The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-07

and others have collected hundreds OF
old Irish airs, but like the rest OF Brit
ain, Ireland has still hundreds more
quite possible of discovery. A Miss
Murray of America has collected $50
airs "of most distinctive character"
in the Hebrides. and other individuals
are prosecuting with the zeal of special
lists unorganized research; but no con-
certed effort Is being made to assemble
the treasures In an official thesaurus.
An English lady collecting songs OF Sus-
sex came upon n sixty-eight-year-old
bell ringer celebrated for knowing 400
songs; but some of them had words with
which he refused to lombard ladies'
ears, and he could not call up the tunes
without the words. Another lady in
quest OF tunes served the Ordinary"
table at country inn In The Breads.
The author. hearing an air unfamiliar
but Enthusiastically Irish played on a
hand organ. interviewed the peripatetic
music maker: "It Is The Beautiful City
of Sligo. I have played 1t on the road
for forty years. and my father had
played 1t as many before me. He
bought the organ at the sale of a gen.
tleman's property at Liverpool"
Venturing into what he calls "com-
pa.ative philophony," Mr.. Graves gem
thy suggests analysis of the peculiarities
OF ihythmic genius OF different Ian
guages, the -brogue Of music. Musical
themes pass from people to people with
rhythmic notifications corresponding to
the CHI. nges in the singing words. The
Irish air Of "Cruiskeen Lawn" he heard
played at the Moore centenary by q
SNpdfqh TnnQipian mis-
no doubt passed into Norway when Dub
lin was the capital of the Morse empire,
and the tides of music flowed strongly
between Ireland and Scandinavia" The
same air is recognized in the Welsh
The Vale OF Clwyd" and the Scotch
John Anderson. My Jo." There is
abundance of occupation for the musical
grammarian In ,racing these airs with
their innumerable variants; from a root
perhaps Oriental. from nation to ma
ton, until at last Il is fixed in form
that could not possibly be mated with
the original except by one who has
faithfully followed step by step the
course OF its tuneful history.
One OF the folk chants a song to n rude
tune on rude instrument. 1t IL taken up,
improved In rhythm, improved in air and
u
harp OF thirty strings for example, as
opposed to one with a dozen. A consumma.
tion Is finally reached. musical genius
arises. Under his musical cultivation the
simple rose OF the hedgeside blossoms into
the perfect garden flower. And to match
this beautiful melody perfect words are
needed. II indeed they have not inspired the
absolute air. Thomas Moore or a Robert
Burns crystailizes the melody forever.
Edward Bunting. fired by the en-
thusiasm OF the Belfast Harpers' Festi-
val OF 1892, at which, then a lad just
| leaving his teens, he took down the airs
| played by the assembled harpers, was
lifelong student of Irish folk song.
He believed the harpers to have pre-
served most correctly the form OF the
ancient airs; George Petrie contended
and with the support OF popular opinion
| that the melodies have been more ac-
curately transmitted by voice. But dc
not the Irish harp tunes stand. as q
rule. quite apart from the airs OF the
Irish folk songs" as in the music OF
| Wales? rs 1t not reasonable" Mr.
Graves asks. ito suppose that airs IN
| pentatonic or other incomplete scales
which still exist in Ireland and Wales
side by side with diatonic tunes dating
from the twelfth century. at any rate
take their origin in the main either
( IA the use Of early capped instruments
or from the secular use among the Irish
and Welsh Catholic peasantry Of their
church's earliest forms of plain song?'
Petrie suggests direct connection be-
tween Irish lullabies and those OF Persia
| and India