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Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 5

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 5
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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
iiBy such means the airs were secured in their native pathos; and the words of the besttunes in their proper language and character.The editor has since collected annals of the harpers for a series of two hundred yearspartly through the aid of Arthur ONeill, an intelligent and well known harper: these provedtoo extensive to be given in this publication; but the most interesting facts are scatteredthrough it. The work includes specinidns of the funeral Cry, or CAOI NE, and C RONAN, of theancient Irish, an 01(1 IRIs II LESSON AND PRELUDE, played in this kingdom for generations,and latterly by Dennis Ilernpson , the harper of Magilligan, from whom it was taken downshortly before his decease; besides, a modern lesson by CA ROL A N, for the purpose of contrast;and two CELEBRATED IRISH AIRS, with their ancient VARIATIONS as practised on the Harpfor many years; with these are given an ORIGINAL MELODY or RECITATIVE, which thecompiler had the fortune to discover as sung in artless strains in the I-Iighlands of Scot-land, and also by the aborigines of different parts of Ireland, to OssIANIc FRAGMENTS.TO TILE MUSIC IS PREPIXEDA TREATISE ON THE THEBAN, BItITISII, AND IRISH HARP.In this there is various original matter, connected with a subject curious and littleexplored: the affinity of the present Harp to the most ancient instruments is traced, andsketches given of the ancient music in Wales, and in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scot-land, and an account of the BAGPIPE.In the coiicluding part of the treatise the distinctive diflerence between the music ofIreland and the aboriginal music of neighbouring countries will be noticed; and an accountgiven of the principles upon which the Irish harp is tuned and P1 tYed ;of a multiplicity oftechnical musical terms in the Irish language, respecting the instrumeiit, its proport ioiis, andmeasurements, as well as the alterations it has undergone to the preseiit time.The editors object in this complicated imdertaking was accomplished at a moment whenthe harp and harpers were verging so nearly to extinction, that the attempt would havefailed had it 1 een postpoiied to the present day . lie thus saved from destruction a greatportion of that music for which IrClall(1 1i s been consi icuous for ages. To the merits of suchstrains the following passage well app]ies: rpj 1 take time cer form and pressure of ourhistory; and the conflict of spirits, naturally warm and vivacious, with the gloom whichabasement and po erty would cast upon them, is no where more faithfully recorded thanin these bewildered melodies, where the strain often bursts into merriment unexpectedly, amid as often relapses from its liveliest expression into languor ami complaining, as if therewere some pang which they could not flrget even in their iiiirth -p.The rapid decrease of pci1 rmcrs omi the Irish Harp sugi csted the idea of aSMClI ll)IiIIg theremaining harpers dispersed over time diflerent provinces: a illeetiflg was accor(lmgl llel(I atBelfast on the 12th July, 1792, wlieii lid) niore tlmii teim could l)e collected, to whom liberalSee a portrait of Hempson, taken in i imii, Plate I.1 The author of a late pleasing work might have extended the following remark to every bosoni that is not incapableof feeling, however exalted his rank. In the tones of the favourite tunes of his youth, he hears the long lost voice of his mother, his sister, and his youthful rFh1( re is no fibre of hi heart which does nut vibrate to sonic of his well known strains. You cannot improve them to him; you cannot restore Iiini tlie_ tones of a lection which he loses by any alteratiou. [ Levdens Prelim. Di ert. to the Complaint of Scotland.]
issue Number
1
page Number
5
periodical Author
Edward Bunting
issue Publication Date
1809-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

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