Friday, September 11, 2015

"Melodies of Different Nations": Anthologies of International "National Airs" in Britain 1800-1830 - Pt. 2

Go back to Part 1 

As we have seen Mr. Thomson from Edinburgh didn't manage to compile a collection of international airs. I don't doubt that this would have been an interesting publication, especially with Beethoven writing the arrangements. But Thomas Moore, at that time the most popular modern songwriter, took the chance and once again he struck gold: 
  • A Selection of Popular National Airs with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson MusDoc; [Henry R. Bishop]. The Words by Thomas Moore, Esq., 6 Volumes, J. Power, London, 1818-1828 (first 3 Vols. digitized by BStB: 4 Mus.pr. 35243-(1-3) [click on Einzelbände]; also available at Google Books: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3; at the Internet Archive; otherwise see a later complete ed.: Charles W. Glover (ed.), National Airs, with Words by Thomas Moore, Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, London 1860, available at the Internet Archive
I don't know if this was his own idea or his publisher's but he managed to bring out the best and most successful collection of this kind. Once again Sir John John Stevenson wrote the arrangements. In the preface - the "Advertisement" - to the first volume Moore wrote about "the abundance of wild, indigenous airs, which almost every country, except England, possesses" and praised his work with a humbleness that could only grow out of great self-confidence: 
"The lovers of this simple, but interesting, kind of music are here presented with the First Number of a collection, which, I trust, their contributions will enable us to continue. A pretty air without words resembles one of those half creatures of Plato, which are described as wandering in search of the remainder of themselves through the world. To supply this other half, by uniting with congenial words the many fugitive melodies, which have hitherto had none, or only such as are unintelligible to the generality of their hearers, is the object and ambition of the present work [...] As the music is not my own, and the words are little more than unpretending interpreters if the sentiment of each air, it will not be thought presumption in me to say, that I consider it one of the simplest and prettiest collections of songs to which I have ever set my name" .
The critics did agree: 
"This is a truly elegant little book in every sense; and we know not when we have been so gratified by music and words of such a kind [...] The author of the poetry has here given us one clue to his fertility in the production of words which speak so deliciously to the heart, and too often so voluptuously to the sense, while they are in the finest accordance with the melodies [...]" (Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 1, 1818, pp. 225-9). 
A writer for the Gentleman's Magazine (90 I, 1820, pp. 521-2) declared that this was "one of the most pleasing collections of the kind we ever recollect to have met with" and praised "the delightful poetry" as "some of the most highly polished specimens of the art of Songwriting we know in the English language". This volume included tunes said to be from from, for example, India, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Hungary and some of the songs became very popular, especially "Oft in the stilly night", "Flow on, thou shining river", "Those Evening Bells" and of course "Hark! the Vesper Hymn is stealing". Interestingly the reviewer in the Quarterly Musical Magazine (p. 228) noted that the tune of the latter - according to Moore a "Russian air" - sounded suspiciously similar to a song published about a decade earlier, "Hark to Philomela singing" by one William Knyvett (c. 1807). 


This means that we should not always take for granted what Moore claimed about all these tunes' origins. But this is a general problem with these collections, not only Moore's but also the others that were published after him. The sources of the melodies are difficult to find and often enough one gets the impression that the musical input of the songwriters and arrangers was somewhat bigger than it should have been. But we should not forget that these were first and foremost collections of popular songs and not scholarly compilations like - for example - Mr. Crotch's Specimens

