"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

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 IMSLP,  Biblioteca 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:

• BNCN = 19th Century British Library Newspapers (Gale) 
• Phillis Kinney, Welsh Traditional Music, Cardiff, 2011

Some Notes About The Tune of Thomas Moore's "Minstrel Boy" (1813)

At the moment I am researching the history of some of Thomas Moore's songs: those that were popular in Germany in the 19th century. In this context I also try to put together what is known of the origin and the possible sources of these particular tunes. The one of "'Tis The Last Rose of Summer" has been discussed in a previous blogpost. This one is about "The Minstrel-Boy", also one of Moore's most important and most often performed songs. It was published, together with the latter, in 1813 in volume 5 of his Irish Melodies. The tune is called "The Moreen" or "The Mereen" (pp. 30-35, at the Internet Archive; see also SITM 5340, p. 970):

Where did Mr. Moore find this particular tune? The first step for a question like this is to check the indispensable article by Veronica ní Chinnéide about "The Sources of Moore's Melodies" that was published in 1959 in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (pp. 109-34). She showed that in most cases Moore used printed sources, especially Edward Bunting's publications, one by the Dublin publisher Smollett Holden and also George Thomson's Scottish collections. Other tunes he received from collectors like George Petrie and Thomas Crofton Croker. Until today this is the most complete discussion of this topic and as far as I can see not much has been added in the meantime except some additional information by Aloys Fleischmann in his Sources of Traditional Irish Music (SITM, see there p. xxvi). 

But not all of Moore's sources have been found and this is also the case with the tune of "The Minstrel Boy" (see Chinnéide, p. 123: "not found"). There is still no evidence that a tune like this, with this title, was printed before the publication of "The Minstrel Boy" in 1813. Nonetheless it is easily possible that Moore had heard this melody somewhere in Ireland or that he got it from one of the collectors who used to help him out. 

In fact there is, thanks to George Petrie, at least some evidence that this particular tune existed before it was published by Mr. Moore. Petrie (1790-1866) was, besides Edward Bunting and Patrick Weston Joyce, one of the most important collectors of Irish tunes during the 19th century. But only a part of what he had collected could be published during his lifetime in the 1st Vol. of The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland. Arranged for Piano-forte (Dublin, 1855, at the Internet Archive). Only half a century after his death composer Charles Villiers Stanford managed to make the most of it available in a new edition: 

• The Complete Collection of Irish Music As Noted by George Petrie, LL.D., R.H.A. (1789-1866). Edited From the Original Manuscripts by Charles Villiers Stanford, 3 Vols., London & New New York, 1902-1905 (at the Internet Archive) 

In Vol. 3 (No. 1067, p. 270) we can find a tune with the title "Moreen" and with an additional note: "From O'Neill's collection A. D. 1787":

In his own Vol. 1 (1855, p. 88) Petrie had - in the notes to another song - referred to a"manuscript book of Irish tunes, written in 1785 by Mr. Patrick O'Neill, a respectable farmer on the Bessborough estate, and of which book, as well as of several others of the same kind, I was allowed the use for the present work". The manuscripts of Mr. O'Neill - or at least parts of it - surprisingly reappeared in 2008 and were then bought by the National Library of Ireland (see Carolan 2009, at Pipers.ie; also The Session and Simon Chadwick at Early Gaelic Harp Info). 

Patrick O’Neill or Pádraig Ó Niall (1765–1832), a farmer and miller, also a musician and poet and a very educated man, seems to have been a local celebrity. His "manuscripts contain music from many different music genres", most likely learned from printed sources, but also "100 Irish traditional instrumental and vocal melodies", most of them possibly "from oral tradition" (Carolan, p. 18). Around 30 tunes in Petrie's Complete Collection are marked as being taken from O'Neill's note-books but according to Nicholas Carolan only 20 of them can be found in these manuscripts. "The remaining nine or ten" - including "Moreen" - are missing and "may have come from another O'Neill MS now lost, or from pages which are now missing [...]" (p. 22, n. 4, pp. 20-1). Therefore it is not possible to confirm Petrie's claims and to check if his date of 1787 is correct. 

