E. Bunting. A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music...Vol.1, [1797]

Bunting, Edward

A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music, Containing a variety of Admired Airs...adapted for the Piano-Forte...Vol.1, London: Preston & Sons, [1797]

FIRST EDITION, 1 leaf, v and 36 pages, 4to (31 x 22.8cm), engraved title and music, printed 5-page preface, signed on the title by Bunting ("EBunting"), the songs provided with additional manuscript titles in Gaelic, old manuscript pagination, some old fingerings in ink, some annotations in pencil and red crayon, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II C 48") to verso of title, Dolmetsch Library label affixed to head of spine with translucent adhesive tape, nineteenth-century marbled boards,staining to title, some slight worming to gutter, browning, the leaves strengthened at gutter, a few old repairs

Edward Bunting (1773-1843) was the first systematic collector of Irish folksongs. His publication A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music came out in three volumes: the first, with 66 tunes (1797), the second containing 75 additional airs (1809), and the third with more than 150 airs and a lengthy treatise on Irish music history (1840).

LITERATURE 

RISM Recueils, p.76; ESTC T164581; dating from TNG, iv, p.605