He published his extensive collection in three volumes. In addition to his work with the Harper’s Bunting collected music also from folk musicians in Co. They ranged in age from 15 yrs to 97 yrs and six of the Irish Harpers were blind.
#Celtic music history plus#
This Festival holds an extremely important part in Irish Musical history for it marked the first and the last time that the music of the Harpers was written down in any quality.Īlthough attractive fees were offered only ten Irish players came plus one Welshman. This festival was organised by a group of patriotic citizens with the object of noting the music, poetry and oral traditions of Ireland from the old Harpers. He had a classical background in music but got his first experience and contact with Irish Music when he was appointed at the age of nineteen to take down the various airs played by the Harpers at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792. He was a musical prodigy and was appointed substitute organist at the age of eleven in Belfast.
This collection was published in 1796 and was entitled General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music.
Edward Bunting 1773 - 1843īunting was the first of the Great Collectors of Irish music and song who took down and annoted the music from musicians who played it traditionally. The only copy of this collection available now is preserved among a collection of Edward Bunting manuscripts at Queen’s University, Belfast. This collection was published by John and William Neale, father and son, Christ Church Yard, Dublin. In the year 1726 the first collection of Irish music appeared entitled A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes and containing forty nine airs. This is the earliest record of an Irish song written in musical notation. The above is found in Shakespeare’s HenryV (iv4).This air is found among a collection of songs bound together with William Ballet’s lute book which belongs to the last quarter of the 16th Century. Professor Murphy has shown that this is a phonetic representation of the title of a popular song Cailin O Chois tSuire Mé. One of these is entitled “Callen O Costure Me”. The oldest Irish airs preserved in manuscript are the few contained in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Most of the airs, songs and tunes which are preserved were probably composed in the last three hundred years, the majority belonging to the latter half of the 18th Century and the opening years of the19th Century.
Old manuscripts make very many references to the playing of music but in the absence of a system of musical notation we have nothing concrete to provide us with specimens of the music played in ancient Ireland.
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