Nonetheless it is still tempting to take Petrie's variant at least as an indication that the tune is older than Moore's "Minstrel Boy" and that it may have reached the latter on unknown ways. But I must admit that I am very skeptical. One lone variant, allegedly from a long lost manuscript and now unverifiable, simply can't be taken as any kind of proof, especially when it comes to such a famous tune. And even if it was really there, an error in dating is always possible. So at this point I have to leave it open and have a look at other possible sources and precursors. 

Alfred Moffatt in his Minstrelsy of Ireland (1898, pp. 244-5 & pp. 222-3) pointed to "Green Woods of Truigha" from Edward Bunting's second General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland (1809, pp. 42-3; SITM 4942, p. 896) and claimed that this was "one of the older versions of 'The Moreen', to which Moore wrote his immortal song 'The Minstrel Boy'". I wouldn't go that far but in fact we can find here at least the characteristic melodic motive of the first 2 bars of Moore's melody. By the way, the latter used this particular tune much later, in a supplement to the 10th volume of the Irish Melodies in 1834, for another song: "Silence is in our festal halls" was a tribute to Sir John Stevenson, his long-time musical partner, who had died in 1833 (see this song in a later complete edition of the Irish Melodies, Dublin 1882, pp. 260-1).

Aloys Fleischmann in the Sources of Traditional Irish Music not only proposed this tune as possibly related to "The Moreen" (see SITM No. 4942, p. 896; No. 5340, p. 970) but also another one: "On hearing a young Lady sing" from the Scots Musical Museum (Vol. 5, 1796, p. 453; SITM 2343 p. 453), a song written by one Allan Masterton, a friend of Burns (see Stenhouse 1853, p. 393). This is not entirely unreasonable but still there is a long way from this tune to Moore's. 

It should also be mentioned that the melody of "The Minstrel Boy" sounds as if it is somewhat related to the one of Moore's song "The Harp that once through Tara's Hall" (IM 1, 1808, pp. 26-30):

 I hear a similar mood and sound as well as some musical touching-points. Here he had used the tune of "Gramachree", which was popular and well known everywhere in Britain: in England, in Scotland and in Ireland (see Bruce Olson, Gramachree/ Will Ye Go to Flanders, in: Early Irish Tune Title Index; see also the references for SITM No. 1818, p. 344). The earliest known variant can be found in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion ("Will you to Flanders", Vol. 1, 1745, p. 36 ). The tune variant as used by Moore was popularized in 1775 by the comic opera Duenna , Or The Double Elopement (Act 1, No. 10, p. 21) and since then it was printed in numerous songbooks, for example in the Scots Musical Museum (Vol. 1, 1787, No. 46, pp. 46-7), in Sime's Edinburgh Musical Miscellany (Vol. 12, 1793, pp. 130-2) and in the 1st Set of George Thomson's Select Collection of Scotish Airs (1793, here a later reprint Dublin, n. d., No. 18), the latter most likely Moore's source (see Chinnéide, p. 118). 

But the tune most closely related to the one of "The Minstrel Boy" seems to be another one from Scotland (see Olson, Moreen 2, in: Early Irish Tune Title Index): "Tither Morn", first published in 1792 in the 4th volume of the Scots Musical Museum (No. 345, p. 355) and then three years later - with an arrangement by Joseph Haydn - in the 3rd volume of William Napier's Selection of Original Scots Songs in Three Parts (No. 31):

Robert Burns noted that the "tune is originally from the Highlands. I have heard a Gaelic song to it, which I was told was very clever, but not by any means a lady's song" (Dick 1908, p. 59). Apparently (see dto, pp. 111-2) he himself had collected this melody and then sent it to the Museum's editor James Johnson who - if I understand it correctly - combined it with this text which can be found - with the title "The Surprize, by a Scots Gentleman" - in some songsters from the 1780s, for example The Goldfinch, Or New Modern Songster (pp. 207-8). 

This tune is very close to Moore's "The Moreen", especially the first part. The second part is more different but that doesn't matter much. It would have been not too difficult for Thomas Moore to develop his melody from the one of "The Tither Morn". In fact he didn't need an original version of "Moreen". All the necessary musical material was available with this song as well as in the others mentioned above, especially "The Green Woods of Truigha" and "Gramachree". 

