Ancient Irish Music

Ancient Irish Music (Dublin 1796)"
01 - If To A Foreign Clime You Go
02 - The Foxes Sleep
03 - Joice's Tune
04 - The Brown Thorn
05 - The Fairy Queen
06 - Girls, Have You Seen George
07 - The Summer Is Coming
08 - Kitty Tyrrel
09 - The Beardless Boy
10 - Planxty Drury
11 - Old Truagh
12 - Molly St George
13 - The Fair-haired Child
14 - Love In Secret
15 - Open The Door Softly
16 - Madam Cole
17 - The Young Man's Dream
18 - The Charmer With The Fair Locks
19 - The Twisting Of The Rope
20 - Dennis Don't Be Threat'ning
21 - Planxty Kelly
22 - The Pleasant Rocks
23 - The Fair Woman
24 - Rose Dillon + Jigg
25 - The Parting Of Friends
26 - The Ugly Taylor
27 - Castle O'Neil
28 - Kitty The Cuckoo
29 - The Harvest Moon
30 - John, Heir Of The Glen
31 - The Banks Of The Shannon
32 - The Brown Maid
33 - The Jointure + Jigg
34 - The Forlorn Queen
35 - The Snowy-breasted Pearl
36 - Madge Malone
37 - Dermot O'Dowd
38 - Kitty O'Brian
39 - My Dear Stay With Me
40 - The Dear Black Maid
41 - Mary Do You Fancy Me
42 - Carolan's Concerto
43 - The Little Harvest Rose
44 - Molly MacAlpin
45 - Abigail Judge
46 - Planxty Reilly
47 - The Maid Of The Valley
48 - I Would Rather Than Ireland
49 - John O'Reilly The Active
50 - An Irish Lullaby
51 - The Blossom Of The Raspberry
52 - The Lamentation of Owen O'Neil
53 - Nanny McDermotroe
54 - The Pretty Girl Milking The Cows
55 - Young Terence MacDonoug
56 - Isabella Burk
57 - Have you Seen My Valentine
58 - Planxty Johnston
59 - Bob Jordan
60 - If The Cat Had Gold
61 - We Brought The Summer With Us
62 - Thomas O'Burk
63 - The Little And Great Mountain
64 - Planxty McGuire
65 - Grace Nugent
66 - Planxty Dillon
"A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music, containing a variety of Admired Airs never
before published, and also the compositions of Conolan and Carolan, collected from the
harpers & c. in the different provinces of Ireland, and adapted for the Piano-Forte, with a
preparatory Introduction by Edward Bunting." - 1796
The book is full of misprinting.
For example, Connellan is written "Conolan", "Canalon", "Connollan", "Conalon".
Never twice the same way and never, ever, the right "Connellan"! :-)
I tried to correct them, in particular those in the score.
Probably many pieces need some repeats that were simply forgotten.
"The rapid decrease of the number of itinerant performers on the Irish Harp, with the
consequent decline of that tender and expressive instrument, gave the first idea of
assembling the remaining harpers dispersed over the different provinces of Ireland.
A meeting of them was accordingly procured, at a considerable expence, by the Gentlemen
of Belfast on the 12th of July, 1792, and liberal premiums were distributed amongst them,
according to their respective merits."
...
"Most of the performers convened at the meeting above-mentioned were men advanced in
life and they all concurred in one opinion respecting the reputed antiquity of those airs which
they called ancient. They smiled on being interrogated concerning the era of such
compositions, saying 'They were more ancient than any to which our popular traditions
extended.'"
About O'Carolan:
"If we reflect upon the disadvantages under which Carolan laboured: born blind with slender
opportunities of acquiring ideas, the inhabitant of a country recently desolated by a civil war,
the flames of which had scarcely fubsided, and, add to this, his own propensity to idleness
and dissipation, we cannot but be astonished at the prodigious powers of his mind.
He has occasionally tried almost every stile in Music; the elegiac, the festive, the amorous
and sacred; and has so much excelled in each, that we scarcely know to which of them his
genius was best adapted.
His first composition was amorous and plaintive, called "Bridget Cruise," addressed to a lady
to whom he was tenderly attached, without the hope of success.
He is said to have dedicated fifteen different pieces to her, none of which are contained in
this collection.
The first was either originally imperfect, or the copy procured of it so corrupt that a Bass
could not be adapted to it.
His last tune was inscribed to his physician, Dr. Stafford.
He composed "the Fairy Queen", "Rose Dillon" and others of his serious pieces early in life;
but, after having established a reputation and addicted himself too much to festive company
and the bottle, he dedicated his time to the composition of his Planxties, which required no
labour or assiduity.
We may form some idea of the fertility of his genius from this circumdance: that one harper
who attended the Belfast Meeting, and who had never seen him or was not taught directly by
any person, that had had an opportunity of copying from him, had acquired upwards of an
hundred of his tunes which he said constituted but a very inconsiderable part of the real
number.
As Carolan never taught any itinerant pupils except his own son (who had no musical genius)
and as we have never heard that any of his pieces were committed to writing until several
years after his death, when young Carolan, under the patronage of Dr. Delany, edited a small
volume, we need not wonder if nine tenths of the whole be irreparably lost."
Edward Bunting