Demerary, Oct. 1851.
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Bunting's Irish Melodies._--On p. 167. of the third volume of "NOTES
AND QUERIES," MR. STEPHENS, of Stockholm asks a question concerning the
_Irish Airs_ of this distinguished musician. As a member of the Royal
Academy of Music in Stockholm, I feel more than ordinary pleasure in
answering the Query of your esteemed correspondent.
Edward Bunting was born at Armagh in 1773. He claimed descent from
Patrick Gruama O'Quin, who as killed in arms in July, 1642; and it was
to this origin that Bunting attributed his musical talents, as well as
certain strong Irish predilections, for which he was through life
remarkable. His first collection of _Irish Airs_ was published in 1796;
his second in 1809; and his third, and last, in 1840. The first work
contains sixty-six native Irish airs never before published. The second
added seventy-five tunes to the original stock. This volume, like the
first, afforded a copious fund of new melodies, of which the
song-writers of the day eagerly and largely availed themselves. The
third and final collection consists of upwards of 150 melodies; "Of
these," the editor remarks in his Preface, "considerably more than 120
are now for the first time published, the remainder being sets much
superior to those already known." Bunting did not live to carry out his
plan of republishing his first two collections uniform with the third.
He died December 21, 1843, aged seventy. A copious memoir of him,
accompanied with a portrait, may be found in the _Dublin University
Magazine_, No. XLI., January, 1847.