APPENDIX: CONTAINING THE ADVERTISEMENTS ORIGINALLY PREFIXED TO THE DIFFERENT NUMBERS, AND THE PREFATORY LETTER ON IRISH MUSIC. ADVERTISEMENT PREFIXED TO THE FIRST AND SECOND NUMBERS. POWER takes the liberty of announcing to the Public a Work which has long been a Desideratum in this country. Though the beauties of the National Music of Ireland have been very generally felt and acknowledged, yet it has happened, through the want of appropriate English words, and of the arrangement necessary to adapt them to the voice, that many of the most excellent compositions have hitherto remained in obscurity. It is intended, therefore, to form a Collection of the best Original Irish Melodies, with characteristic Symphonies and Accompaniments; and with Words, containing, as frequently as possible, allusions to the manners and history of the country. Sir John Stevenson has very kindly consented to undertake the arrangement of the Airs; and the lovers of Simple National Music may rest secure, that, in such tasteful hands, the native charms of the original melody will not be sacrificed to the ostentation of science. In the Poetical Part, Power has had promises of assistance from several distinguished Literary Characters; particularly from Mr. Moore, whose lyrical talent is so peculiarly suited to such a task, and whose zeal in the undertaking will be best understood from the following Extract of a Letter which he has addressed to Sir John Stevenson on the subject: "I feel very anxious that a work of this kind should be undertaken. We have too long neglected the only talent for which our English neighbours ever deigned to allow us any credit. Our National Music has never been properly collected'; and, while the composers of the Continent have en riched their Operas and Sonatas with melodies borrowed from Ireland, -very often without even the honesty of acknowledgment, -we have left these treasures, in a great degree, unclaimed and fugitive. Thus our Airs, like too many of our countrymen, have, for want of protection at home, passed into the service of foreigners. But we are come, I hope, to a better period of both Politics 1 The writer forgot when he made this assertion, that the public are indebted to Mr. Bunting for a very valuable collection of Irish and Music; and how much they are connected, in Ireland at least, appears too plainly in the tone of sorrow and depression which characterises most of our early Songs. "The task which you propose to me, of adapting words to these airs, is by no means easy. The Poet who would follow the various sentiments which they express, must feel and understand that rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and levity, which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply tinged their Music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some melancholy note intrude, -some minor Third or flat Seventh, which throws its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting. If Burns had been an Irishman (and I would willingly give up all our claims upon Ossian for him), his heart would have been proud of such music, and his genius would have made it immortal. "Another difficulty (which is, however, purely mechanical) arises from the irregular structure of many of those airs, and the lawless kind of metre which it will in consequence be necessary to adapt to them. In these instances the Poet must write, not to the eye, but to the ear; and must be content to have his verses of that description which Cicero mentions, Quos si cantu spoliaveris nuda remanebit oratio.' That beautiful Air, The Twisting of the Rope,' which has all the romantic character of the Swiss Ranz des Vaches, is one of those wild and tie down in sober wedlock with Poetry. However, sentimental rakes which it will not be very easy to notwithstanding all these difficulties, and the very moderate portion of talent which I can bring to National, that I shall feel much pleasure in giving surmount them, the design appears to me so truly it all the assistance in my power. "Leicestershire, Feb. 1807."' ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD NUMBER. IN presenting the Third Number of this work to the Public, Power begs leave to offer his acknowledgments for the very liberal patronage with which it has been honoured; and to express a hope that the unabated zeal of those who have hitherto so admirably conducted it, will enable him to continue it through many future Numbers with equal spirit, variety, and taste. The stock of popular Melodies is far from being exhausted; and there is still in reserve an abundance of beautiful Airs, which call upon Mr. Moore, in the language he so well under Music; and that the patriotic genius of Miss Owenson has been employed upon some of our finest airs. 1 stands, to save them from the oblivion to which they are hastening. Power respectfully trusts he will not be thought presumptuous in saying, that he feels proud, as an Irishman, in even the very subordinate share which he can claim, in promoting a Work so creditable to the talents of the Country,-a Work which, from the spirit of nationality it breathes, will do more, he is convinced, towards liberalising the feelings of society, and producing that brotherhood of sentiment which it is so much our interest to cherish, than could ever be effected by the mere arguments of well-intentioned but uninteresting politicians. LETTER то THE MARCHIONESS DOWAGER OF DONEGAL, PREFIXED TO THE THIRD NUMBER. has always loved liberty, and the barbarous policy which has always withheld it from her, the ease with which her generous