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Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 19

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 19
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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
8Fordun, in the thirteenth . As we recede yet farther, wefind ambrensis, Brompton, and John of Salisbury, in thetwelfth century, bestowing still more lofty encomiums;and these again falling short of the accounts which theWelsh historians give of the state of the science amoigus in the eleventh and tenth centuries. In conformity withthis, FULLER, Ill his account of the crusade conductedby Godfrey of Bologne, says, Yea, we might well thinkthat all the concert of CRnIsTxNnorsI in this war, wouldhave made no music if the h isu H uu had beenwanting 1-John Major, a Scotch divine and historian, born about1446, and doctor of the Sorbonne, says, in his Dc GestisScotorum, It is by many arguments certain that we, the Scots, owd our origin to the Irish. This we may leariafrom the language; for even at this day, one-half ofScotland speak his n; and a few years ago, a greaterproportion spoke the same language. The Scotchbrought their speech from Ireland into Britain, as our annals testify. I say, therefore, that from whomsoeverthe Irish drew their origin, the ScoTcH derive thesame; not immediately indeed, but as a grandson from a grandsire.Of the same opinion are more of their own authorities,as Buchanan, Innes, &c. When James VI. caine to theEnglish throne, he declared in the council chamber atWhitehall, that the Scotch dynasty came from the Irish; that the ancient kings of Scotland came from Ireland.The conclusion from all this is obvious, that if Scotland(as her own annalists teach us) owed her people and herlanguage to Ireland, she must have been equally indebtedto the same quarter for her ancient music and musicalinstruments.Satisfactory as this chain of reasoning and theseauthorities are in favour of the claims of Irish melody toa remote origin, it might still appear defective if un-supported by correlative evidence, derivable from thestate of poetry and other branches of literature in Irelandat a period yet earlier .THE EGYPTIAN HARP.L iour may, perhaps, be reflected on the derivationof the Irish and Welsh Harps (in their original state thesame instrument) by examining the relation they bear toothers resembling them in construction, though the inven-tion of other countries in remotest ages: among these, theHarp of EGYPTIAN TitEnus first claims our regard, beingof the highest antiquity. We are informed by Pocockand Norden, that when they wrote, ancient drawings werestill visible in the sepulchral grottos near Thebes; and ifwe may conjecture from the age of the prince in whosetomb they were found, they were executed before thetime of Scsostris. But it was reserved for Mr. Bruce, ofKiimaird in Scotland, in his travels to discover the sourcesof the Nile, to present to the public drawings of twoHarps , of a construction totally differing from, andsuperior to, the Grecian and Roman lyres, though somuch older than either. One of these he communicatedto Dr. Burney, when that gentleman was preparing hisexcellent History of Music. The draft of the secondHarp [ No. 2, in our Plate] had beets mislaid; in consequ nce of which, it does not appear in Burney; butwas afterwards recovered and seen in Bruce.As the subject is curious, we subjoin an extract of thetravellers remarks, and shall not be charged with pro-lixity in attempting to establish the authenticity of draw-ings which afford the earliest trace of music within thesphere of human annals.In one of the apartments or passages into the sepul_chre near Thebes, Mr. Bruce found pannels or copartments formed in stucco, and painted in fresco; in one ofwhich were depicted several musical instruments, chieflyof the hautboy kind, with mouth pieces of reed, alsosome simple pipes or flutes. With them were also foundseveral jars, as of potters ware, which having theirmouths covered with parchmet t or skin, and beingbraced on their sides like a drum, were probably the taboror tabret , beat upon by the hands, and coupled in earlytimes with the Harp. Isa three succeeding pannels werepainted, in like manner, thrctr Harps of most elegantform. By the figure, No. I, in Plate III. of this col-lection, it appears to have been played by a person in astanding posture; its number of strings to have beenthirteen, and its extreme length less than six feet and ahalf, calculating by the height of tile player, and supposing him to measure five feet ten inches. It wants thepillar or fore piece of the frame next the lowest string.The back part is the sounding board, composed of fourpieces of wood, growing wider toward the bottom. Theornamented parts are executed in the very best manner,and the entire form is isa the finest taste. Beside the pro-portions of its outward form, we must observe how nearlyit approaches (says he) to a perfect instrument, for itJoists DE FORDISK, a canon of Aberdeen, the earliest Scotch historian, author of very copious and valuable ar,nals. He was ae,st LiIreland (reign of Richard II.) at the end of the thirteenth century, to collect materials for his Scotiehronicon.f Fullers Holy War, B. s, ch. xxiii. apud Walker.The time at which the HARP became the armorial ensign of Ireland has often been a subject of insestiga000 according to Tindalls history,all the ancient pennie, that have the head in a triangle were Irish coins, which triangle is supposed to represent the Irish Harp; others think that thetriangle alludes to the trinity. King John and his two immediate successors were the earliest monarchs who used the triangle constantly on theirmoney. From this triangle, perhaps, proceeded the arms of Irelansi. There is a groat of Henry VIII. which has on one side the arnss of England,on the reverse, a Harp crowned, and Frank Dsminus Hi lef, which is the first time that the Harp appears distinctly on the coins: it was struck aboutthe year 1530. No doubt, it was the high state of improvement of the Irish Harp, ans I of Irish music, admitted by neighbouring countrie ,, and thevery ancient passion of the people for music, which prompted Henry VIII. to adopt the Harp es their arms.See Plate IV. iii this collection. p Genesis xxxi. 27. Isaiah xxx. 32.
issue Number
1
page Number
19
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