Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished

Subject: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 11:37 AM

The Irish Traditional Music Archive has sent the following press release. It may be of interest to members.

John Moulden

ITMA Press Release************************************

FIRST COLLECTION OF IRISH MUSIC REPUBLISHED

Music has been performed in oral tradition in Ireland now for some ten thousand years, but it was 1724 before the first notated collection of Irish music appeared. Consisting of forty-nine tunes and far older than any surviving manuscript collection, A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes Proper for the Violin, German Flute or Hautboy was published that year in the yard of Christ Church Cathedral in central Dublin by the musical-instrument makers John and William Neal, a father and son of obscure origins who dominated the Dublin music trade in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Sold for the new and fashionable instruments of the violin, German flute and oboe, the collection proves on examination to consist almost entirely of traditional Irish harp music and the melodies of traditional Irish-language songs, many with titles in Irish. The famous blind harper Turlough Carolan, who composed several of the tunes, was alive at the time of their publication here, aged fifty-four. Many of the tunes reveal a sympathy with the defeated but still powerful Jacobite cause, surprising in a publication produced in the heart of ascendancy Dublin.

A new facsimile reprint of the Celebrated Irish Tunes has now been published by the Irish Traditional Music Archive. It has been made from the single surviving copy of the original publication, and it makes generally available again a collection of Irish traditional music that was current three hundred and more years ago, music that differs greatly from the Irish traditional music of today. A document of social and political significance, the collection is chiefly important as a foundation source of Irish music, offering insights into its distant past and providing melodies for modern re-creation and study.

The illustrated introduction and notes on the tunes by Nicholas Carolan, Director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, contain new information on John and William Neal, the earliest important publishers of music in Ireland, and on the state of music in the capital and the country in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. As an aid towards the re-creation and understanding of the tunes in the collection, early Irish-language song texts have also been provided, with translations, for the some half of the tunes which are song airs rather than instrumental melodies.

DETAILS
Title: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes Proper for the Violin, German Flute or Hautboy, [published by] John & William Neal, Dublin, 1724
Edition - Second facsimile ed.
Editor: Nicholas Carolan
Publisher: Irish Traditional Music Archive in association with the Folk Music Society of Ireland, 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Specifications: Hardback, 26cm., xiv+118 pp., illustrated introduction, music (49 melodies), notes on the tunes, appendixes, bibliography, indexes
ISBN:978-0-9532704-3-9
Price: €30
P&P Charges
(750g)
Ireland: €7
UK & Europe: €8
Rest of World: €11

Orders/Payment Options: Irish Traditional Music Archive, 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
tel.: [phone], fax [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail], web site: www.itma.ie
Prepayment by cheque/ draft/ credit card (Mastercard, Visa) or PayPal on www.itma.ie required except from libraries/ institutions

Discount for Friends: Members of the ITMA support group Friends of the Archive can purchase the publication for €24, a discount of 20%. To join the Friends of the Archive go to www.itma.ie; the annual subscription rate is €20/ €10

ITMA Press Release ENDS

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 06:17 PM

Historic stuff. This is a great collection, and wonderful that it's available. Any fan of Irish music should get this. Pre jig and reel, pre bodhran, pre Enya, pre "Celtic": this is the real deal.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 06:33 PM

Yes, but are the tunes good?

And that is a lot of money for 49 tunes.

I await word from someone who's played through the book.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 07:20 PM

Any chance of getting the index on-line?

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 08:34 PM

I find it unbelievable that the first response to this great news is

"Where can we get it cheap?"

Philistines!

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Jack Campin
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 08:50 PM

I don't see where anyone's said that.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 09:00 PM

Tunelist here
http://homepage.eircom.net/~shields/fmsi/publs/neal.htm

tunelist

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 09:06 PM

Better than cheap FREE!

Must get Storch Pluggin

http://www.pipers.ie/imco/CMCIT.HTM

Storch Version

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 09:16 PM

sorry scorch

http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/download/get.pl?com=sh&prod=scorch
scorch plugin

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Liberty Boy
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 03:21 AM

I heard Paul McGratten, Paul O'Shoughnessy, Siobhan Armstrong and Áine Uí Ceallaígh play and sing a selection from this collection in St Audeons Church in April this year. Amazing! Highly recommended!

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:01 AM

Here's a clicky. The rest of ITMA's website is interesting too, and they have some other publications as well. Take a look around -

http://www.itma.ie/English/News/Neal%20news.html

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:09 AM

Conrad, I think you may have to have the Sibelius programme installed before you can download anything in Scorch. Not totally sure, tho - I do have Sib already so can't check if it works for computers without it.

Does it include all the notes & historical research? Nicholas Carolan is quite a fine scholar and he's put a lot of work into it, which places the music in context.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:17 AM

I too was going to mention IMCO as well, which has loads more old collections than the Neal's one.