spirit might be conciliated, and the cruel ingenuity which has been exerted to "wring her into undutifulness." It has been often remarked, and still oftener felt, that in our music is found the truest of all comments upon our history. The tone of defiance, succeeded by the languor of despondency,— a burst of turbulence dying away into softness,- the sorrows of one moment lost in the levity of the next,-and all that romantic mixture of mirth and sadness, which is naturally produced by the efforts of a lively temperament to shake off, or forget, the wrongs which lie upon it. Such are the features of our history and character, which we find strongly and faithfully reflected in our music; and there are even many airs, which it is difficult to listen to, without recalling some period or event to which their expression seems applicable. Sometimes, for instance, when the strain is open and spirited, yet here and there shaded by a mournful recollection, we can fancy that we behold the brave allies of Montrose 2, marching to the aid of the royal cause, notwithstanding all the perfidy of Charles and his ministers, and remembering just enough of past sufferings to enhance the generosity of their present sacrifice. The plaintive melodies of Carolan take us back to the times in which he lived, when our poor countrymen were driven to worship their God in caves, or to quit for ever the land of their birth,-like the bird that abandons the nest which human touch has violated. In many of these mournful songs we seem to hear the last farewell of the exile, mingling regret for the ties which he leaves at home, with sanguine hopes of the high honours that await him abroad,-such honours as were won on the field of Fontenoy, where the valour of Irish Catholics turned the fortune of the day, and extorted from George the Second that memorable exclamation, "Cursed be the laws which deprive me of such subjects!" WHILE the publisher of these Melodies very properly inscribes them to the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland in general, I have much pleasure in selecting one from that number, to whom my share of the Work is particularly dedicated. I know that, though your Ladyship has been so long absent from Ireland, you still continue to remember it well and warmly,- that you have not suffered the attractions of English society to produce, like the taste of the lotus, any forgetfulLess of your own country, but that even the humble tribute which I offer derives its chief claim upon your interest and sympathy from the appeal which it makes to your patriotism. Indeed, asence, however fatal to some affections of the bart, rather tends to strengthen our love for the land where we were born; and Ireland is the country, of all others, which an exile from it must remember with most enthusiasm. Those few Though much has been said of the antiquity of darker and less amiable traits with which bigotry our music, it is certain that our finest and most poand misrule have stained her character, and which pular airs are modern; and perhaps we may look are too apt to disgust us upon a nearer intercourse, no further than the last disgraceful century for the become at a distance softened, or altogether in-origin of most of those wild and melancholy strains, visible. Nothing is remembered but her virtues and her misfortunes,-the zeal with which she A phrase which occurs in a Letter from the Earl of Desmond to the Earl of Ormond, in Elizabeth's time. Scrinia Sacra, as ted by Carry. There are some gratifying accounts of the gallantry of these Ira auxiliaries in "The complete History of the Wars in Scotland under Montrose" (1660). See particularly, for the conduct of an Inman at the battle of Aberdeen, chap. vi. p. 49. ; and for a tute to the bravery of Colonel O'Kyan, chap. vii. 55. Clarendon that the Marquis of Montrose was indebted for much of **raculous success to the small band of Irish heroes under The associations of the Hindu music, though more obvious which were at once the offspring and solace of grief, and were applied to the mind as music was formerly They and defined, were far less touching and characteristic. to the body, "decantare loca dolentia." Mr. Pinkerton is of opinion' that none of the Scotch popular airs are as old as the middle of the sixteenth century; and though musical antiquaries refer us, for some of our melodies, to so early a period as the fifth century, I am persuaded that there are few, of a civilised description, (and by this I mean to exclude all the savage Ceanans, Cries2, &c.) which can claim quite so ancient a date as Mr. Pinkerton allows to the Scotch. But music is not the only subject upon which our taste for antiquity has been rather unreasonably indulged; and, however heretical it may be to dissent from these romantic speculations, I cannot help thinking that it is possible to love our country very zealously, and to feel deeply interested in her honour and happiness, without believing that Irish was the language spoken in Paradise 3, that our ancestors were kind enough to take the trouble of polishing the Greeks, or that Abaris, the Hyperborean, was a native of the North of Ireland." By some of these zealous antiquarians it has been imagined that the Irish were early acquainted with counter-point; and they endeavour to support this conjecture by a well-known passage in Giraldus, where he dilates, with such elaborate praise, upon the beauties of our national minstrelsy. But the terms of this eulogy are much too vague, too deficient in technical accuracy, to prove that even Giraldus himself knew anything of the artifice of counter-point. There are many ex 1 Dissertation, prefixed to the 2nd volume of his Scottish Ballads. 2 Of which some genuine specimens may be found at the end of Mr. Walker's Work upon the Irish bards. Mr. Bunting has disfigured his last splendid volume by too many of these barbarous rhapsodies. 3 See Advertisement to the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin. 4 O'Halloran, vol. i. part iv. chap. vii. 5 Id. ib. chap. vi. 6 It is also supposed, but with as little proof, that they understood the diésis,or enharmonic interval.-The Greeks seem to have formed their ears to this delicate gradation of sound; and, whatever difficulties or objections may lie in the way of its practical use, we must agree with Mersenne (Préludes de l'Harmonie, Quest. 7.), that the theory of Music would be imperfect without it. Even in practice, too, as Tosi, among others, very justly remarks, (Observations on Florid Song, chap. i. sect. 16.) there is no good performer on the violin who does not make a sensible difference between D sharp and E flat, though, from the imperfection of the instrument, they are the same notes upon the piano-forte. The effect of modulation by enharmonic transitions is also very striking and beautiful. 7 The words oa and trepodavia, in a passage of Plato, and some expressions of Cicero, in Fragment. lib. ii. de Republ., induced the Abbé Fraguier to maintain that the ancients had a knowledge of counter-point. M. Burette, however, has answered him, I think, satisfactorily. (Examen d'un Passage de Platon, in the 3rd vol, of Histoire de l'Acad.) M. Huet is of opinion (Pensées Diverses), that what Cicero says of the music of the spheres, in his Dream of Scipio, is sufficient to prove an acquaintance with harmony; but one of th estrongest passages, which I recollect, in favour of this supposition, occurs in the Treatise (leps Kosov) attributed to AristotleΜουσική δε όξεις άμα και βαρεις, κ. τ. λ. 8 Another lawless peculiarity of our music is the frequent occurrence of, what composers call, consecutive fifths; but this, I must say, is an irregularity which can hardly be avoided by persons not conversant with all the rules of composition. If I may venture, pressions in the Greek and Latin writers which might be cited, with much more plausibility, to prove that they understood the arrangement of music in parts; and it is in general now conceded, I believe, by the learned, that, however grand and pathetic the melody of the ancients may have been, it was reserved for the ingenuity of modern Science to transmit the "light of Song" through the variegating prism of Harmony. Indeed, the irregular scale of the early Irish (in which, as in the music of Scotland, the interval of the fourth was wanting,) must have furnished but wild and refractory subjects to the harmonist. It was only when the invention of Guido began to be known, and the powers of the harp were enlarged by additional strings, that our airs can be supposed to have assumed the sweet character which interests us at present; and while the Scotch persevered in the old mutilation of the scale", our music became by degrees more amenable to the laws of harmony and counter-point. While profiting, however, by the improvements of the moderns, our style still keeps its original character sacred from their refinements; and though Carolan, it appears, had frequent opportunites of hearing the works of Geminiani and other great masters, we but rarely find him sacrificing his native simplicity to any ambition of their orna. ments, or affectation of their science. In that curious composition, indeed, called his Concerto, it is evident that he laboured to imitate Corelli; indeed, to cite my own wild attempts in this way, it is a fault which I find myself continually committing, and which has even, at times, appeared so pleasing to my ear, that I have surrendered it to the critic with no small reluctance. May there not be a little pedantry in adhering too rigidly to this rule ?—I have been told that there are instances in Haydn, of an undisguised succession of fifths; and Mr. Shield, in his Introduction to Harmony, seems to intimate that Handel has been sometimes guilty of the samDE irregularity. 9 A singular oversight occurs in an Essay upon the Irish Harp, by Mr. Beauford, which is inserted in the Appendix to Walker's Historical Memoirs :-"The Irish (says he), according to Bromton. in the reign of Henry II. had two kinds of Harps, Hibernici tamen in duobus musici generis instrumentis, quamvis præcipitem et velocem, suavem tamen et jucundum :' the one greatly bold and quick, the other soft and pleasing."-How a man of Mr. Beauford's learning could so mistake the meaning, and mutilate the grammatical construction of this extract, is unaccountable. The following is the passage as I find it entire in Bromton; and it requires but little Latin to perceive the injustice which has been done to the words of the old Chronicler :-" Et cum Scotia, hujus terre filia, utatur lyra, tympano et choro, ae Wallia cithara, tubis et choro Hibernici tamen in duobus musici generis instrumentis, quamvis præcipitem et velocem, suavem tamen et jucundam, crispatis modulis et intricatis notulis, efficiunt harmoniam."- Hist. Anglic. Script. page 1075. I should not have thought this error worth remarking, but that the compiler of the Dissertation on the Harp, prefixed to Mr. Bunting's last Work, has adopted it implicitly. 10 The Scotch lay claim to some of our best airs, but there are strong traits of difference between their melodies and ours. They had formerly the same passion for robbing us of our saints, and the learned Dempster was for this offence called "The Saint Stealer." It must have been some Irishman, I suppose, who, by way of reprisal, stole Dempster's beautiful wife from him at PisaSee this anecdote in the Pinacotheca of Erythræus, part i. page 25. and this union of manners, so very dissimilar, produces the same kind of uneasy sensation which is felt at a mixture of different styles of architecture. In general, however, the artless flow of our music has preserved itself free from all tinge of foreign innovation; and the chief corruptions of which we have to complain arise from the unskilful performance of our own itinerant musicians, from whom, too frequently, the airs are noted down, encumbered by their tasteless decorations, and responsible for all their ignorant anomalies. Though it be sometimes impossible to trace the original strain, yet, in most of them, "auri per ramos aura refulget," the pure gold of the melody shines through the ungraceful foliage which surrounds it, -and the most delicate and difficult duty of a compiler is to endeavour, by retrenching these inegant superfluities, and collating the various methods of playing or singing each air, to restore the regularity of its form, and the chaste simplicity of its character. those touches of political feeling, those tones of national complaint, in which the poetry sometimes sympathises with the music, would be suffered to pass without censure or alarm. It has been accordingly said, that the tendency of this publication is mischievous, and that I have chosen these airs but as a vehicle of dangerous politics,-as fair and precious vessels (to borrow an image of St. Augustine'), from which the wine of error might be administered. To those who identify nationality with treason, and who see, in every effort for Ireland, a system of hostility towards England,— to those, too, who nursed in the gloom of prejudice, are alarmed by the faintest gleam of liberality that threatens to disturb their darkness, - like that Demophon of old, who, when the sun shone upon him, shivered,- to such men I shall not condescend to offer an apology for the too great warmth of any political sentiment which may occur in the course of these pages. But as there are many, among the more wise and tolerant, I must again observe, that in doubting the anti- who, with feeling enough to mourn over the quity of our music, my scepticism extends but to wrongs of their country, and sense enough to perthose polished specimens of the art, which it is ceive all the danger of not redressing them, may difficult to conceive anterior to the dawn of modern yet be of opinion that allusions, in the least degree improvement; and that I would by no means in inflammatory, should be avoided in a publication validate the claims of Ireland to as early a rank of this popular description-I beg of these rein the annals of minstrelsy, as the most zealous spected persons to believe, that there is no one antiquary may be inclined to allow her. In addi- who more sincerely deprecates than I do, any tion, indeed, to the power which music must always appeal to the passions of an ignorant and angry have possessed over the minds of a people so ardent multitude; but that it is not through that gross and susceptible, the stimulus of persecution was and inflammable region of society, a work of this not wanting to quicken our taste into enthusiasm; nature could ever have been intended to circulate. the charms of song were ennobled with the glories It looks much higher for its audience and readers, of martyrdom, and the acts against minstrels, in-it is found upon the piano-fortes of the rich and the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, were as successful, I doubt not, in making my countrymen musicians, as the penal laws have been in keeping them Catholics. With respect to the verses which I have written for these melodies, as they are intended rather to be sung than read, I can answer for their sound with somewhat more confidence than for their sense. Yet it would be affectation to deny that I have given much attention to the task, and that it is not through any want of zeal or industry, if I unfortunately disgrace the sweet airs of my country by poetry altogether unworthy of their taste, their energy, and their tenderness. Though the humble nature of my contributions to this work may exempt them from the rigours of literary criticism, it was not to be expected that Among other false refinements of the art, our music (with the exception perhaps of the air called "Mamma, Mamma," and one or two more of the same ludicrous description, has avoided that puerile mory of natural noises, motions, &c. which disgraces so often The works of even Handel himself. D'Alembert ought to have had better taste than to become the patron of this imitative affectation. -Lacours Proliminaire de l'Encyclopédie. The reader may find some good remarks on the subject in Avison upon Musical Expression; a work which, though under the name of Avison, was the educated,-of those who can afford to have their national zeal a little stimulated, without exciting much dread of the excesses into which it may hurry them; and of many whose nerves may be, now and then, alarmed with advantage, as much more is to be gained by their fears, than could ever be expected from their justice. Having thus adverted to the principal objection, which has been hitherto made to the poetical part of this work, allow me to add a few words in defence of my ingenious coadjutor, Sir John Stevenson, who has been accused of having spoiled the simplicity of the airs by the chromatic richness of his symphonies, and the elaborate variety of his harmonies. We might cite the example of the admirable Haydn, who has sported through all the mazes of musical science, in his arrangement of written, it is said, by Dr. Brown. 2 Virgil, Æneid, lib. vi. verse 204. 3 See Letters, under the signatures of Timæus, &c. in the Morning Post, Pilot, and other papers. 4 "Non accuso verba, quasi vasa electa atque pretiosa; sed vinum erroris quod cum eis nobis propinatur."-Lib. i. Confess. chap. xvi. 5 This emblem of modern bigots was head-butler (rpawesomoios) to Alexander the Great.-Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypoth. Lib. i. not only for the purpose of removing all blame from the Publisher, but in consequence of a rumour which has been circulated industriously in Dublin, that the Irish Government had interfered to prevent the continuance of the Work. the simplest Scottish melodies; but it appears to me, that Sir John Stevenson has brought to this task an innate and national feeling, which it would be vain to expect from a foreigner, however tasteful or judicious. Through many of his own compositions we trace a vein of Irish sentiment, which This would be, indeed, a revival of Henry the points him out as peculiarly suited to catch the Eighth's enactments against Minstrels, and it is spirit of his country's music; and, far from agree-flattering to find that so much importance is ating with those fastidious critics who think that his tached to our compilation, even by such persons as symphonies have nothing kindred with the airs the inventors of the report. Bishop Lowth, it is which they introduce, I would say that, on the true, was of opinion, that one song, like the Hymn contrary, they resemble, in general, those illu- to Harmodius, would have done more towards minated initials of old manuscripts, which are of rousing the spirit of the Romans, than all the the same character with the writing which follows, | Philippics of Cicero. But we live in wiser and less though more highly coloured and more curiously musical times; ballads have long lost their revoluornamented. tionary powers, and we question if even a "Lillibullero" would produce any very serious consequences at present. It is needless, therefore, to add, that there is no truth in the report; and we trust that whatever belief it obtained was founded more upon the character of the Government than of the Work. In those airs, which he has arranged for voices, his skill has particularly distinguished itself, and, though it cannot be denied that a single melody most naturally expresses the language of feeling and passion, yet often, when a favourite strain has been dismissed, as having lost its charm of novelty for the ear, it returns, in a harmonised shape, with new claims on our interest and attention; and to those who study the delicate artifices of composition, the construction of the inner parts of these pieces must afford, I think, considerable satisfaction. Every voice has an air to itself, a flowing succession of notes, which might be heard with pleasure, independently of the rest;-so artfully has the harmonist (if I may thus express it) gavelled the melody, distributing an equal portion of its sweetness to every part. If your Ladyship's love of Music were not well known to me, I should not have hazarded so long a letter upon the subject; but as, probably, I may have presumed too far upon your partiality, the best revenge you now can take is to write me just as long a letter upon Painting; and I promise to attend to your theory of the art, with a pleasure only surpassed by that which I have so often derived from your practice of it.-May the mind which such talents adorn, continue calm as it is bright, and happy as it is virtuous! Believe me, your Ladyship's The Airs of the last Number, though full of originality and beauty, were, in general, perhaps, too curiously selected to become all at once as popular as, we think, they deserve to be. The public are apt to be reserved towards new acquaintances in music, and this, perhaps, is one of the reasons why many modern composers introduce none but old friends to their notice. It is, indeed, natural that persons, who love music only by association, should be somewhat slow in feeling the charms of a new and strange melody; while those, on the other hand, who have a quick sensibility for this enchanting art, will as naturally seek and enjoy novelty, because in every variety of strain they find a fresh combination of ideas; and the sound has scarcely reached the ear, before the heart has as rapidly rendered it into imagery and sentiment. After all, however, it cannot be denied that the most popular of our National Airs are also the most beautiful; and it has been our wish, in the present Number, to select from those Melodies only which have long been listened to and admired. The least known in the collection is the Air of "Love's Young Dream;" but it will be found, I think, one of those easy and artless strangers whose merit the heart instantly acknowledges. Bury Street St. James's, T. M. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH NUMBER. THIS Number of the Melodies ought to have appeared much earlier; and the writer of the words is ashamed to confess, that the delay of its publication must be imputed chiefly, if not entirely, to him, He finds it necessary to make this avowal, ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH NUMBER. Ir is but fair to those, who take an interest in this |