PREFACE.

It is an extraordinary fact that although Ireland has, from a remote antiquity, been celebrated for its cultivation of music and admitted to be one of the parent countries of that delightful art, this is the first general collection of its national airs. Most of them are of such ancient origin that the names of their authors and the era in which they were composed are equally unknown.

The works of some of Ireland's latest composers, such as Connollan Thomas Connellan (c. 1640–1698), a renowned Irish harper and composer and Carolan Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738), the famous blind harper often regarded as Ireland's national composer, have been selected before. However, even for these, it remained the task of this day to provide accurate copies. Meanwhile, the superior productions of their masters—whose style they imitated but whose excellence they did not match—are now only partially known in the very country where they once flourished. To rescue them from oblivion and to open a new source of musical delight, the public is now presented with the first volume of a collection that has been eagerly desired for a long time.

A brief account of the circumstances that led to this collection will naturally be expected.

The rapid decrease in the number of itinerant itinerant traveling from place to place to perform performers on the Irish harp, along with the resulting decline of that tender and expressive instrument, gave the first idea for assembling the remaining harpers dispersed over the different provinces of Ireland. Accordingly, a meeting was organized at considerable expense by the Gentlemen of Belfast on July 12, 1792. Liberal rewards original: "premiums" were distributed among the harpers according to their respective merits.

The compiler of this volume Edward Bunting (1773–1843), a professional organist in Belfast was appointed to attend that event to transcribe the various airs played by the different harpers. He was particularly cautioned against adding a single note to the old melodies. Based on conclusions that will be drawn later, these melodies appear to have been preserved in their pure form and handed down unalloyed pure; not mixed with modern or foreign musical influences through a long succession of ages.

A primary motive for convening this gathering of the last remaining Irish bards poet-musicians of the Gaelic tradition was to obtain, while still possible, the most reliable versions of tunes already known to performers. It was also intended to revive and preserve many other extremely ancient tunes for which no written copies existed and which were, therefore, likely to soon become extinct.

This goal was largely achieved by the meeting mentioned; it has since been completed by the editor of the current work, who traveled through a major part of the kingdom. He did this to compare the music already gathered with that held by harpers in other regions and to make the additions necessary to make the work complete.