Old Irish Folk Music and Songs : A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs, Hitherto Unpublished (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs, Hitherto Unpublished

If the names have survived in the two branches, why not the airs? And I thought it just possible - indeed I half hoped - that in Danish collections of popular music I might light on versions of our Molly Astore, Garryowen, The Boyne Water, Patrick's Day, The Groves of Blarney, &c.

In order' to hunt this matter up, I procured from a well-known publisher in Copenhagen three fine collections of Scandinavian popular traditional music, mostly with words - Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian containing 294 Danish melodies (including twelve of the Faroe Islands), 223 Swedish, and 161 Norwegian. All are accompanied with elaborate notes; but it was tantalizing that I could not read one word of them; for they are all - as well as the songs - in Danish.

The music I could read, however and I went over the three collections, air by air. In general character and structure the Danish airs approach nearer to Irish than do the Swedish and Norwegian; but I may say at once that on the whole the result of my search was disappointing. I could find no considerable number of Danish airs either identical with, or closely resembling, those of Ireland. Yet I found a few.

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