Moore published five more volumes of this series until 1828, now with composer Henry Rowley Bishop as the arranger. The second book also got favorable reviews (see The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 2, 1820, pp. 233-41) but in the end he apparently ran out of steam. Volume 6 was not received kindly by the reviewer of The Harmonicon (1828, p. 62): 
"The sixth number [...] shows such decided symptoms of exhausted materials, that we should advise that it be the last. Among the many pieces which the volume contains [...] we have not been able to discover a single page, not even a line, that has the remotest chance of resting in memory [...]" 
In fact this was the last number. But nonetheless the Popular National Airs remained the most successful example of this particular genre of song collections. They were known even in Germany. Friedrich Silcher in Tübingen plundered Moore's work for his own Ausländische Volksmelodien (4 Vols., 1835-41, see this text in my blog), the most popular German collection of foreign "Volkslieder". His versions of some of Moore's songs, especially "Hark! the Versper Hymn is stealing" and - from Vol. 4 - "Here sleeps the bard" are known and performed until today. 
  • Melodies of Various Nations. With Symphonies and Accompaniments by Henry R. Bishop [Sir John Stevenson]. The Words by Thomas H. Bayly, Esq., Author of Rough Sketches of Bath, 4 Vols, Goulding, D'Almaine & Potter, London, n. d. [1821-1830]
    (available at Nanki Music Library
Publishers Goulding, D'Almaine & Potter were obviously great fans of the Popular National Airs. Therefore they started a series that can only be called a shameless copy, or in the words of one reviewer, "one of the imitations to which Mr. Moore's genius and writings have given rise" (Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 4, 1822, p. 74). They even hired the same arrangers, Bishop for Vols. 1, 3 & 4 and Stevenson for Vol. 2. Thomas H. Bayly wrote the new lyrics. Later he would become a successful and popular songwriter but here he was still at the start of his career. 

The first volume included included 12 songs with tunes said to be from all kinds of different countries, like Portugal, France, Tyrol, Italy and others. But I would not be too sure about that. The melody of "To the home of my childhood" (p. 68) - a precursor of "Home, Sweet Home" - is described as "Sicilian". But it appears that it was most likely derived from a song by German composer J. A. P. Schulz (see Underwood 1977). The reviewer of the Quarterly Musical Magazine was very disappointed with this volume: 
"The numbers of national airs by Mr. M. are amongst the most beautiful and elegant specimens of the combined music and poetry of our time. Mr. Bayley's [sic!], alas! are amongst the least poetical in point of versifications, while there is scarcely an air that is worth preservation, and still more unfortunately, the best are rendered useless by the vapid or ridiculous turn of the words to which they are set".
But perhaps it was not that bad. Three more volumes followed and at least one song became a great hit: "Oh No We Never Mention Her" (Vol. 3, No. 11). This song was also published as sheet music (see Google Books, with a wrong date). Interestingly Bishop and Bayly worked on another project for the same publisher where they also used foreign tunes. This was a series of four booklets with songs about the seasons: 
  • Songs for Spring Mornings/Songs for Summer Days/Songs for Autumn Evenings/Songs for Winter Nights. The Poetry by Thomas H. Bayly; The Symphonies and Accompaniments Composed and the Whole Adapted and Arranged by Henry R. Bishop, Goulding & D'Almaine, London, n. d. [1827-28]
    (not yet digitized; see the catalog of the Gaylord Music Library, Washington: 1, 2, 3, 4
The volume with spring songs includes melodies described as "French", "German", "Portuguese" and even "Burmese". The reviews were mostly favourable (see Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review 9, 1827, pp. 243-4; The Harmonicon, 6, 1828, p. 62 & pp. 201-2). But these booklets are very rare and only a few copies have survived. 
  • Foreign Melodies. The Words by H. S. van Dyk, the Symphonies and Accompaniments by T. A. Rawlings, Goulding, D'Almaine & Co, London, n. d. [1825]
    (not yet digitized; apparently only 2 copies have survived, one of them at the British Library, see Copac)
  • Songs of the Minstrels. The Poetry by H. S. van Dijk. The Music composed by John Barnett, Mayhew & Co., London, n. d. [1828]
    (not yet digitized; see the ad in The Harmonicon 6, September 1828; there are a few extant copies, one in the BL, others in American libraries) 
Harry Stoe van Dijk (1798-1828, see Annual Biography 13, 1829, pp. 173-186), a young poet and writer, was during his short life involved in two projects of this kind, or better, two more attempts to step into Mr. Moore's shoes. The Foreign Melodies with composer Thomas Rawlings were kindly received by the critics (see Harmonicon, 3, 1825, p. 205) and it seems that they have used at least some original melodies: 
"The choice of the airs generally speaking is satisfactory, although a considerable number will be recognised by most persons familiar with foreign musical productions, and not a few have ere been issued in some shape or other from the press of this country" (Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions 6, 1825, pp. 55
For Songs of the Minstrels he worked with young composer John Barnett who wrote all the tunes himself. In fact he is explicitly named as the writer of the music.

The reviewer in The Harmonicon (6, 1828, pp. 135-6) seems to have been somewhat tired of  this kind of song collections. He was not particularly impressed by van Dijk's poetry and also wondered about "imitations of well known national melodies of those various countries". But he clearly saw the problems of this particular genre and why it was still so popular: 
"This [...] leads to the question, why Mr. Barnett, who has talent for invention, did not rather trust to his own means of original creation, than expend his strength in making musical paraphrases; more particular as the public are, and have been, for some time past, fairly surfeited by by real as well as factitious national airs, coming from, or pretending to come from, all quarters of the globe? - But he will, perhaps, deny our postulate, and affirm that there is yet an abundance of appetite left for anything of foreign growth, or foreign in manner [...] and that he who would succeed with the fashionable world, especially as a composer, must either have, or affect to have, a well-bred contempt for all that has not something exotic in its form or substance". 
So it seems there was still enough left of Mr. Moore's cake and these kind of compilations of international airs with English words were apparently a lucrative undertaking. The same year another expert for Scottish and Irish airs tried his hand at foreign tunes: 
  • R. A. Smith, Select Melodies, with appropriate Words, Chiefly Original, Collected and Arranged with Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Pianoforte, Purdie, Edinburgh, 1828
    (available at the Internet Archive
Robert Archibald Smith (1780-1829, see McAulay 2009, pp. 138-152) from Edinburgh had already produced the Scotish Minstrel in 6 Volumes (1821-24, available at the Internet Archive) and the Irish Minstrel in one volume (1825, at the Internet Archive). In these books he had recycled many of the tunes already published by Thomson, Moore and others, often with new poetry, for example by James Hogg, and in easier arrangements. These collections were also cheaper than the original editions. Not without reason Moore's publisher Power accused him of plagiarism and the first edition of the Irish Minstrel had to be taken off the market (see Hughes 2002).
 
The "chiefly original" Select Melodies - including the "Best Melody, of the Nile" which he had received from "a Gentleman who noted it in the spot when in Egypt" (pp. 36-7) - were published together with new editions of both the Scotish Minstrel and the Irish Minstrel (see the review in The Harmonicon 6, pp. 104-5) and were also reviewed favorably (see dto., pp. 105-6): 
"This is a miscellaneous collection of melodies, for which more than half of the countries of the globe have been laid under contribution: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, Hindoostan, &c., &c., have all furnished airs; while Ms. Hemans, Messrs. Hogg, Kennedy, Weir, Riddell, Motherwell, Rogers, and Lawrence Anderson, have supplied verse [...] Many of the airs are well known, a few are already very popular. The poetry written to them is all respectable, and some of the verses are far above mediocrity. These are applied to the notes in a careful, sensible manner [...]".
All the collections listed here seem to have been the major works in this field. But there was much more. Looking through advertisements, reviews in the contemporary press and library catalogs one gets the impressions that foreign national airs - real one or imitations, often enough it was difficult to distinguish - were ubiquitous at that time. Many smaller publications - sheet music and inexpensive booklets of tunes or songs - covered the same field. 

For example circa 1820 Italian guitar virtuoso Charles Michael Sola - who lived and worked in England since 1817 - put together a little collection with the title Six Ballads, Adapted to Favorite National Melodies with an Accompaniment for the Spanish Guitar (see Copac). Here he simply took tunes from Italy, Germany and Ireland as well as those of "Last Rose of Summer" and "Auld Lang Syne" and published them with new lyrics. In 1827 - to name only one more relevant title - one Samuel Poole brought out Le Plaisir Pour Les Jeunes, consisting of twelve National Airs with - I assume - simple arrangements for the piano (title from catalog SUB Hamburg, M B/4530). 

