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    In collaboration with the current custodian of the manuscripts, Hugh Maguire, ITMA have digitised all ten books and they are now available on the ITMA website.

    Stephen Grier Manuscripts

    These manuscripts have been digitised to a high resolution and presented in a IIIF viewer, allowing you to view each page in incredible detail.

    The tunes have been indexed to allow you to navigate to the tune of your choice

    “This book was written by Mr. Stephen Grier, Newpark, County of Leitrim, and Parish of Gortletteragh, dated 25th May, 1883”

    Book 3

    Each of the 1,153 tunes has been transcribed using music notation software and made available on the ITMA website as an interactive score.  These scores are a learning resource that allow you to hear the music, loop through a section and slow down or speed up the music without changing the key.

    With each score there is also an option to download the music as a PDF.  It is also possible to download each book in PDF format.

    For many years this collection has served as a valuable source of tunes for musicians in the area.  It features many tunes that are local to the area and also an eclectic mix of Irish traditional music and music that was heard in Ireland at the time from other parts.  The recently launched Furls of Music: The Michael McNamara Sound Collection features tunes from the Grier collection.

    For more information you can read Jackie Small’s description of the manuscript.  This was delivered at the initial launch of nine of the Stephen Grier Manuscripts at the Willie Clancy Summer School 2019.   

    Written & presented by:

    Treasa Harkin & Maeve Gebruers

    With thanks to:

    Hugh Maguire, Séamus McGuire, Fr. John Quinn, Conor Ward, and Jackie Small for their support in bringing this project to fruition. 

    An early PW Joyce manuscript, held in the National Library of Ireland as MS J 25

    The ITMA website also holds a facsimile edition of MS J 25 and further information on this manuscript, and other PW Joyce manuscripts in the National Library of Ireland, at the links below.

    Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin and Jackie Small, 14 November 2014

    Tunes from PW Joyce in The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland: Arranged for Piano-forte. Vol. 1 / edited by George Petrie

    Since 2006 the Irish Traditional Music Archive has been in a productive partnership with The Journal of Music in Ireland (JMI) in publishing in each issue of the journal a black-and-white archival image from its collections on some aspect of Irish traditional music (as well as extensive listings of recent publications). Each image has accompanying text by Nicholas Carolan.

    In 2007 the JMI became an online journal as well as continuing to publish in hardcopy, and the Archive’s images are now available on the JMI site. In 2008 the JMI became the Journal of Music with which the project continues.

    With thanks to editor Toner Quinn and JM staff. With thanks also for the donation of photographs to ITMA and for other facilitation to the Breathnach Family, Luke Cheevers, Ken Garland, the Irish Examiner, Antain Mac Lochlainn, Liam McNulty, Pat McNulty, the National Library of Ireland, O’Donoghue’s public house, Merrion Row, Dublin, the Gerard O’Grady Family, J.B. Vallely, & the directors of the Willie Clancy Summer School. ITMA always welcomes such donations or the opportunity to copy such materials.

    Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 August 2008

    Strawboys, dancers, ca. 1911 / E.A. Morrow
    Oliver Goldsmith, flute / Edward Matthew Ward
    Seachtar, group, 1974 / Robert Dawson
    Shadow dolls, dancers, 2008 / Maurice Gunning
    The schoolmaster’s moment of leisure / Howard Helmick
    Patrick Byrne, harper, singer, 1845 / David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson
    Private O’Leary, dancer, & others, 1900 / Sidney Paget
    Tommy Peoples, fiddle, & others / Treasa Harkin
    The Irish musical monthly, 1902
    An Irish harper on the continent, ca. 1750 / unidentified artist
    Maggie Murphy, singer, 1993 / Ken Garland
    The Irish harp, 1843 / unidentified artist
    The Dubliners, group, 1964 / Brian Shuel
    Uilleann pipers at Bettystown, Co. Meath, 1968 / unidentified photographer
    Harry Bradshaw, radio producer, 2008 / John Rowe
    Black Raven Pipe & Drum Band, group, 1914 / Cork Examiner photographer
    Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, singer, & others, 1970s / Nutan
    Peadar Mercier, bodhrán, & others, 1970s / unidentified photographer
    Tommy Makem, singer, ca. 1969 / unidentified photographer
    Tom Lenihan, singer, & others, 1980 / Carroll
    The Irish Music Club of Chicago, ca. 1901-09 / unidentified photographer
    Frank Harte, Áine uí Ceallaigh, Clíona Ní Shuilleabháin & Siobhán Ní Laoire, 1993 / Luke Cheevers
    Máire Áine Ní hIarnáin, dancer, & other, 2006 / MacInnes Photography
    Various, accordion, 2003 / Tony Kearns
    John Loughran, fiddle, 1977 / Eamonn O’Doherty
    Eddie Butcher, singer, 1977 / Joe Dowdall
    Ciarán Mac Mathúna, broadcaster, & others, c. 1960 / unidentified photographer

