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O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 70

O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 70
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periodical Publisher
Regan Printing House, Chicago, 1913
periodical Editor
[none]
periodical Title
O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians
volume Number
1
issue Content
138Iris / i . 21 / [ instre/s and .Musiciansthe subject of this sketch had no previous acquaintance with traditional Irish music,it appears that young Edward mingled freely with his mothers kindred in hisboyhood days, and confessed to a liking for the native music, which increasedon more intimate acquaintance in later years.So rapidly did he progress in his musical studies that he outclassed his teachersand the organists who employed him in a subordinate capacity. Teaching pupilsmuch older than himself was not without its embarrassments, especially whenthey happened to resent his exercise of authority. Not only did he excel in musicbut in the mechanical skill to tune and repair the instruments.Recognized as a prodigy, hero-worship came near spoiling him. Petted andpampered, he grew peevish and indolent, and like many another genius of brilliantprospects, Bunting may have disappointed the expectations of his early years,had not the event which laid the foundatioji of his fame occurred, when he washut a rosv-cheeked blue-eyed boy of nineteen.For four years after the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792, Bunting tells us, hedevoted himself to the work of collecting airs. Encouraged and financed by thepatriotic Dr. MacDonnell and other liberal citizens of Belfast he travelled intoTvrone and Derry, visiting the centenarian Hempson at Magilligan after hisreturn from Belfast, and spending a good part of the summer in the mountainousdistricts around Bahlinascreen, where he obtained quite a number of admirableairs from the country people.His principal acquisitions he claims to have collected in the province ofConnacht where he was the guest of the celebrated Richard Kirwan, founder ofthe Royal Irish \cademv. Having succeeded beyond his expectations he returnedto Belfast, and in the year 1796 produced his first volume containing sixtysixnative Irish airs never before published.No sooner had this tangible result of Buntings Painstaking labor come fromtile press than a Dublin pirate-publisher hroughi out a cheap edition, undersoldBuntings half guinea volume, and robbed him of the fruits of his enterprise.And that was not all. When Tom Moore at tile suggestion of W. Power, hispublisher, commenced his renowned frisli Melodies lie found Buntings volumeof garnered airs ready at hand for his purpose.From Moores own memoirs we learn that Robert Emmet was an eagerlistener, as he played over the airs from Buntings collection at Trinity College.Wedded to Moores inimitable verses the airs gained in popularity, but the profitsfrom this source went to the poet and his publisher and not to Bunting.Writing of the latters work in 1847 Petrie says: It has now been long outof print and too generally forgotten, but the majority of its airs have been madefamiliar to the world by the genius of Moore, to whom it served as a treasuryof melody, as may be gathered from the fact that of the sixteen beautiful airs inthe first number of the Iris / i Melodie,s, no less than eleven were derived from thatsource. Even Lover (lid not disdain to seek inspiration in its pages for TheAngels Whisper.Regardless of the fact that his efforts were unrewarded by due financialreturn, and that others had reaped both fame and fortune as a result of his labors,Bunting continued persistently in his work of research and accumulation as oppor-ttmnitv offered. To him it was a labor of love to be indulged in, (luring the intervalsof his occupation as organist and teacher.In 18o9 he published his second volume: A Genc,-al Collection of time AncientMusic of Ireland, Arranged for the Pianoforte and Poice, and containing AnHistorical and Critical Dissertation on the Harp. The author had intended toEdward Bunting.9ia m
issue Number
1
page Number
70
periodical Author
O'Neill, Capt. Francis
issue Publication Date
1913-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

O'Neill - Irish Minstrels and Musicians

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