G, the first line in the bass, to G in thefifth space in the treble f.By the institutes of prince Grt,fyd ab C ynan in thetwelfth century, the twenty-four measures of music be-fore spoken of were established, and also five principalkeys. As they have never been explained, they are hereinserted in their own language, in order that the curiousmay trace a similitude between them and any of the tech-nical phrases applied to the Irish Harp.Llymar Pedwar Mesur ar hugain cerdd Dant Ynol rheolvesur oil vail y cyvansaddw 3 id niewn eisteddVod, hc.(MS.)Mac y MwnHir 111100001010111l00001011Corfiniwr 11001011 11001011Corsgolef 11011001011Rhiniart 10011 10011Coraldan iiioiooioooiTresi Heli 10001110001011Wnsach 11110001Cor dia Tytlach 1011000100111Cor Viiivaen 101 1011,1011011Corwrgog 1001011011Carsi 10001011 10001011Brath yn Ysgol 101101001011Flamgwr Gwran 1011,101100110011Mac y Mwn Byr 11001111Calchan 1100111101Bryt Odidawg 0010: 0010: 1101 : 1101Trwsgyl Mawr 0000111100001011Tutyr Bach 00110011Mac y Mynvaen 00)1100:0011001111Toddyv 01100011Hatyr 001011 001011Mac y Delgi (0111011Alban Hyvaidd 1011010001001011Alvareh 0000,0000, 1111 1111The Five principal Keys areG YwAIR, the low key, or key of C.CRAS GYWASR, the sharp key, or A.LLEDDO evw ix, the oblique flat key, or F.Go GYWAIR , the third above the key note is flat.BRAGOD GywAIR, the mixt or minor key.It is yet to be discovered what was intended by thefigure attached to each of the above measures: it hasbeen surmised, that they may have relation to the scale, orlength of each metre, the figure 1 standing for concords,and 0 for discords.Thus far this treatise had been carried, when an ideaarose, that these mea.s-ures might possibly be in a differentlanguage from the preamble to them, and from the fivekeys, the latter of which had been accompanied by atranslation, though the rest were not; and that that lan-guage might be Irish: a remark made by Mr. Jones,with his accustomed impartiality, strengthened the supposition; as they have iiever been explained, says he,I forbear attempting a translation, from apprehension ofmistake, or misleading the reader.What was before only conjecture, we have nowverified. On a manuscript copy being lately presentedtcs an eminent Irish scholar I he found himself incapableof rendering the preamble (which is Welsh), but instantlypronounced the measures themselves Irish; and withouthesitation, wrote them out in their own character withEnglish meanings; on the other hand, the preamble beingoffered to a Welsh scholar, it was as speedily translated,being in the language of his country.The Irish in its ow-n and in British characters are nowsubjoined, with a translation into English of each of thetwentyfour measures.Bingleys Hist. of N. Wales. Others say, that the right hand row should contain the base of thirty-six strings, the left the treble of twenty.six, and the middle the semi tones of thirty-five, making in all ninety-seven strings, tuned from double C in the bass to Cia alt.t Mr. Jones mentions that he saw a Harp in Wales upwards of 200 years old, formed with only one row of thirty-three strings, and measuringfour feet nine inches high; this exactly answers to the Irish Harp in size and number of strings, differing, probably, in its being strung with gutinstead of brass.The pedal Harp is a modern improvement of the continent by Simon, a man who resided about sixty years ago at Brussels. It contains thirty.three strings, the natural notes in the diatonic scale; the rest are made by the feet: its compass is from double B flat to F in alt. [ Dr. Burney.]Translation of the preamble from Welsh Archniology, vol. iii. p. 439.These are the twenty-four measures of instrumental music, all according to the rule of metre, as they were composed in a congress before many doctors of the art, of 1?Velshmen and of Irishmen, skilled in the art in the time of Gruflvd ab Cynan, and these were entered in books by commaisd at the same time, and were thence transcribed the eleventh day of May, one thousand . Mr. Jones says, that this key is peculiar to the ancient Welsh music.II Theophius OFlannigasi, Esq. Trin. Cull. Dublin.
issue Number
1
page Number
31
periodical Author
Edward Bunting
issue Publication Date
1809-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland