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Bunting - The Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 95

Bunting - The Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 95
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periodical Publisher
Hodges & Smith, Dublin, 1840
periodical Editor
Edward Bunting
periodical Title
Bunting - The Ancient Music of Ireland
volume Number
1
issue Content
ANCIENT MUSIC OF IRELAND.83the fragment of it here preserved, to gratify the Editor, to whom he acknowledged he wasunder obligations. He would rather, he asserted, have played any other air, as this awakenedrecollections of the days of his youth, of friends whom he had outlived, and of times longpast, when the harpers were accustomed to play the ancient caoinans or lamentations, withtheir corresponding preludes.a When pressed to play, notwithstanding, his peevish answeruniformly was, Whats the use of doing so? no one can understand it now, not even anyof the harpers now living. This relic is but one half of the prelude, as he solemnly averredthat he had forgotten the remainder. It is now for ever lost; but what has been preservedwill serve, with other curious matters, to shew the great attention formerly paid to every thingconnected with music in Ireland. The musical critic is requested to observe two strikingpeculiarities in this first part of the ancient Irish prelude; first, the total absence of the chordof the subdominant; and secondly, the evidently premeditated omission of the two intervalsof the diatonic scale, the fourth and seventh. Whether the second part of the preludeincluded these tones or not cannot now be ascertained.II. JsTeaill ghubh a Dlieirdre. The Lamentation of Deirdre for the Sons of Usnach.This is, perhaps, the oldest piece in the collection; for the story of the Death of the Sonsof Usnach, in which the lament occurs, ranks in antiquity with that of the Children of Lir,and refers to a period considerably anterior to the Ossianic era. It is hard to say in whatparticular part of the story the interest lies, which has taken so strong a hold on the imagina-tions of the people. It would appear, however, to consist mainly in its frequent examples ofmagnanimity and fortitude, aiid in the high idea which it gives us of ancient honour. Thestory, of which it is proposed to give a brief abstract, opens with the birth of the heroine,who was daughter of Felimy, the son of Dall, rhymer to Conor Mac Nessa, King of Ulster.The Druid Cathbad, who was present at her birth, gave her the name of Deirdre, and at thesame time prophesied her future misfortunes in stanzas, which have been thus rendered:Child of sorrow, sin, and shame, Long shall Ulster mourn the nightDeirdre be thy dreaded name Gave thine eyes their blasting light;Child of doom, thy fatal charms Long shall Usnach rue the daySoon shall work us deadly harms. Shewd his sons their fatal ray !Accordingly, notwithstanding the precautions of King Conor, who, desiring to educate herfor his future queen, had her brought up in the strictest seclusion, she conceives a passion forNaisi, the son of tTsnach. Their first interview is thus described in a paraphrase of the ori-ginal Irish, given in the Hibernian Nights Entertainments, (Dublin University Magazine,December, 1834.) Now, on a certain day, Naisi was sitting in the midst of the plain ofFrom an error in the engraving of the music, the arpeggios in this prelude are made to run from the lower tothe higher notes, as in the modern style, when they should have been in the contrary direction, according to thepractice of the ancient Irish harpers.
issue Number
1
page Number
95
periodical Author
Edward Bunting
issue Publication Date
1840-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Bunting - The Ancient Music of Ireland

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