The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-18 00:00:00

NEW MUSIC.

THE MUSIC OF IRELAND. Part I. By F. W.
fiorncastle.

This is a collection of choice speciniens of the an-
cient music of Ireland, harmonised and arranged by
Mr. Horncastle, of her Majesty's Chapel Royal.
Those who have had the very great pleasure of hearing
this gentleman's lectures and entertainments upon
Irish music will thank us for calling their attention
to the fact, that the beautiful, perhaps, matchless, me-
lodies, many of them before unpublished and neglected,
which he produced on those occasions, are nowplaced
within their reach in a permanent form. The service
which the composer has rendered to music and even
to ethnology, by the preservation and publication of
those exquisite (and but for him perishing) relics of
ancient science and refinement, is enhanced by his
judicious, as well as reverential abstinence from at-
tempts at improving perfection. In this respect he
stands very much above his predecessor in the same
field, Sir John Stevenson ; for he at once admits that
the old music of Ireland as it is found is not the wild
effusion of a rude and simple people, but
is the production of a school in a high degree
methodical, skilful, and cultivated. In harmo-
nising the trade songs, marches, and caoines,
or funeral pieces, in the present number, he has
laboured, and successfully, to supply his accompani-
ments strictly as they may be believed to have been
in the practice of the Bardic authors, whose composi-
tions being only orally delivered (as was for the most
part their history, poetry, and other literature), have
perished in the lapse of time and the ravages of conquest,
except so much as could be preserved in the songs of
the common people. Mr. Horncastle must have had
great difficulties to contend with as an Englishman, in
collecting some of those old airs, and the characteristic
traditions associated with them—the latter adding a
very great charm to this book, and, if possible, in-
creasing the interest which we feel in the music.
Thus, it is interesting to know that the caoine (or funeral
chaunt) pronounced keen, so long known to us, in Eng-
land, as the " Irish howl," is a noble and most expres-
sive piece of music. Our author gives two specimens—
the Bardic and the Connaught—and these are, note
for note, the actual keen at the peasant's funeral at
the present day. In reference to them, Mr. Horn-
castle—having said that " the music of Ireland
takes a wide range, and includes within its
characteristic melodies, songs of trades, warlike
achievements, historical facts, and rural occupations,
as well as many other objects, on which the fancy
both of the poet and musician have been equally well
exercised"—proceeds to state, that " their caoines or
funeral chaunts, alone serve as examples of the most
beautiful harmonic compositions, and prove beyond a
doubt that music in those early ages was in the highest
state of cultivation." Yet to this day the humblest
of the people have been the only depositories of these
great works, which remained for an Englishman to
rescue from obscurity and contempt !
An adequate analysis of this work, or a bare re-
ference to one half of its beauties, could not be under-
taken here ; but it would be difficult to pass over
without mention one curious fact—that the Irish
hedge schoolmasters have been in the habit of teach-
ing their pupils to sing Latin odes to old Irish airs.
The illustration given in the present volume seems
to offer temptation to a somewhat interesting inquiry.
It has been said that the music of Western, or Celtic,
Europe was related to that of Ireland. Here we find
the first ode of. Horace (of which the peculiar metre
occurs but twice in the Odes) perfectly adapted, as if
it were written for it, to an old Irish air, also of very
peculiar character, and entitled " I'm asleep, and
don't waken me." Now, sing the ode to the air,
and you will find it not hard to believe that
it was written to it. Nay, one is tempted
to conjecture—what is not improbable—that the air
was known to ancient Italy by a title as expressive
ofits character, as its Irish one ; and that Horace
adapted to it his dedicatory ode to Mecwnas, as a
delicate remonstrance with his patron for withdraw-
ing him from the repose in which he delighted, and
inducing him to make public his prepared works,
and to go on writing more. Fanciful as this specu-
lation
may seem, it is not altogether unsupported.
Horace more than once intimates plainly that he
writes with the feeling of one who had said, " Let
me be quiet," and yields to authoritative importu-
nity ; and, curious enough, the metre of this ode
occurs only in the 4th Book, which, we are told by
Suetonius, he wrote reluctantly, at the desire of
Augustus. The first ode of this book is a depreca-
tion, and, although not addressed to the Emperor,
conveys a complaint of being taxed beyond his powers.
But in the Bth ode, to Censorinus, he uses the metre
of that to Mecwnas, and is as the theme is much the
same—his love of fame as a poet, which he really did
not covet—it is clear that he wrote them in the same
spirit. This 4th book was undoubtedly written under
circumstances in which the air, " I'm asleep, and
don't waken me," would express his temper. It may
be worth asking, did he know and use the Irish tune?
Whether or not, we are obliged to Mr. Horncastle
for the adaptation, which gives occasion to the amus-
ing surmise, although few others will think this
portion the most valuable of his delightful work.