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Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 14

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 14
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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
eecustomed to carry about their Harps, and to take apious delight in playing on them.This early notice of the proficiency of Scotland in themusical art is worth attention. It may be pronouncedwithout hesitation, that the reference is to the JIfi hlands.Ireland, in this passage, is declared to be the parentcountry of music to Scotland, a fountain of the art; inwhich light the scholar was then herself beginning to beheld, as well as her mistress. Now the beautiful andstill existing Lowland airs of Scotland could never haveentered into Cambrensis contemplation; for these wantthe bewildered strain, the ra 1 id movements and unex-pected cadences, the animi impetus of minstrels, whoconsidered themselves almost prophetic and inspired.The southern melodies breathes the mild softness ofpastoral innocence, unmoved by boisterous affections.Every note in them speaks the language of comparativelymodern habits and manner; every air can at first hearingbe comprehended in foreign countries, and )iarmoni edwithout violence by the rules of modern refinement. Notthe most remote similarity or analogy can be traced be-tween the ancient melodies of these two districts: theycould never have flowed from the same fountain. Wetherefore conclude that the praise of Cambrensis appliedto the Erse Aborigines; the connection between themand the Irish is well known: their early intercourse, thecomnmnity of their poetry, the identity of their lan-guages, and the many proofs that th,ey were both deri-vatives from one stock. In confining the praise of our\Velsh author within its proper channel, we by iso meansdepreciate those admirable compositions of the Lowlandsof Scotland, which excite the purest feelings of the heart,and do honour to the country that produced them: weonly endeavour to develope the truth of history, and toascertain the historians meaning. In what page of theirannalist, Bucliannan, or of Boethius, still older, or Fordun,the father of their historians, do we discover allusions tothe high musical excellence of the Lowlands in earlyages? or what quarter shall we explore to find nationalinstruments of high perfection attributed to them? Eventhe HARP was not among them. On the other hand,few are the old British authors that do not present uswith enlogiums on Ireland for both, above other nations.Cambrensis, speaking of the effects of music, has, inthe following passage, recorded the extreme love of theIrish for their national instrument. The sweetness of music not only delights with its harmony, it has its ad vantages also. It not a little exhilarates dejected minds, it clears the clouded countenance, and removessrq)erciliousncss and austerity. Harmony is a kind of food to the mind. \Vhatever be our pursuit, music assists application and quickens genius ; it gives courage to the brave, and assists the devotion of the pious. Hence it is that the bishops, abbots, and holymen in Ireland are used to have the Harp about them, smd piously amuse themselves with playing it; forwhich reason the Harp of holy Kejeinus is held in such great estimation by the original inhabitants.Beside, the warlike trumpet sends forth a musical consonance when its claugour gives the signal for at tack. Music hasa power to alter our very nature.Hence, the Irish, the .S panisJz, and some other nations, amidst their funeral wailiugs, bring forth musicallamentations, either to increase or diminish their grief.A century preceding Casnbrensis, the Welsh bards,celebrated for their musical art, sought for and receivedinstructions from those of Ireland. To this a passage inPOWELL f, the Welsh historian, and still more autho-ritative proofs bear testimony: There are three sorts ofminstrels in Wales; the first sort named Beirdh, whichare makers of songs aiid odes of sundrie measures, wherein not onlie great skill and cunning is required, but also a certeine natursd inclination and gift, which,in Latin, is terinedfuror poeticus. These do also keepe records of gentlemens arines and pettegrees, asid arebest esteemed and accounted of among them. The second sort of these are plaiers upon instruments, chsiefelve the harp and the Crowth, whose musike, for tile most part, caine to \Vales with the said Gr ff th upConan, who being ott the one side an Irishman by his mother mid grandmother, and also borne in Ireland,brought over with him out of that countrie divers cunning musicians into Wales, who derived in a manner all the instrumental anusike that now is there used, as appeareth as well by the books written of the same, as also by the names of the tunes and measures used amongst them to this daie . The third sort, calledArcaneaid, are those which do sing to the instrumentplaied by another, and these be in use in the countrie to this daie.Caradoc of Llancarvan, another Welsh authority alsoof the twelfth century, assures us (according to Wynne)disdplina. Iii bernie qnidem, fantum duol,us utitur & delecta fur instrumenti, Cythara Scilr & lympano, Scotia, trilui, CYTHAItA, TYMPANO& choro, GwalIi& vers Cythara, fibu: & choro . nis quo que magis utuntur chordis Hiierni quam de Cons factis multorum autem olsinione liodieScotia non tantum snagistram svquiparavlt Iliberni am, verum etiam in musicu penile longe pruvalet & prwcellit. Unde & iii qumsifoneem crib,jam requieunt. Episcopi, & ablates, & Sancti in Hilernia cmi Cytharas circumfesre, et inch modulando pie delectari consuevesunt.Meaning, probably, St. Keiven, or Coemgen, of the sixth century, founder of the monastery of Glandallouch inthe county of Wicklow.t David Powells History of Cambria, translated by Lloyd, edit. 1584. The statute of Gruffyd op Conan is still extant in a parchment roll inthe Ashmolean library, Oxford. He succeeded to the principality of North Wales in 1079, and died in 1137 at Aberifraw, the royal seat of theprinces of North Wales. His Institutes of Music are minute and curious: the reader may find a sketch of them in Joness Reliques of the WTehshBards, a book worthy of high commendation.Powells assertion requires no confirmation; if it did, it is amply supported in the passages which follow in the text. The learned SELIEN, inmore modern times, says, that the music of the Welsh, for the most part, came out of Ireland with Gruffydth ap Conan, prince of North Wales,about king Stephens time. [ Apud, Notes on Draytons Polyolbion.]The measures themselves are given in this treatise, and their translation.
issue Number
1
page Number
14
periodical Author
Edward Bunting
issue Publication Date
1809-01-01T00:00:00
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anonymous,guest,friend,member

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland