Collectors
It was only in the late eighteenth century that collectors began to write Irish music down. Many Irish traditional tunes that survive today may have joined the thousands that were lost forever if it was not for music collectors who helped preserve the tunes for the future generations.
Belfast organist Edward Bunting (1773–1843) was the first known collector and aged 19, was employed to notate the music at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792, where he collected tunes including “Sí bheag Sí Mhór” “Eibhlí a Rún” “The FairyQueen” and “Lord Mayo”. He continued to collect music and songs for some years and he published three
volumes of material drawn from his collection: General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (1796) included O’Carolan’s Concerto, General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland (1809) includedd Planxty Irwin and The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840) included Tabhair dom do Lámh. These collections were revolutionary for their time, although later commentators have faulted Bunting's approach to a form of music with which he was unfamiliar.
Bunting is important as he was the first collector to gather the tunes in an informative, systematic way and his work is invaluable although he was a classical musician and his publications are Irish tunes arranged for piano and he sometimes added in notes and features that are more suited to classical piano playing. Another criticism was that he overlooked the crucial style of playing, favouring instead to notate just the melody notes. In “The Ancient music of Ireland” however, he did list the fingering and damping techniques used by the harpers. Flaws or otherwise, he did effectively save the ancient Gaelic harp tunes from extinction.
volumes of material drawn from his collection: General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (1796) included O’Carolan’s Concerto, General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland (1809) includedd Planxty Irwin and The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840) included Tabhair dom do Lámh. These collections were revolutionary for their time, although later commentators have faulted Bunting's approach to a form of music with which he was unfamiliar.
Bunting is important as he was the first collector to gather the tunes in an informative, systematic way and his work is invaluable although he was a classical musician and his publications are Irish tunes arranged for piano and he sometimes added in notes and features that are more suited to classical piano playing. Another criticism was that he overlooked the crucial style of playing, favouring instead to notate just the melody notes. In “The Ancient music of Ireland” however, he did list the fingering and damping techniques used by the harpers. Flaws or otherwise, he did effectively save the ancient Gaelic harp tunes from extinction.
Several collectors continued and extended Bunting's work during the nineteenth century, with George Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland (1855); and Patrick Joyce's Ancient Irish Music (1873) and Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) being the most significant. Other collectors include John and William Neal.
Corkman Francis O’Neill who became chief of police in Chicago after he emigrated there collected tunes from other Irish immigrants. He published “The Music Of Ireland” in 1903 which has 1850 tunes including jigs, reels, hornpipes, marches, airs and O’Carolan tunes. He also published “The Dance Music Of Ireland” in 1907 which contains 1001 dance tunes and is refered to as “The Book”. These were the first collections that were aimed towards Irish musicians and were the first great collections of the 20th century. A flute player himself, he is said to have used his position to provide jobs for any needy Irish musicians
that he encountered.
that he encountered.
George Petrie helped to set up “The society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland”. He published his book “Ancient Music of Ireland” which contains nearly 200 melodies as well as song texts in Irish and English and also contains information about the sources of the songs. One song he collected was the “Londonderry Air” which is also known as “Danny Boy”.
In the mid-twentieth century Breandán Breathnach, starting, like O'Neill, by collecting material for his personal use, went on to compile the largest ever collection of dance music. Five volumes of selections from this material have been published, as Ceol Rince na hÉireann I - V, the first three edited by himself and the final two after his death by Jackie Small. O'Neill and Breathnach's focus was on instrumental music. There were also several great collections of song material during the last century. The most celebrated of these is that made by the piper Séamus Ennis under the auspices of the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1940s. Working in Gaeltacht areas and collecting only Irish-language material, he assembled a wonderful collection of some 2,000 songs.
In 1994, RTE released a CD cof field recordings by some of the great Sean Nós singers called Amhrán ar an Sean Nós. These include songs from Nioclás Tóibín from Ring, Co. Waterford, and the famous Seán Mac Donncha, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí from Connemara. Songs on the collection include Úna Bhán and An Mhaighdean Mhara.