But no matter if there was an earlier "Moreen" or if it was Moore's own work it was the publication of the "Minstrel Boy" that introduced and established this famous "Irish tune". All later variants are clearly derived from his version. Only after 1813 this tune began to appear in other collections. The first one to use it was - of course - George Thomson in Edinburgh, at that time very busy compiling and producing his Select Collection of Original Irish Airs. He immediately - in April 1814 - forwarded it together with the melody of "'Tis The Last Rose of Summer" to Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna who was writing the arrangements for him (date from Cooper 1994, pp. 22-3, 216; he didn't notice that Thomson had taken them from Moore's Irish Melodies). Both tunes then appeared in 1816 in Vol. 2 of his Select Collection with new texts by William Smyth. In case of "Moreen" it was "Then soldier, come fill high the wine" (No. 38, pp. 91-2). 

Soon afterwards, in 1825, R. A. Smith included the tune in his Irish Minstrel (pp. 14-5), but with two different texts: "Smile Through Thy Tears" by one Thomas Lyle and a new "Minstrel Boy" by James Hogg. Others would follow, like for example John Clinton in his Gems of Ireland (1841, No. 54, p. 27; SITM No. 6087, tune only) and John Henderson in The Flowers of Irish Melody (1847, see SITM No. 6617), the latter with another new text ("Hear, Comrades Hear"). All these attempts at supplying the tune with new words were of course not particularly successful. Moore's "Minstrel Boy" became immensely popular and is still known today while these other versions are at best only of historical interest. 

Literature: 

• Nicholas Carolan, The Music Manuscripts of Patrick O'Neill (1765-1832), in: An Píobaire, Vol. 5, No. 5, December 2009, pp. 18-22 (at pipers.ie) 
• Veronica ní Chinnéide, The Sources of Moore's Melodies, in: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 89, No. 2, 1959, pp. 109-134 
• Barry Cooper, Beethoven's Folksong Settings. Chronology, Sources, Style, Oxford & New York 1994
• James C. Dick (ed.), Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns Written in an Interleaved Copy of The Scots Musical Museum with Additions by Robert Riddell and Others, London etc, 1908 (at The Internet Archive)
• Alfred Moffat, The Minstrelsy of Ireland. 200 Irish Songs Adapted To Their Traditional Airs, London 1898 (at The Internet Archive) 
• Bruce Olson, Early Irish Tune Title Index, 2001 
• [SITM=] Aloys Fleischmann (ed.), Sources Of Irish Traditional Music, C. 1600 - 1855, 2 Vols., New York & London 1998 
• William Stenhouse, Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry of Scotland. Originally compiled to accompany the "Scots Musical Museum," and now published separately, with Additional Notes and illustrations, Edinburgh & London, 1853 (at the Internet Archive)

Thomas Moore's "'Tis The Last Rose of Summer" - Some Notes About The Tune's History

"'Tis The Last Rose of Summer" was and is one of the most successful and most beloved songs of Thomas Moore's famous Irish Melodies. It appeared first in the 5th volume of this series that was published in December 1813 (pp. 16-21):

A while ago I wrote about the song's history in Germany where it also became a very popular "Volkslied" (see this text). But the tune has also a very interesting pre-history that is worth sketching and discussing here. Moore found the melody with the title "The Groves of Blarney" in a collection published a couple of years earlier (see Chinnéide, p. 120): 

• A Collection of Old Established Irish Slow & Quick Tunes Arranged for the Harp, Piano Forte, Violin, Flute, Flageolett Or Bagpipes, Selected and Published by S. Holden, Dublin, n. d. [c. 1805/6], I, p. 18 (available at IMCO; also SITM II, No. 4510):

This was the first and only time this melody was printed before the publication of his song. Holden's tune book happened to be a very important source for Moore who borrowed there all in all nearly 30 tunes (see Chinnéide, p. 113). In case of "The Groves of Blarney" he did not use it unchanged but of course "altered" it a little bit, as he himself later noted in a letter to his publisher (see Chinnéide, p. 122) and also left out the refrain. 

"The Groves of Blarney" was a popular song written circa 15 years earlier by Richard A. Milliken (1767-1815, see Hadden, DNB 37, p. 437), a jurist, writer, artist and editor living in Cork, as a parody of an older song with the title "Castle Hyde". There is a colorful story about these two songs that was first published in a memoir added to a posthumous edition of his Poetical Fragments (London, 1823) and then reprinted in 1839 by Thomas Crofton Croker in his Popular Songs of Ireland (pp. 141-2). This is worth quoting here in parts once again because it shows nicely how and why such songs were created: 

"An itinerant poet [...] composed a song in praise [...] of Castle Hyde, the beautiful seat of the Hyde family on the river Blackwater; but, instead of the expected renumeration, the poor poet was driven from the gate by order of the then proprietor, who, from the absurdity of the thing, conceived that it could be only meant as mockery [...] The author, however, well satisfied of its merits, and stung with indignation and disappointment, vented his rage in an additional verse against the owner, and sung it wherever he had an opportunity of raising his angry voice [...] the song became a favourite with the lower orders; then found its way into ballads, and at length into the convivial meetings of gentlemen. It was in one of those that Mr. Milliken undertook, in the gaiety of the moment, to produce a song that, if not superior, should at least equal in absurdity to 'Castle Hyde'; and accordingly adopting the tune, and taking Blarney for his subject, he soon made good of his promise [...]". 

This apparently happened in 1798 or 1799 and according to Croker it was Milliken's intention "to ridicule the songs which ignorant Irish village bards [...] were, and still are, in the habit of composing". I will only quote here the first verse (from Croker 1839, p. 147) : 

The Groves of Blarney they are so charming,
All by the purling of sweet silent streams,
Being banked with posies that spontaneous grow there,
Planted in order by the sweet rock close.
'Tis there's the daisy and sweet carnation,
The blooming pink, and the rose so fair;
The daffydowndilly, besides the lilly, -
Flowers that scent the sweet fragrant air.
Oh, ullagoane, &c.
[...] 

Here we can also see of course the cultural clash between the Anglo-Irish elite, represented by Mr. Milliken, and the local Irish population, represented by this particular "village bard". Later Irish writer and song collector Patrick Weston Joyce (1909, No. 395, p. 203) saw it the other way round and called Milliken's piece a "vile caricature" while describing "Castle Hyde" as a "well conceived and very spirited" song, a "celebrated composition" and a "general favourite". Here is again only the first verse, as quoted by Joyce: 

As I roved out on a summer's morning
Down by the banks of Blackwater side,
To view the groves and the meadows charming.
The pleasant garden of Castle Hyde;
'Tis there I heard the thrushes warbling,
The dove and partridge I now describe;
The lambkins sporting on ev'ry morning,
All to adorn sweet Castlehyde.
[...] 

Both of these songs were apparently not printed at the time of their writing. Only much later during the 19th century the lyrics were regularly published on broadsides in Ireland and England and it seems that they remained popular for a long time (see Broadside Ballads Online: "Castle Hyde" & "The Groves of Blarney").

The writer of "Castle Hyde" is of course not known. In an earlier publication in 1824 Croker had claimed it was a "drunken cobbler" (p. 129) while in 1888 Sparling in his Irish Minstrelsy (p. 504) noted that "a weaver named Barrett, about 1790" had created this text. But more interesting would be the original tune of this song. According to the story about Milliken it should have been the same as "The Groves of Blarney" even though it was later sung to others (see Joyce, p. 203). But thankfully Edward Bunting has collected a variant from a harper, most likely in 1792, which also shows that the song really existed at that time. It includes a refrain but the characteristic melodic motive at the start is somewhat obscured by passing notes and not easily discernible (reprinted in Audley, pp. 229-30).

There is one more unpublished version by Bunting, "collected in Ulster between 1805 and 1810" and wrongly notated in common time (reprinted in Audley, pp. 224-5). Another variant of the tune with that title was published in 1814 in Edward Fitzsimons' Irish Minstrelsy ("Oh shrive me father, or The Confession of Devorgilla", p. 41; SITM II, No. 5368). In 1816 George Thomson included a song called "The Kiss dear Maid, thy Lip has left", with words by Lord Byron and arranged by Beethoven, in the second volume of his Select Collection of Original Irish Airs (No. 37, pp. 89-90; SITM II, No. 5420). This tune, in common time and "communicated without a name by a friend", looks like it also belongs to this group. But none of the melodies represent a version of "Castle Hyde" that could have served as a precursor of "The Groves of Blarney". Of course this is not surprising. Musicians always introduced musical variations, especially as long as a tune was not yet codified in print. 

There is a fitting tune in the second edition of R. A. Smith's Irish Minstrel, published in 1828 ("Be mine the home", p. 10, here from SITM II, No. 5760), that looks exactly like it should look. In fact it is very similar to "The Groves of Blarney". But I wouldn't put too much trust in its authenticity. At that time Holden's collection had been available for 22 years, and Moore's "Last Rose" for 15 years. It is easily possible that it shows the influence of these two tune variants. Not at least Milliken's story had been published 5 years ago and Smith was surely aware of the song's history.

Both "Castle Hyde" and "Groves of Blarney" are also seen as belonging to a tune family around he song "Young Man's Dream" (see f. ex. Moffat, p. 285, p. 341, see Audley 2000, an excellent overview), which was known both in Scotland and in Ireland. The earliest versions appeared in the Scots Musical Museum in 1788: "Young Man's Dream" (II, No. 126, p. 131) and "I Dream'd I Lay" (II, No. 146, p. 153), the latter with words by Robert Burns (see Dick, No. 310, notes, p. 475). The first printed Irish variant can be found in Cooke's Selection of Twenty One Favorite Irish Airs (Never before Printed), published in Dublin in 1795 (p. 9, at UoP, Digital Library). Edward Bunting included one version in 1797 in his General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (No. 17, p. 10) which, by the way, was used by Thomas Moore in the first volume of the Irish Melodies for his song "Oh! When that mild eye is beaming" (pp. 56-61). But these tunes are all not particularly helpful for a history of "Castle Hyde" and "The Groves of Blarney". Nor are possible precursors of this tune family like the different variants of "Ned of the Hill" (mentioned by Audley, p. 243-246). 

But interestingly both Fleischmann in his Sources of Traditional Irish Music (see SITM I, No. 1175, and references to No. 4510) and Olson (Early Irish Tune Title Index) point in another direction where we can find the most probable precursor of our tune. The 3rd volume of Scottish composer and publisher James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, a "Favourite Collection of Scotch Tunes", includes a piece with the title "St. Martin's Church Yard" (London, c. 1751, p. 25) :

The relationship is most obvious when looking at the opening measures and compare them to those of "Groves of Blarney" and "'Tis The Last Rose Of Summer":

Olson (Early Irish Tune Title Index) notes that "St Martin's Church Yard" was "Oswald's business address, and the tune is undoubtedly his". John Purser (Notes to CPC, Vol. 3, p. 12) sees it as a "radically altered version" of "St. Martin's Lane", a tune from John Playford's Dancing Master (see here in 1709 edition, p. 197) but I have serious problems seeing a relationship between these two pieces. In fact he also admits that it "amounts to a recomposition and can be reasonably credited to" Oswald. 

How come parts of this piece end up in "The Groves of Blarney" and perhaps "Castle Hyde", more than four decades later? Oswald's Companion was a very popular tune collection and easily available for a very long time. Reprints were published even after his death. And of course a book like this was surely used by musicians of all kinds. 

Should we then regard James Oswald as the original writer of the tune that later became the one of Moore's "'Tis The last Rose of Summer"? Maybe not. I would not go that far. These melodies are of course not completely identical. But Oswald has created - or at least first published - this characteristic melodic motive, the major ingredient of the famous tune. The problem is only that we don't know how and when the melody was adopted in Ireland. It had started its life as a popular tune in London and only much later mutated into an "Irish" tune, perhaps when it was combined with elements of a precursor of "The Young Man's Dream" and therefore also became part of that particular tune family. In fact we can draw a direct line from "St. Martin's Church Yard" to "Groves of Blarney" and "'Tis The last Rose Of Summer".

Moore's song then served as the starting-point for a new line of tradition with its own off-springs. Other editors of Irish songbooks quickly made use of his variant. The first one was George Thomson in Edinburgh. He had already produced several volumes of his Select Collection of Scottish Airs (since 1793) as well as two books of Welsh tunes (1809/11) and at that time was busy working on an Irish collection, no doubt inspired by the great success of Moore's series. Thomson had hired Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna to write the arrangements and in April 1814, very shortly after the publication of the 5th volume of the Irish Melodies he send him two of its highlights, not only "Groves of Blarney" but also the tune of "Minstrel Boy" (for the date see Cooper, pp. 22-3, 216)

In fact Thomson must have been a faithful admirer of Moore's works because he borrowed some more tunes from them. But the feeling was surely mutual. Not only was the concept of the Irish Melodies indebted to Mr. Thomson's Scottish collections. Moore had also lifted a considerable amount of tunes from these books, at least seven until 1813 (see Chinneide, pp. 118-23). And of course both used their borrowings without any acknowledgment of their sources, as it was common at that time. 

"Groves of Blarney" - like the tune of "Minstrel Boy" as well as others taken from the Irish Melodies - appeared in 1816 in the second volume of Thomson's Select Collection of Original Irish Airs (No. 33, pp. 79-80 ; see SITM II, No. 5416), arranged by Beethoven and with a new text by one William Smyth ("Sad and luckless was the season"). There are also some minor changes of the tune, no doubt produced by Thomson himself to make it look a little bit different from Moore's version and to suggest that this was new variant from a different source. Interestingly Beethoven later also wrote some instrumental variations for this tune that then were published in 1819 in Vienna (Six Themes Varies, op. 105, No. 4, at Beethoven-Haus, Bonn). For some reason here it was called "Air Ecossais". 

Some years later, in 1825, R. A. Smith included "Groves of Blarney" á la Moore in his Irish Minstrel, here with a new text by one Mr. Knox ("She left us when spring-time", p. 56). But neither Thomson's nor Smith's versions proved successful. It was Moore's song that became immensely successful, not only in Britain and the USA but also in Germany, and made this tune famous around the world. 

Literature: 

• Brian Audley, The Provenance of the Londonderry Air, in: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 125/2, 2000, pp. 205-247 
• Veronica ní Chinnéide, The Sources of Moore's Melodies, in: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 89, No. 2, 1959, pp. 109-134 
• Barry Cooper, Beethoven's Folksong Settings. Chronology, Sources, Style, Oxford & New York 1994
• Thomas Crofton Croker, Researches of the South of Ireland, Illustrative of The Scenery, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Peasantry. With an Appendix Containing a Private Narrative of the Rebellion of 1796, London, 1824 (available at the Internet Archive) 
• Thomas Crofton Croker, The Popular Songs of Ireland. Collected and Edited, With Introductions and Notes, London, 1839 (at the Internet Archive) 
• James C. Dick (ed.), The Songs of Robert Burns, London 1903 (available at The Internet Archive) 
• James Cuthbert Hadden, "Milliken, Richard Alfred", in: Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 37, New York & London, 1894, p. 437 (at the Internet Archive) 
• P. W. Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music And Songs. A Collection Of 842 Irish Airs And Songs, Hitherto Unpublished, Dublin 1909 (available at The Internet Archive)
• Alfred Moffat, The Minstrelsy of Ireland. 200 Irish Songs Adapted To Their Traditional Airs, London 1898 (available at the Internet Archive) 
• Bruce Olson, Early Irish Tune Title Index, 2001 
• John Purser, Notes, The Caledonian Pocket Companion by James Oswald, Volume One (Books 1-6), CD Rom, Modern Edition by John & Barbara Purser, Nick Parkes, 2006 
• [SITM=] Aloys Fleischmann (ed.), Sources Of Irish Traditional Music, C. 1600 - 1855, 2 Vols., New York & London 1998 
• H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy: Being a Selection of Irish Songs, Lyrics and Ballads, London, 1888 (available at the Internet Archive)

The Earl of Marischal And His Collection of International "National Airs" (1771)

In the first volume of Johann Gottfried Herder's Volkslieder (1778) we can find an introductory collection of "Zeugnisse über Volkslieder" with quotes from, among others, Montaigne, Joseph Addison, Luther, Agricola & Lessing (pp. 5-12). Particularly intriguing is one about a certain "Lord Marshall" who had collected national airs from "almost every nation under the sun" (p. 10): 

"Lord Marshall hatte sich eine Sammlung von Nazionalmelodien gemacht, von fast allen Völkern unter der Sonnen. Er hatte fast bei jedem Stück eine Anekdote. Er erzählte mir auch von einem Bergschotten, welcher allemal meinte, wenn er eine gewisse langsame Melodie spielen hörte".