I must say that Scorch crashes Firefox on my computer after looking at two or three records and nobody has managed to explain why (let alone suggest a solution for this very frustrating problem).

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:21 AM

I don't think you have to have the whole Sibelius outfit, just a plugin of some sort. Enough to view but not edit or create.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:25 AM

I say that based on the fact that I have Scorch but have never bought Sibelius. Incidentally, my Scorch Plugin installer said it was for a limited group of browsers (Firefox, Safari and Opera, I think); not for IE. Not sure if there's a separate version for IE or if they are boycotting.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:30 AM

Yes, you're right. Scorch is a free plug-in to view (and play) sibelius files. There's a link on the NPU/IMCO site.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Jim McLean
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:31 AM

Thanks for the info, John, book ordered.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:31 AM

The add-in will install when you open the website depending on your security settings. Then you just refresh the page.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: BrianD
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 06:34 AM

Audio and visual recordings of recital by Paul McGrattan etc from St. Audeons Church, Dublin, available to be viewed by public in ITMA HQ in 73 Merrion Sq. The musicians played as part of an overall talk given by Nicholas Carolan on the Neal collection

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 07:32 AM

Many of the tunes reveal a sympathy with the defeated but still powerful Jacobite cause, surprising in a publication produced in the heart of ascendancy Dublin.

A lot of the same sort of Jacobite tunes were published for the same sort of market in London and Edinburgh at around the same time, so this is not surprising at all.

Not sure I'll get one for me personally but I'll make sure the National Library of Scotland gets it.

The date is interesting. The German flute didn't really take off in Britain until the following year, as far as I know. Is this the first tune collection from the British Isles in the 18th century to mention it? Do the tunes all work on it? (It's also rather surprising they didn't mention the recorder - there must have been many more recorders than German flutes in Dublin at the time).

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 07:44 AM

You will find that I have added a link to the free scorch plugin above

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 01:47 PM

What does "PleaRarkeh na Rough" mean?

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,^&*
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 01:59 PM

Sounds like a rough anglicisation of "Plearacha an Ruarcaigh" - the name of a (Turlough) Carolan tune. Roughly trnslates as "O'Rourke's Frolics"

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:17 PM

More often the title would be 'O'Rourke's Noble Feast' or as it is in The Bunting Collection, in a translation from the Irish by Jonathan Swift 'O'Rouke's Noble fare will ne'er be forgot'

O'Rourke's noble fare will ne'er be forgot
By those who were there, or those who were not
His revels to keep, we sup and we dine
On seve nscore sheep, fat bullocks and swine;
Usquebagh t oour feast in pails is brought up,
A hundred at least, and madder out cup

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 09:32 PM

I was thinking of the title page from the Scorch links, where we read
A COLECTION
of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes proper for the
Violin, German Flute or Hautboy
PleaRarkeh na Rough set with different divisions
BASS & CORUS
As performed at the Subscription Consort by
Senior Loranzo Bocchi
Dublin. Printed & Sold by John & William Neal in Christ Church Yard
where it sounds to me more like a musical term than a tune name or text incipit.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,julia L
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 09:44 PM

Those of us that are interested in period music have been playing and enjoying these tunes for awhile.I came across transcriptions when I was researching music for use in my historical play "Grand Design" circa 1740. There are some very beautiful and interesting tunes from this period. O'Rourke's feast is delightful- Fred and I have just recorded it with the poem on our CD "Bards and Blarney"

best- Julia

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 04:44 AM

PleaRarkeh na Rough set with different divisions
BASS & CORUS
As performed at the Subscription Consort by
Senior Loranzo Bocchi


I read it (and think it should be read so) as an intended recommendation/incentive to buy for the collection, bringing to our notice that a particular arrangement of this (popular) piece is included in the collection.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:43 AM

Having posted the original announcement, I think I should emphasize still further that this is much more than a tune book. I have it in front of me and it is a most handsome hardbacked volume with a beautifully produced dustcover. The facsimile occupies only 30 pages of 118. The rest comprises an illustrated introduction of around 50 pages, giving the contemporary context, information about the Neals and much more. There is an appendix of notes concerning each tune, including in many cases, appropriate song texts. There are also indexes, of tune-names, of people within the introduction and incipits, and a Discographical note. The notes to the introduction allow the reader to pursue further research as does the extensive bibliography.
This contains much more than tunes to play, it also offers understanding.

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: Haruo
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 01:56 PM

Thanks for bringing the publication to our notice, John. And yes, Peter, now I see that "PleaRarkeh na Rough" probably is a tune name used as you suggest to boost sales.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 04:16 PM

Yes I thought there was much mroe to it for that price....and knowing the source. However it is good to know what tunes are there as well as someone did ask. No wassail tunes so I cant fit it into my budget!

Conrad

Subject: RE: Earliest Irish Tunebook Republished
From: GUEST,^&*
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 12:49 PM

Interesting REVIEW on the Musical Traditions site.