ANNALS OF THE IRISH HARPERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 77, 30 March 1912, Page 13

ANNALS OF THE IRISH HARPERS

A man who saved from oblivion, or lifted into wider circulation wealth which all who have ears may share, « .himself now brought from obscurity into larger fame.' Edward Bunting, who wa3 born in 1773 and died in 1843, spent his life tin collecting and recording old Irish melodies, ' many of which were vanishing, and without which to-day the world would be less sweet. As it is w6 know them, the air* that Bunting preserved, as Moore's Melodies. Both men deserve our grateful memory, but certainly not Bunting less than Moore. Both were musicians, and the; poet was indebted for many of his inspirations to the rival who was so industrious a collector. The latter Teoeives his just portion of celebrity in the book (''Annals of the Irish Harpers") which Mrs. Mil/igan Fox, secretary of the Irish Folksong Society, has "written. She has come into possession of Bunting's manuscripts, from which she extracted many of the beautiful melodies, which have since been published in "Songs of the Irish Harpers." Now from the same material, aided by her own researches, she ha# made a history 'of the harpers, by whose agency the "lovely native music of Ireland was transmitted down tie cci» turiea. Will the printed note, and the printed word ever secure for the -utterances of art such enduring life as; they enjoyed in the ages whose expression was committed to ihe ear and preserved by it? Books are the property of the few, and perish without issue. The bards who passed on the Homeric poems by word of mouth, and the minstrels who Kept Scottish, Irish, and Welsh melodies alive by harp and roice, are tho living books and libretti. Words, it is true,; may in tradition suffer literal corruption, although the mere fact of their repetition is proof of the vitality of bheir substance,- but in 'the case of music so perpetuated the ear never makes mistakes. As Mrs. Foxes says, "The' words of the popular songs of every country vary according to the several provinces and district in which they are sung; as for example, to the popular air of 'Aileen-a-Roon' we here find as many sets of words as there are counties m one of our provinces. ' But the case m i totally different with music. A strain of music once impressed on the popular ear never varies.