In fact especially beginners were regularly treated with this kind of music, as is shown by an advertisement for some books for pianists and flutists in April 1830 in The Harmonicon (at Google Books). At this point international airs of all kinds - no matter if original or imitations - had become an important part of the musical repertoire. The publishers still saw them as a worthwhile endeavor and the customers were still buying them, either as new popular songs or in instrumental versions. 

Literature: 
  • Gillian Hughes, ‘Irish Melodies and Scottish Minstrel’, in: Studies in Hogg and his World, 13, 2002, pp. 36 – 45 
  • Karen E. McAulay, Our Ancient National Airs. Scottish Song Collecting c. 1760 - 1888, PH. D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009 (online available at http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1242/; a revised and extended edition was published by Ashgate with the title: Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era, Farnham 2013, see Google Books
  • Byron Edward Underwood, The German Prototype of the Melody of "Home! Sweet Home!", in: Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 22, 1977, pp. 36-48 
  • See also my article about collections of foreign "national airs" in Germany:
    "Ausländische Volkslieder" in 19th-Century Germany - Some Important Collections 1829-1853
    Part 1
    & Part 2

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

"Melodies of Different Nations": Anthologies of International "National Airs" in Britain 1800-1830 - Pt. 1

The years from the late 1780s until 1830 may have been something like the "golden era" of the national air. A great number of relevant collections of songs and tunes appeared in Britain: first and foremost of course books of Scottish, Irish and Welsh songs and tunes. But besides these there were also collections of foreign national airs, for example from Germany, Denmark or Russia (see The Russian Troubadour, Or a Collection of Ukrainian, and Other National Melodies, 1816, at the Internet Archive)  Even more exotic tunes from far away places were made available, for example from China - like Karl Kambra's Two Original Chinese Songs, c. 1796 (at Harvard UL) - and India, - like Charles Horn's Indian Melodies (c. 1813). 

In fact there was no shortage of foreign and exotic tunes - or what was regarded as such - and it was only natural to compile and publish anthologies including national airs from all kinds of different countries, either only melodies or complete songs with new English poetry. The idea of comparative anthologies of "national" music was of course not new. Already in 1730 - only a few years after the "invention" of this new genre in Scotland and the appearance of the first relevant tune collections there and in Ireland - the London printer and publisher Daniel Wright put together a little booklet with the title Aria di Camera, a "Choice Collection of Scotch, Irish & Welsh Airs for the Violin and German Flute"(at the Internet Archive)

More exotic surveys were first made available in French musicological works. Rousseau's Dictionnaire de Musique (1768) included a page with assorted tunes from China, Canada, Switzerland and Persia and Laborde's Essai Sur La Musique Ancienne Et Moderne (1780) offered not only a fascinating collection of songs from Scandinavia (Bk 4, pp. 397-418) but also melodies from China, Ireland and Russia (pp. 174-7).

But it was Italian musician Domenico Corri (1748-1825) who put together the first truly multicultural anthology of "national songs" published in Britain. He had just come to Scotland in the early 1780s and his first big project was a Select Collection of the Most Admired Songs, Duetts &c. from Operas in the highest esteem and from other works in Italian, English, French, Scotch & Irish in three volumes (Edinburgh, c. 1783-4). The first book included the standard repertoire of Italian songs, mostly from operas, by popular composers (available at the Internet Archive & Google Books). The second one offered "English Songs" by Arne, Hook and others while the third (both only available behind closed doors at ECCO) consisted "of National Airs, Notturni, Duetts, Terzetts, Canzonets, Rondos, Catches, & Glees. In the Italian, French, English, Scotch and Irish Languages". Besides the most popular Scottish and Irish songs - some even in Gaelic - he  added French airs, Venetian and Neapolitan ballads and even an Persian song. In fact this volume was at that time the most impressive collection of international "national airs" available in Britain. 