    The Illustrated London News (ILN) was the world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper and was first published on Saturday, 14 May 1842. Published by Herbert Ingram, this Victorian publication reached a weekly circulation of over 300,000 copies, bringing news to life with detailed woodcut engravings depicting personalities and events of the day. Success brought other competitors to the market and in 1869, former ILN engraver William Luson Thomas launched The Graphic. These newspapers now provide the modern reader with a visual record of history including events relating to Ireland, and an insight into Victorian perceptions of the Irish.

    We have digitised a selection of these illustrations taken from ITMA’s own newspaper collections.  These were published between 1844 and 1893 and depict or include Irish music, song, dance or musical instruments. Political parades featuring marching bands; banners & flags bearing a symbolic harp; St. Patrick’s Day celebrations; dancers and ballad singers as well as well-known musical figures such as Thomas Moore & George Petrie are among the selected images. Some are of a journalistic nature while others betray a more caricaturist approach to the depiction of the Irish during the 19th century.

    The Illustrated London News ceased publication in 2003 and The Graphic in 1932.

    The Dublin Horse Show. West of Ireland types, 1900 / Tom Browne
    Ireland at the grave of O’Connell, 1869 / [unidentified artist]
    A travelling circus in Ireland, 1884 / [unidentified artist]
    The old Music Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin, 1884 / Claude Byrne
    The Music Hall Dublin, 1844 / [unidentified artist]
    The great aggregate meeting in the Music Hall Dublin, 1844 / [unidentified artist]
    Twelfth-night revels in Ireland, 1880 / [unidentified artist]
    Lord Salisbury in Ireland, 1893 / [unidentified artist]
    Royal visit to Ireland, cead mile fáilthi, 1885 / [unidentified artist]
    Demonstration on Mr. Parnell’s Estate, Avondale, Wicklow, 1882 / A. O’Kelly
    Young Ireland, 1881 / Harry Furness
    The ballad singer, 1881 / Harry Furness
    Sketches of Irish character in Dublin, 1881 / Harry Furness
    The state of Ireland: making the best of it, 1879 / M.F.
    The riots in Belfast: Orangemen attacking the procession, 1872 / [unidentified artist]
    Sketches from Ireland: a funeral in Connemara, 1870 / [unidentified artist]
    The late Dr Petrie of Dublin, 1866 / [unidentified artist]
    Concert hall of the Dublin International Exhibition Building, 1865 / [unidentified artist]
    Laying the first stone of St. Patrick’s bridge, Cork, 1859 / [unidentified artist]
    `Allhallow-Eve’, a sketch in Kilkenny, 1858 / Edmund Fitzpatrick
    The new Inland Revenue office, 1857 / [unidentified artist]
    Drowning the shamrock on St Patrick’s night, 1853 / E. Fitzpatrick
    St. Patrick’s Day, 1853 / George Thomas
    Irish piper in Patrick Street, Cork,1852 / [unidentified artist]
    Facsimile of a letter to the ‘Illustrated London News’,1852 / [unidentified artist]
    Birth-place of the late Thomas Moore,1852 / [unidentified artist]
    Thomas Moore,1852 / [unidentified artist]
    Irish Home Rule riots in Glasgow,1880 / M. R.
    Irish brooches, by Waterhouse, Dublin,1851 / [unidentified artist]
    Grand musical performance in the theatre of Trinity College, Dublin, 1851 / [unidentified artist]
    Procession of the wren bush and wren boys, 1850 / James Mahony
    Dancing between decks, 1850 / [unidentified artist]
    An Irish harvest home, 1849 / P. Fitzpatrick
    Dance of peasantry on the lawn at Carton,1849 / [unidentified artist]
    New Year’s night in an Irish cabin, 1848 / Topham ; Dalziel
    To the memory of O’Connell, 1847 / William Harvey
    Saint Patrick’s Day, 1847 / James Mahony
    The Ethiopian serenaders, 1846 / [unidentified artist]
    Mr O’Connell in his triumphal car, 1844 / [unidentified artist]
    Schools of the benevolent society of St Patrick, 1844 / [unidentified artist]
    St. Patrick’s day in London, 1844 / [unidentified artist]
    The Ulster demonstration against Home Rule, 1893 / [unidentified artist]
    A league band in the rain, 1888 / [unidentified artist]
    The police off duty, 1887 / [unidentified artist]
    The crisis in Ireland, 1886 / [unidentified artist]
    Visit to the island of Inishkea, 1884 / [unidentified artist]
    Orange torchlight procession in the streets of Belfast, 1883 / [unidentified artist]
    Orange procession on the way to the Botanic Gardens, Belfast, 1883 / [unidentified artist]
    Land agitation in Ireland, 1882 / [unidentified artist]
    The land agitation in Ireland, 1881 / [unidentified artist]
    The agitation in Ireland : Incidents of the Parnell reception at Limerick, 1880 / W.R.
    The Moore centenary, 1879 / H.W. B.
    O’Connell centenary celebration in Dublin, 1875 / [unidentified artist]
    O’Connell centenary celebration in Dublin, 1875 / [unidentified artist]
    O’Connell centenary celebration in Dublin, 1875 / [unidentified artist]
    The `nobleman’ organ grinder, 1873 / [unidentified artist]
    An Irish jig before royalty, 1871 / [unidentified artist]
    New year’s eve in Ireland, 1870 / [unidentified artist]