As source is given the German translation of English musicologist Charles Burney's report about his legendary trip through Europe in the early 1770s (Vol. 3, pp. 85, 87, 88). At the moment I am interested in the history of comparative anthologies of national airs ("Volkslieder") in the 18th and 19th century and therefore this sounds very interesting. A little bit of research helped to identify the "Lord Marshall".

This was George Keith, the 10th Earl of Marischal (c. 1693-1778), an exiled Scottish soldier and diplomat in in service of the Prussian king. He had been involved in the Jacobite Rising in 1715 and had to leave Britain. Over the years he lived in Spain, but also in Russia, Venice and and other countries. In 1774 he moved to Prussia. 

Frederick II was particularly fond of him and he became part of the King's inner circle and also - as he was well-read and educated - member of the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften. The King made him governor Neuchâtel in Switzerland where he met Rousseau with whom he became friends and with whom he spent many hours discussing. Even though the Earl was eventually pardoned by the British crown he didn't return home but preferred to live in Berlin, close to the King (see ADB 15, 1882, pp. 551-5, and also the article in the German Wikipedia which is very helpful; see also Varnhagen von Ense, 1873, pp. 1-165, about his brother James [Jakob] Keith).

Charles Burney visited him in 1771 in his house in Berlin and was clearly very impressed by this old soldier. In the 2nd volume of the Journal of his tour, The Present State of Music in Germany, The Netherlands, and United Provinces, we can find the report about the Earl and his collection of national music (1773, here 2nd ed., London, 1775, pp. 122-3): 

"On this occasion, he was very pleasant upon himself: here ensued a discussion of Scots music, and Erse poetry; after which his lordship said, ' but lest you should think me to insensible to the power of sound, I must tell you, that I have made a collection of national tunes of almost all of the countries on the globe, which I believe I can shew you.' After a search, made by himself, the book in which these tunes were written, was found, and I was made to sing the whole collection through, without an instrument; during which time, he had an anecdote for every tune. When I had done, his lordship kindly wrote down a list of all such tunes as had pleased me most by their odditiy and originality, of which he promised me copies, and then ordered a Scots piper, one of his domestics, to play to me some Spanish and Scots tunes, which were not in the collection; 'but play them in the garden, says he, for these fine Italianised folks cannot bear our rude music near their delicate ears.'"

That sounds all very fascinating, not only the idea of a Scottish piper in Berlin in 1771 but also the fact that already at that time somebody had collected on his travels through Europe local music pieces and created what must have been the very first collection of international national airs. This was a couple of years before Herder's international "Volkslieder" - with only lyrics but no tunes, of course - and 20 years before the Abbé Vogler's Polymelos ou Caractères de Musique de differentes Nations, the first published collection of foreign national tunes (see this text in my blog). I only wonder what has happened to the Earl's book of national airs. One may assume that it has been lost and we will never know what exactly he had collected. 

Literature:

• Charles Burney, The Present State of Music in Germany, The Netherlands, and United Provinces. Or, The Journal of a Tour through those Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for A General History of Music. In Two Volumes. Vol. II, London, 1773 (2nd ed., London, 1775, available at the Internet Archive)
• [Charles Burney] Carl Burney's der Musik Doctors Tagebuch seiner musikalischen Reisen. Dritter Band. Durch Böhmen, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Hamburg und Holland. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt [von Christoph Daniel Ebeling]. Mit einigen Zusätzen und Anmerkungen zum zweyten und dritten Bande, Hamburg, 1773 (available at the Internet Archive)
• Johann Gottfried Herder, Volkslieder, Erster Theil, Weygand, Leipzig, 1778 (available at Google Books)
• A. D. Schaefer, Keith, George, in: ADB 15, 1882, pp. 551-5 (at wikisource & BSt-DS)
• Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Biographische Denkmale, 7. Teil, 3.vermehrte Auflage, Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1873 (available at the Internet Archive)