Meanwhile in Germany Johann Gottfried Herder had published his Volkslieder (1778/9), an immensely influential anthology of "national songs". Of course he only included the words but no tunes. Nonetheless this collection would inspire numerous musicians and the first was the legendary Abbé Vogler whose Polymelos ou Caractères de Musique de differentes Nations - with 6 tunes - came out in 1791 (available at BLB Karlsruhe, DonMusDr 272). Vogler had been in London the year before and he was apparently inspired by multicultural musical atmosphere there. In fact he started this project in earnest after his return to Germany and some of the tunes he had surely learned in London, for example the Scottish one as well as a Chinese melody that he then regularly performed in his concerts and later included in a second version of his Polymelos in 1806 (for more about Vogler see this text in my blog) . 

The real history of comparative collections of international national airs in England only started with the groundbreaking publications of Welsh harper Edward Jones. Most important were the Lyric Airs: consisting of Specimens of Greek, Albanian, Walachian, Turkish, Arabian, Persian, Chinese, and Moorish National Songs and Melodies in 1805 (available at the Internet Archive). In the title he also claimed that this was the "first selection of the kind ever yet offered to the public". It seems he didn't know Vogler's little collection. Jones himself would publish more works of this kind during the next 15 years (see the previous blogpost) but also other publishers and musicians followed suit. Here are short introductions to what I regard as the most important publications of this kind between 1808 and 1830. 
  • William Crotch, Specimens of Various Styles of Music referred to in A Course of Lectures, read at Oxford & London and Adapted to keyed Instruments, Vol. 1, London, n. d. [1808]
    (available at the Internet Archive
Crotch (1775-1847), composer, organist and scholar, offered here a fascinating collection of national tunes from around the world. Of course there was the usual amount of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and "old English" melodies but he also included tunes from European countries like Germany, Italy, France, Norway as well more exotic ones, for example from China, India and America. This book is the closest to a documentation of what was known at that time. 
 
Mr. Crotch clearly knew all relevant literature, both from Britain and from abroad. But he also had an informant who supplied him with otherwise unpublished material. John Malchair (1730-1812) from Oxford, a musician and painter of German origin (see Wollenberg 2007; Harrison et al. 1998) had made "National Music his study" (p. 3) and was able to help him out with British and foreign pieces from his own collection. 

The introduction is well worth reading. Crotch added notes about the sources of the tunes as well as some helpful comments. As the title says the book was supposed to accompany and illustrate his lectures about this topic that he held for many years. As late as 1829 one was announced in The Harmonicon (p. 160): 
"On the Music of the Ancients, and National Music. The National Music of the Hebrews, of the Hebrews, of China, Java, the East Indies, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, France, Scandinavia, and Norway".
  • William Shield, Introduction to Harmony. A New Edition (Being The Second), London, n. d. [1815]
    (available at the Internet Archive; the new appendix was also published separately and is also available at the Internet Archive
Composer William Shield also felt it necessary to add a selection of national airs to the new edition of his popular standard work (pp. 26-43). Of course this was not as comprehensive as Crotch's collection but nonetheless interesting. He confined himself mostly to tunes and songs from the British isles and only included a few more exotic pieces like a song sung by Canadian voyagers (p. 39). 
 
These collections by Crotch and Shield - and at least partly some of those by Jones - had a documentary and more or less scholarly approach even though they of course arranged the tunes for practical use by musicians and singers. A different kind of approach was first introduced by George Thomson from Edinburgh for his Scottish collections (since 1793). He commissioned popular composers like Pleyel, Haydn, later Beethoven to write the arrangements and also added new lyrics - by Burns and other poets - if he thought the old words inappropriate and not up to his standards. This was perfected by Thomas Moore for his famous Irish Melodies (since 1808) where he used these traditional tunes as a starting point and basis for new popular songs. 

