Tunes from PW Joyce In Music of Ireland / collected, edited, and harmonized for the pianoforte by the late George Petrie
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 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.
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)
Facsimile of melody notation ‘Old Irish Air’ from unknown source, undated
Facsimile of melody ‘No 6’ from Robert A. Fitzgerald, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, sent to George Petrie, 1854
Facsimile of page on the Irish harp from essay on Irish music by George Petrie, undated; transcript of page
Facsimile of spinning-song text ‘Labhairse Féin mo Chéile Liom’ from unidentified scribe, undated; transcript of text
Facsimile of page listing Irish airs from James Goodman, undated [1850s]; transcript of list of airs
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
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.
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
The Ancient Music of Ireland. Volume 1 / George Petrie ed.
The Ancient Music of Ireland. Volume 2 / George Petrie ed.
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.
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