    The great relative of Irish traditional music is, of course, Scottish traditional music. The two countries have shared a closely related language and music culture seemingly for millennia now, while at the same time each has retained its own distinctly different character in both language and music.

    Musical influences have moved forward and back across the narrow divide of the Irish Sea in line with changing patterns of settlement and migration. Irish harpers seem to have brought much music to Scotland in medieval times, and subsequently Scottish pipers are said to have gone to Ireland to complete their training. But undoubtedly in the later 18th century musical influence was travelling westwards from Scotland into Ireland, brought by performers on the violin, the newly dominant instrument of the period, and in printed music collections. Scottish reels and strathspeys especially were introduced into Ireland at this time. The imported tunes quickly became naturalised here, and sparked Irish compositions in these new genres.

    The little-known Scottish violin collection Cameron’s Selection of Violin Music, presented here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, was published in Glasgow in 1859 by the general publisher George Cameron. It is typical of its kind: cheap and intended for a mass market, with a predominance of popular 18th-century Scottish dance tunes and airs, mixed in with Irish and English melodies. It doubtless circulated in Ireland, and like other similar ephemeral Scottish publications doubtless had an influence on the oral Irish tradition at a time when there were few such Irish publications. ITMA’s recent William Mullaly traditional concertina publication exhibits traces of Scottish printed music, and ongoing ITMA work on a second volume from the piping manuscripts of James Goodman has uncovered versions of tunes close to those of Cameron.

    We know from the index that the final two pages are missing from the ITMA copy of Cameron. Do you have a perfect copy of this collection, or do you have similar music collections? The Archive would welcome their donation or the opportunity to copy them.

    With thanks to Lisa Shields for information, and to the Breathnach Family who donated the volume reproduced here to ITMA in 1987 as part of Cnuasach an Bhreathnaigh (the Breandán Breathnach Collection). ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

    Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 December 2011

    Currently viewing

    Cameron's selection of violin music : containing all the most popular airs, marches, strathspeys, reels, hornpipes, jigs, country dances, quicksteps, quadrilles, polkas, &c., &c., &c.

    God save the Queen — The Marseillois hymn — Yankee doodle — My lodging is on the cold ground — Mrs Garden of Troup — I’ll gang nae mair to yon town — Fye let us a’ to the bridal — O gin ye were dead, gudeman — Mrs M’Intyre — Clyde Side lasses — Go to Berwick, Johnny — Life let us cherish — Tullochgorum — If I had a bonnie lassie — The lady of the lake — Kind Robin lo’es me — Lord Murray — Green grow the rashes — Katy Mooney — Gloomy winter’s now awa’ — I lost my love, and I dinna ken how — The drummer — Bung your eye — Nathaniel Gow’s lament for his brither — Logan water — Jenny Nettles — My heart is sair for somebody — Caller herrin’ — Brechin Castle — Lady Montgomery — Bay of Biscay — Mr Francis Sitwell — Miss Dumbreck — The college hornpipe — The rose tree — Cameron’s got his wife again — Jenny dang the weaver — The deuks dang o’er my daddie — My love is like a red red rose — Craigellachie Bridge — Rachel Rae — The dead march = Soldier’s dream — The Hills of Glenorchy — I hae a house o’ my ain — Jacky tar — My boy Tammy — Charlie is my darling — Struan Robertson’s rant — Mrs Brown of Linkwood — Within a mile of Edinburgh — Lady Nelly Wemyss — The high road to Linton — Meg Merrilees — Of a’ the airts the win’ can blaw — Highland whisky — Speed the plough — Miss Graham of Inchbraikie — Eveleen’s bower — Lady Carmichael — Caberfeigh — Willie was a wanton wag — Locherroch side — The Ayrshire lasses — Fight about the fireside — Jock o’ Hazledean — Dainty Davie — Cameronian rant — Petronella — Earl Moira — Maid of Isla — [Untitled] — Whistle o’er the lave o’t — The Duke of Gordon’s birth day — The flowers of Edinburgh — St Patrick’s day in the morning — See the conquering hero comes — O dear what can the matter be — Monymusk — Push about the jorum — Highland Mary — Miss Lyle’s strathspey — Miss Lyle’s reel — Bonnie Dundee = Mary of Castlecary — Gilderoy — Kiss’d yestreen — I wish you would marry me now — The flowers of the forest — Gin a body meet a body — Jenny Lind polka — The Gustavus galop — Hurrah, for the bonnets of blue — Jenkin’s hornpipe — The legacy — The opera polka — Jenny Jones — The British Grenadier’s march — Marquis of Huntly’s highland fling — Pease strae — The boatie rows — Off she goes — This is no my ain lassie — Marquis of Huntly’s farewell — Timour the tartar — Because he was a bonnie lad — My ain kind dearie — The miller o’ drone — The mason’s apron — Ye banks and braes — Bannocks o’ barley meal — The young may moon — Untitled — Mrs Hamilton of Pitcaithland — North of the Grampians — Miss Forbes — Auld Robin Gray — Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut — Mrs M’Dowal Frant of Arndilly — Inverness lasses — Saw ye Johnnie comin’ — The Lothian lassie — Morar shiem = Lovat’s welcome — Lady Harriet Hope — The original polka — Bonnie Jean — Lord Seaforth — Loch Earn — Aurora waltz — The last rose of summer — The Belleisle march — The white cockade — The schottische, or, German polka — The angel’s whisper — Katty darling — Blue bonnets over the border — Circassian circle — Kinloch of Kinloch — O whistle and i’ll come to you my lad — Farewell to whisky — Robertson’s hornpipe — Hearts of oak — A man’s a man for a’ that — West’s hornpipe — The fairy dance — The mill, mill o — Rule Britannia — Lady Mary Ramsay — Lord Dalhousie — The ewie wi’ the crooked horn — My Tocher’s the jewel — The Marquis of Huntly — Captain Keeler’s reel — John Anderson, my Jo — John of Badenyon — Braes o’ Tullymet — Colonel M’Bain — Weel may the keel row — Will ye go to Sherriff Muir? — Niel Gow — The deil amang the tailors — The triumph — The Athol highlanders march — The Carding o’t — Rattling roaring Willie — Mrs M’Leod of Rasay — Haud awa’ frae me, Donald — The garb of old Gaul — The new rigged ship — The highlandman kiss’d his mother — The boys of Kilkenny — The M’Gregor’s gathering — The Tweedale Club — Double kisses — The Caledonian march — A favourite hornpipe — The cachucha dance — Home, sweet home — Ap Shenkin — Fisher’s hornpipe — The Brunswick waltz — The dusty miller — Lilla’s a lady — The lancers quadrille — Bab at the bowster = The bumpkin — Pop goes the weazel — Why left I my hame? — The blue bells of Scotland — Miss Mary Lunsden’s favourite — The sprig of shillelah — Sich a gettin’ up stairs — Short life to stepmothers — Duncan Davidson — The Liverpool hornpipe — Paddy O’Carrol — Logie o’ Buchan — Pretty Peggy — Blewitt’s jig = Barney Brallagan — The back of the change-house — Nanny wilt thou gang wi’ me — Lady Doune — Miss Davidson’s reel — Lochaber no more — The bonniest lass in a’ the warld — The jolly beggar — Tink a tink — Oh, carry me back to ole virginny — The falls of foyers — Rothiemurchie’s rant — The square and compass — Robin Adair — Paddy Carey — Lady Loudon’s strathspey — The Fife hunt — Bonnie Jeanie Gray — Miss Forbes’s farewell to Banff — The Campbells are coming — Astley’s hornpipe — There’s nae luck about the house — Lady Charlotte Campbell — Lord McDonald — Persian dance — Gin a body meet a body — March to the battle field — The Laird o’ Cockpen — Up an’ waur them a’, Willie

    The main music manuscripts of the traditional music collector George Petrie (c.1790–1866) are in the National Library of Ireland and in the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

    However the Irish Traditional Music Archive acquired in 2002 a small hitherto-unknown collection of Petrie music manuscripts which had been in private hands, and which seem to have once belonged to Count George Noble Plunkett (1851–1948). Plunkett was curator of the National Museum of Ireland in the early years of the 20th century, and was elected in 1917 as the first Sinn Féin TD, after the execution of his son Joseph Mary Plunkett for his part in the 1916 Rising.

    The ITMA Petrie manuscripts consist mainly of song texts in Irish, music notation, notes on songs and music, and correspondence, which relate to his two printed collections of Irish music and to the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland (see below). Much of the contents of the manuscripts appeared in print in these two volumes, but in edited forms.

    One item contains the complete text of the song ‘Tamall dá Rabhas sul d’Iompaigh an Mágh Orm’, which was given to him in 1856 by Eugene Curry. This is found incomplete at the end of Petrie’s second volume which was discovered in galley by his death-bed. It is reproduced below with other facsimile samples from the manuscripts, and transcripts (normalised for punctuation, capitalisation, etc.) when relevant.

    The manuscripts were conserved in 2003 by the Delmas Conservation Bindery, Dublin, with the aid of a grant from the Heritage Council/ An Chomhairle Oidhreachta, and are available for consultation within the Archive.

    Petrie Manuscript 1

    Facsimile of song-text ‘A Bhuachaill an Chúil Dualaigh’ and translation from Eugene Curry [sent to George Petrie], 1855; transcript of text and translation; printed version (Ancient Music of Ireland vol. 2, pp. 23–25)

    Petrie Manuscript 2

    Facsimile of melody notation ‘Old Irish Air’ from unknown source, undated

    Petrie Manuscrpt 3

    Facsimile of melody ‘No 6’ from Robert A. Fitzgerald, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, sent to George Petrie, 1854

    Petrie Manuscript 4

    Facsimile of page on the Irish harp from essay on Irish music by George Petrie, undated; transcript of page

    Petrie Manuscript 5

    Facsimile of spinning-song text ‘Labhairse Féin mo Chéile Liom’ from unidentified scribe, undated; transcript of text

    Petrie Manuscript 6

    Facsimile of page listing Irish airs from James Goodman, undated [1850s]; transcript of list of airs

    Petrie Manuscript 7

    Facsimile of letter from Eugene Curry to George Petrie with song-text ‘Tamall dá Rabhus sul d’Iompaigh an Magh Orm’, translation and note, 1856; transcript; printed version (Ancient Music of Ireland vol. 2, p. 48)

    See here for facsimile editions of George Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland, 1855 & 1882

    For other music manuscripts of George Petrie, see Marian Deasy, New Edition of Airs and Dance Tunes from the Music Manuscripts of George Petrie LL.D., and a Survey of his Work as a Collector of Irish Folk Music, Ph.D. thesis, National University of Ireland (University College Dublin), 1982. A copy is held in ITMA. ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

    Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 April 2011

    Currently viewing

    Tamall dá rabhus sul d’iompaigh an magh orm, manuscript / Eugene Curry

    More in this collection

    Tamall dá rabhus sul d’iompaigh an magh orm, manuscript / Eugene Curry

    List of Irish airs, manuscript / James Goodman

    Labhairse féin mo chéile liom, manuscript / unidentified

    Irish harp, manuscript / George Petrie

    No 6, manuscript / Robert A. Fitzgerald

    Old Irish air, manuscript / unidentified

    A bhuachaill an chúil dualaigh, manuscript / Eugene Curry

    George Petrie (c. 1790–1866), a Dublin professional artist, was a leading figure in the cultural and intellectual life of 19th-century Ireland. The benefits of his work in the areas of Irish art, archaeology, history, topography, architecture, the establishment of cultural institutions – and traditional music – are felt to this day.

    From his youth Petrie had the habit of noting down traditional melodies in manuscript on his sketching tours around Ireland and in Dublin, and he contributed to the publications of the older collector Edward Bunting. After the devastation caused to traditional culture by the Great Famine, Petrie was prominent in the 1851 establishment in Dublin of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland (see below). His own collection was the first mooted publication, and with the assistance of colleagues he undertook to edit selected melodies with a commentary. The first volume was published in 1855, and is reproduced here in facsimile from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

    Although this first volume was published in 1855, it has recently been brought to our notice by Dr Jimmy O’Brien Moran that the first sections of it were being published in forty-page numbers from 1853, presumably to satisfy the demands of subscribers. A page of one of these numbers is reproduced here.

    After 1855 Petrie continued work on a second volume drawn from his collection, but this was only partially completed at the time of his death and it ends abruptly in the middle of a note on a song. This incomplete volume was published almost twenty years later, in 1882, without a title page, and this item also is reproduced in facsimile below from the ITMA collections.

    Both volumes have been republished in one-volume print editions: in 1967 and 1969 in facsimile by Gregg International, Farnborough, Hants, UK; and in 2002 in a re-set edition (David Cooper ed., with Lillis Ó Laoire) by Cork University Press. These editions are also in the ITMA collections.

    The Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland 1851

    Many of those prominently involved in the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, the first formal Irish traditional music society, lived on Merrion Square or in its vicinity. The Society was established under the presidency of George Petrie in December 1851, in the aftermath of the Great Famine, to preserve, study and publish ‘the immense quantity of National Music still existing in Ireland’. It was directed by a twenty-three-man Council. As well as David Richard Pigot and John Edward Pigot, Thomas Beatty MD and William Stokes MD lived on the square, at nos 18 and 5 respectively. In the vicinity of the Square lived the Treasurer of the Society Robert Callwell (Herbert Place), its other Joint Hon. Secretary Robert D. Lyons MD (Merrion Square), Rev. Charles Graves DD (Fitzwilliam Square), Benjamin Lee Guinness (Dawson Street), Thomas Rice Henn (Upper Mount Street), Henry Hudson and Samuel Maclean (St Stephen’s Green), Joseph Huban Smith (Holles Street), Rev. Jas H. Todd (Trinity College), and William Wilde (later Sir William, father of Oscar; Westland Row). Most of those associated with the Society were members of the Royal Irish Academy, which was then situated in Grafton Street.

    One of the aims of the Society, never realised, was ‘the formation of a central depot in Dublin, to which persons… may be invited to send copies of any airs which they can obtain, either in Ireland or among our countrymen on other lands’. ITMA might be said to be a realisation of that aim. Its collections contain the published works of the Society and later editions of them.

    ―From No 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2: The Premises of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin: Irish Traditional Music Archive, 2008

    With thanks to the Breathnach Family who donated the volumes reproduced to ITMA in 1987 as part of Cnuasach an Bhreathnaigh, the Breandán Breathnach Collection, and to Dr Jimmy O’Brien Moran. ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

    Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 February 2011

    Currently viewing

    The Ancient Music of Ireland. Volume 1 / George Petrie ed.

    More in this collection

    The Ancient Music of Ireland. Volume 1 / George Petrie ed.

    The Ancient Music of Ireland. Volume 2 / George Petrie ed.

    There are three PW Joyce music manuscripts in the collections of the National Library of Ireland, which are reproduced here courtesy of the Library.

    joyce_nli.jpg?mtime=20210707090055#asset:102914

    Detail from NLI Joly MS 25

    They are Joly MS 25 (fair-copied tunes chiefly collected by Joyce on holiday in Limerick in July and August 1856), and MSS 2982–2983 (which together form a large and somewhat disorderly single collection from which Joyce intended to draw his next published collection). They contain tunes and the words of song recollected from his childhood or collected by him in his native area in the 1840s and 1850s, and extensive copyings from the manuscripts of other collectors: James Goodman especially, William Forde, John Edward Pigot, and a variety of correspondents. Many are manuscript cuttings pasted in from other sources, and are usually but not always in the hand of Joyce himself.

    Joly MS 25

    Irish airs collected by P.W Joyce, chiefly in Co. Limerick, 1856

    Joyce’s Final Manuscripts, 1889-1912

    Joyce was still working on what would have been his final collection at the time of his death in 1914, and the two working manuscripts from which it was to be drawn were supposedly found on the table beside his bed.

    They were acquired by the National Library of Ireland, who have kindly given permission for their reproduction on this site.

    In the preface to his first publication of 1873, Joyce had said that ‘I will continue to publish [Irish music] as long as I can obtain materials’, and in the preface to his 1909 publication he was, in his early eighties, calling on his readers for the loan of manuscripts that he might examine for his next volume. With undiminished zeal he continued work on this until his death five years later.

    nli_logo.gifThe manuscripts of this final work, which contains 878 songs and melodies with notes, have been copied courtesy of the National Library of Ireland for facsimile publication on this site. They are NLI MS 2982 and NLI MS 2983.

    NLI MSS 2982

    Irish songs and melodies collected by PW Joyce : first volume, 1889-1912

    NLI MSS 2983

    Irish songs and melodies collected by PW Joyce : second volume, 1889-1912

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    National Library of Ireland Joyce Manuscripts, 1889-1912 : Part I

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    National Library of Ireland Joyce Manuscripts, 1889-1912 : Part I

    National Library of Ireland Joyce Manuscripts, 1889-1912 : Part II

    National Library of Ireland Joyce Manuscript, 1856

    other_joyce_col.jpg?mtime=20210709150402#asset:102954

    An extract of The flannel jacket from Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland (1882)

    More of these tunes appear in an incomplete Petrie volume of 1882; in Francis Hoffmann’s Ancient Music of Ireland from the Petrie Collection Arranged for the Pianoforte; and in Charles V. Stanford’s The Complete Petrie Collection of Ancient Irish Music. PW Joyce also contributed the words and melodies of two songs to the 1897 Boosey volume Irish Folk-Songs, a collection of mostly original song-lyrics written by A.P. Graves and set to traditional melodies by Charles Wood.

    Currently viewing

    The Irish song book : with original airs / edited with an introduction and notes by Alfred Perceval Graves

    More in this collection

    The Irish song book : with original airs / edited with an introduction and notes by Alfred Perceval Graves

    Irish folk songs / the words by Alfred Perceval Graves ; the airs arranged by Charles Wood

    Tunes from P. W. Joyce in The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland: Arranged for Piano-forte. Vol. 1 / edited by George Petrie

    Cailín a tighe mhoir — B’fearr liomsa ainnir gan gúna — Cá rabháis anois a cailín bhig — The hunt — The pipe on the hob — Do chuirfinn-si féin mo leanabh a chodhladh — An bean óg uasal — A chúl álainn deas — A Munster jig — The winter it is past — Ding dong didilium, buail seo, séid seo — The nobleman’s wedding — Péarla an chúil chraobhaigh — As a sailor and a soldier were walking one day

    Tunes from PW Joyce in Music of Ireland / Collected, Edited, and Harmonized for the Pianoforte by the Late George Petrie

    An cumhaín leatsa an oidhche úd — Ceapach Dáinig — The green bushes — Aon is dó na píopaireachta — The flannel jacket — An ceó draoidheachta

    Tunes from PW Joyce in The Complete Collection of Irish Music / as Noted by George Petrie (1789-1866); Edited, from the Original Manuscripts by Charles Villiers Stanford

    The scalded poor boy — Where were you all the day my own pretty boy — I’ll make for my bridegroom a grassy green pillow — ’Twas on a summer’s evening — Last night I dreamt of my own true love — I am a poor maiden, my fortune proved bad — Come all you maids where’er you be — The Shanavest and Corovoth — When you go to a battle — Come all y’ United Irishmen, and listen unto me — Come all United Irishmen and listen unto me — Then up comes the captain & boatswain — The far away wedding — Oh love it is a killing thing — I once loved a boy — Once I was invited to a nobleman’s wedding — An old man he courted me — Ne’er wed an old man — How do you like her for your wife — The old astrologer — The first day of spring — The summer is come and the grass is green — The funny taylor — The croppy boy — Johnny Doyle — When first into this town I came — [Irish version of “My ain kind dearie”] — The Gorey caravan — As I roved out one morning — One evening of late as I roved out in state — One evening fair as I roved out — As I went a walking one morning in spring — As through the woods I chanced to roam — In comes great Buonaparte with forty thousand men — Along with my love I’ll go — Along with my love I’ll go — Willy Leonard — As a sailor and a soldier — Dobbin’s flow’ry vale — Crabs in the skillet — I’m a poor stranger that’s far from my own — My name is bold Kelly — It is to fair England I’m willing to go — Each night when I slumber — The hunt Reel — Munster reel — Boil the breakfast early — The job of journey work — The peeler’s jacket — Munster reel — Munster reel — The silver mines — Reel [Untitled] – Reel – Hornpipe — Good night, good night, and joy be with you — The lovely lad — Tea in the morning — The croosting cap — Munster jig — Munster jig — Munster jig — Munster jig — Old Cork jig – Jig — Round the world for sport — The girl I love Jig — [Jig] – Jig – Jig – Jig — Time of day — Ancient Munster march and jig — The housekeeper — A lullaby — Nurse tune — A caoine — Hymn tune — Mo chailín donn deas a’s mise ag ól — Mo stóirín ó Mhuscraídhe — Baint áirnídhe faoi dhuilleabhar na gcraobh — Ag an mBaile Núadh atá an bhruingeall mhodhamhail mná — Mo ghrádh bán am’ threígean a’s céile dá luadh leis — Corraidh do chosa a Sheáinín — Is í mo leanbh (caoíne) — An cailín ruadh — Séid, a bhean bhoicht! agus bí súgach — Easter snow — Ceis Corran Síos i measg na gcoillte — “Saion” na séad — An gamhain geal bán — Grádh mo chléibh — Bé ’n Eírinn í — Ceó druídheachta — A chuisle geal mo chroídhe — Órán an uig — An cnoicín fraoigh — Cois taoíbh leas’ an ghaortha — Mo chailín rúadh — Péarla an chúil chraobhaigh — An táilliúr aérach — Pilib an cheó — Cois tiar lais an gaortha — Tá ’na lá — Tá ’na lá — Aon ’s do na píobaireachta — Capa Dánig — Slán agus beannacht le buadharthaibh an tsaoghail –Cruimíneach crom — Dá mbéinn-si agus mo ghrádh bán — Súiste buídhe — Air mo ghabháil tré Bhaile-Átha-Clíath dam — Mór Chlúana — An seanduine crom — Bean dubh ó’n slíabh — Bean dubh ó’n slíabh — Mo chreach a’s mo dhíachais