His concept was then also applied for other national collections like Horn's Indian Melodies, the Hebrew Melodies with new poetry by Lord Byron (since 1815), Sola's Spanish Melodies (1821; see The Quarterly Musical Magazine And Review 3, 1821, pp. 477-84), Eavestaff's French Melodies (1825, see Quarterly Musical Magazine And Review 7, 1825, pp. 504-6, The Harmonicon, 3, 1825, p. 65 & p. 205) and Moscheles' Tyrolese Melodies (1827-9, at the Internet Archive). In fact there was no shortage of Melodies of all kinds and British poets were in great demand to supply them with new poetry. 
  • A Selection from the Melodies of Different Nations, including a few popular Airs by celebrated Authors, united to original English Verses never before published, with new Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Piano Forte by Muzio Clementi. The Poetry by David Thomson, Volume 1st, London, 1814
    (not yet digitized; see catalog Bodleian, Oxford: Tyson Mus. 1126, with title list) 
The first one to use Moore's approach for a collection of tunes of "different Nations" was famous composer and pianist Muzio Clementi (1752-1832). He already worked at that time with poet David Thomson - about whom I don't know anything - on another project along the same lines: Mozart's melodies with new English poetry. The first volume had appeared the previous year (see the review in Monthly Magazine 36, 1813, p. 154). So it was perhaps only natural to try out international airs. One reviewer called it a "valuable and elegant little work" (The European Magazine 66, 1814, pp. 138-40; see also Monthly Magazine, Vol. 37, pp. 247-8). But it seems that this collection was not a big success. No further volumes were published.
  • George Thomson & Ludwig van Beethoven 
I was somewhat surprised to find out that even George Thomson from Edinburgh, the publisher of the groundbreaking Select Collections of Scottish Airs - and also of Welsh and Irish collections - tried to produce one of international songs (see Cooper, pp. 9, 25-29, 57, 67-8, 217-8). In fact in a letter from January 1st, 1816 he asked Beethoven in Vienna - with whom he was working at this time - to supply him with tunes from, for example, Germany, Poland, Russia, Tyrol, Venice and Spain (Albrecht 1996, No. 215, pp. 87-8). 

All in all Thomson managed to acquire 29 tunes, the most of them contributed by Beethoven (for the sources see Dorfmüller 1993) and few by himself. But this promising project failed. Apparently there were problems with finding adequate English poetry for these melodies. Most of these songs including Beethoven's arrangements were only first published very much later in Germany: 
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Neues Volksliederheft. 23 Tiroler, Schweizer, schwedische, spanische und andere Volksweisen. für eine Singstimme und Klavier mit Begleitung von Violine and Violoncell. Zum ersten Male nach der Handschrift herausgegeben von Georg Schünemann, Leipzig, n. d. [c. 1940]
    (available at Beethoven-Haus, Bonn & IMSLP

Literature: 
  • Theodore Albrecht, Letters to Beethoven & Other Correspondence, Vol. 2: 1813-1823, Lincoln., 1996 
  • Barry Cooper, Beethoven's Folksong Settings. Chronology, Sources, Style, Oxford & New York 1994 
  • Kurt Dorfmüller, Beethovens "Volksliederjagd", in: Stephan Hörner & Bernhold Schmid (ed.), Festschrift Horst Leuchtmann, Tutzing, 1993, pp. 107-25 
  • Colin Harrison, Susan Wollenberg & Julian Munby, John Malchair of Oxford. Artist and Musician, Oxford, 1998 
  • Susan Wollenberg, John Baptist Malchair of Oxford and his Collection of 'National Music', in: Rachel Cowgill & Peter Holman (ed.), Music in the British Provinces, 1690-1914, Aldershot & Burlington, 2007, pp. 152-162 
Go to Part 2

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Edward Jones & His Collections of National Airs (1784-1821) - What Is Available Online?


Edward Jones (1752-1824; see Welsh Biography Online; DNB 30, 1892, p. 98), harper, pianist, composer, arranger, music teacher, editor and collector of rare tunes and rare books, was born in Wales. He came to London in 1775 where he quickly made a career as a musician. In 1783 Jones was appointed "Bard to the Prince of Wales", a title he always proudly displayed in his many publications. In an obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine (Vol. 94/2, 1824, pp. 185-6) he was called "perhaps the most distinguished performer on the harp of this day" and "nearly the last of the race of Welsh bards". Most important among his many publications were his groundbreaking works about Welsh music (see Kinney, pp. 57-70). The first volume of the Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards appeared in 1784. Volumes 2 & 3 followed in 1802 and 1821. 

