Publisher's Synopsis
From the Preface.
IN the year 1855 was published "The Ancient Music of Ireland" a volume which was edited by George Petrie, LL.D., under the superintendence of the " Society for the preservation and publication of the Melodies of Ireland." This volume contains a large number of airs, of which about twenty were contributed by me. It was my wish that all my collection, or all worthy of preservation, should be printed by the Society, but the publication ceased after the appearance of one volume. The death of Dr. Petrie, in 1864, put an end to all hope of continuing the work; for he left no one behind him who was, at that time at least, either able or willing to undertake the editorship. His death was indeed an irreparable loss: for he possessed an extensive and critical know- ledge of the subject, which it is to be feared few or none will ever equal. My only anxiety was to secure the publication of the airs I had preserved, that they might be saved from possible loss; but as I failed to do so under the auspices of the Society, I am now doing what I suppose is the next best thing, publishing them myself.
I spent all my early life in a part of the country where music and dancing were favourite amusements; and as I loved the graceful music of the people from my childhood, their songs, dance tunes, keens, and lullabies remained on my memory, almost without any effort of my own. I had indeed excellent opportunities; for my father's memory was richly stored with popular airs and songs; and I believe he never sang or played a tune that I did not learn. Afterwards, when I came to reside in Dublin, and became acquainted with the various published collections of Irish music, I was surprised to find that a great number of my tunes were unpublished, and quite unknown outside the district or province in which they had been learned. This discovery stimulated me to write down all the airs I could recollect; and when my own memory was exhausted, I went among the peasantry during vacations, for several successive years, noting down whatever I thought worthy of preserving, both music and words. In this way I gradually accumulated a very large collection.
There yet remains a great quantity of music among the people, unpublished and uncollected. But it is fast dying out; and those who are gifted with sufficient musical knowledge and taste should catch and write down the fugitive strains before they are extinguished forever. If the old harpers had not been brought together in Belfast in 1792, by the patriotic exertions of Dr. MacDonnell and a few other gentlemen, Bunting probably would never have entered on the task of preserving his country's music, and the greater number of tunes in his noble collection would have been lost to us; for in a very few years after, the harpers were all dead and gone. And now, if those among us who understand and love Irish music, exert ourselves even in a small way, like those Belfast gentlemen, we shall, like them, have some claims on the gratitude of posterity. For me, I shall be thankful to any person who sends me one or more Irish airs or songs; for I will continue to publish as long as I can obtain materials; provided such matter as the present little volume contains, meet with the approval of the public.
In modern music the seventh note of the minor scale is generally raised half a tone, so as to bring it within a semitone of the octave. This, however, was hardly ever done in Irish airs in the minor mode; and an illustration of this remark will be found in almost every minor air in the present collection. I cannot help observing that editors of Irish music appear to me to be often too much inclined to force those of the Irish airs that are in the minor scale into a compliance with the modern rule, thereby, in many instances, falsifying the airs, and depriving them of their antique character....