But besides these he also edited an astounding amount of collections with foreign music. The years from the late 1780s to the 1830s were in some way a golden era of the "national air". Songs and tunes from Scotland and Ireland were published in great numbers. But one could also find "national music" from many European countries like for example Denmark, Russia or Italy and even from the most exotic and far away places like China and India. 

Jones was a major protagonist of this particular genre, not only with his books about Welsh music but also with more than half a dozen international collections. Typical were the Lyric Airs (1805) that included "Greek, Albanian, Walachian, Turkish, Arabian, Persian, Chinese, and Moorish National Songs and Melodies". In others one could find Maltese, Norwegian or Swiss tunes and even one from Lapland. He himself apparently never traveled to foreign countries to collect music. But Mr. Jones clearly was familiar with all the relevant literature and also had informants who supplied him with what he needed. For example some of the Greek and Turkish tunes in the Lyric Airs were contributed by an "English traveller in the Levant".


The Welsh collections: 

  • Edward Jones, Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards: Preserved by Tradition, and Authentic Manuscripts, from Remote Antiquity; Never Before Published [...], London, 1784 
The first edition can be found at IMSLP, together with scans of a couple of later editions. A new edition published in 1794 is also available at the Internet Archive and Google Books. A 2nd ed. of the 2nd part of this book with only the tunes was offered in 1800 (at the Internet Archive). The third edition appeared in 1808 (at the Internet Archive and BStB-DS, 2 Mus.pr. 3307) and another later one was recently digitized and made available at the Internet Archive by the University of Western Ontario. This is the best scan so far.

  • Edward Jones, The Bardic Museum, of Primitive British Literature; and other admirable rarities; forming the second volume of the Musical, Poetical, and Historical Relicks of the Welsh Bards and Druids [...], London, 1802 
Scans of the 2nd volume are easily available at IMSLP, the Internet Archive, Google Books and BSB: 4 P.o.rel. 50-2.

  • Edward Jones, Hên ganiadau Cymru. Cambro-British Melodies, or the National Songs, and Airs of Wales, enriched with curious Historical Illustrations, and never before published. [...], London, 1821
This is the 3rd volume. It was first announced in the Morning Chronicle on July 7, 1821 (at BNCN). The title is taken from Copac. As far as I know this book has not been digitized yet.

  • Edward Jones, A Choice Collection of Welsh Airs, Carnavon, n. d. [1800]
    (available at Google Books [incomplete, with 25 tunes] and at IMSLP [with 50 tunes]) 
In between he also published this little collection of Welsh tunes for popular consumption.


International collections: 

  • Edward Jones, A Miscellaneous Collection of French and Italian Ariettas; Adapted with Accompaniments for the Harp or Harpsichord, London, n. d. [1785]
    (available at the Internet Archive)
  • Edward Jones, The Musical Bouquet; or Popular Songs, and Ballads: Some of which are Composed, & others Selected by the Editor: to which are added, proper Accompaniments for the Harp, or Harpsichord, London, n. d. [1799]
    (available at Google Books
This is - as the title says - a collection of popular songs but it includes at least some exotic pieces, for example an "Egyptian Love Song" composed by himself (p. 4) and "The Death Song of the Cherokee Indian", a popular American hit at that time (p. 18).
 
  • Edward Jones, Lyric Airs: consisting of Specimens of Greek, Albanian, Walachian, Turkish, Arabian, Persian, Chinese, and Moorish National Songs and Melodies; (being the first selection of the kind ever yet offered to the public:) to which are added Basses for the Harp, or Piano-Forte. Likewise are subjoined a few explanatory notes on the figures and movements of the Modern Greek Dance; with a short dissertation on the Origin of the Ancient Greek Music, London, n. d. [1805]
    (available at IMSLPBiblioteca Digital Hispánica & now at the Internet Archive)
This is a very impressive and fascinating collection with tunes and songs from all kinds of different countries. He even gives the sources for many of these pieces as well as some explanations. A review can be found in the Monthly Review (Vol. 66, 1810, pp. 376-9). There are several extant copies of this book in British libraries (see Copac) but it was digitized in Spain.

  • Edward Jones, A Selection of most Admired and Original German Waltzes, never before published; adapted for the Harp, or Piano-Forte, London, n. d.[1806]
    (available at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
I have to include this one too, if only to show that Mr. Jones was really up to date. This was one of the earliest English collections of German Waltzes (i. e. the new Viennese Waltz). Amusingly there is even a piece called "Werter's Waltz", the one "which Werter and Charlotte are said to have first danced together" (No. 3, p. 3).
  • Edward Jones, Maltese Melodies; Or National Airs, And Dances, usually performed by the Maltese Musicians at their Carnival & other Festivals; with a few other characteristic Italian Airs & Songs; To these are annex'd a selection of Norwegian Tunes, never before Published; and to which are added Basses for the Harp or Piano-Forte, London, n. d. [1807]
    (available at the Internet Archive)
 A short review can be found in the Monthly Magazine (Vol. 24/2, 1807, p. 182). Of particular interest are the Norwegian tunes. The collection of "folk tunes" in Norway started only several decades later. I really wonder where he found these pieces.

  • Edward Jones, Musical Curiosities; or a Selection of the most characteristic National Songs, & Airs ... Consisting of Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Danish, Lapland, Malabar, New South Wales, French, Italian, Swiss and particualarly some English, and Scotch National Melodies, to which are added Variations for the Harp, or the Piano-Forte, London, n. d. [1811]
    (not yet digitized)
A review was published again in the Monthly Magazine (Vol. 34, 1812, p. 54):
"Mr. Jones, of whose industry, as a gleaner of national music, we have often had occasion to speak, has furnished, in the present collection, a great number of popular, and some exceedingly curious, foreign and domestic airs. The whole occupies forty two folio pages, and forms a body of variegated and well chosen melodies, that do much credit to the selector's judgment, and will be found highly acceptable to the public".

  •  Edward Jones, The Musical Hive; or, A Selection of some of the choicest and most Characteristic National Melodies; consisting of Irish, Spanish, and English Songs and Airs; to which are added, Variations for the Harp or Piano-Forte, London, n. d. [1812]
    (not yet digitized)
Some copies of the last two publications have survived in British Libraries (see Copac).

  • Edward Jones, Terpsichore's Banquet, or, Select Beauties of Various National Melodies consisting of Spanish, Maltese, Russian, Armenian, Hindostan, English, Swedish, German, French, Swiss, and other favourite airs; most of them never before published; & now arranged with basses properly adapted to the harp, or piano-forte ; to which are added Variations to several of the airs, & a solo, opera 13th, London, 1813
    (not yet digitized) 
One extant copy can be found in the British Library (see Copac) and another one in the USA, in the NYPL (see the catalog entry, with a title list).

  • Edward Jones, The Musical Portfolio: containing a selection of the most popular national melodies; consisting of Scotch, Irish, English, and other favourite airs, adapted to the harp, or piano-forte, to which are added variations, London, n. d. [1817]
    (not yet digitized) 
This little booklet was first announced in Morning Chronicle on May 27, 1817 (at BNCN). One copy can be found in the NYPL, see again the catalog entry. Apparently three more numbers of the Musical Portfolio were published until 1821, at least according to an ad in the Morning Chronicle on July 7 that year.

I have left out the works that apparently do not include foreign national airs: Musical Trifles (1791), Musical Remains (1796, with pieces by Händel, Bach, Abel & co.), Popular Cheshire Melodies (1798), Minstrel's Serenades (1809; some of his own compositions), Musical Miscellany (1810; some sonatas). All in all this is an interesting and impressive oeuvre that deserves further study. Let's hope some more of these publications will be made available in the not so distant future.

Literature: