BUNTING, Edward. The Ancient Music of Ireland. Arranged for the Piano Forte. To which is prefixed A Dissertation on The Irish Harp and Harpers, including an account of the Old Melodies of Ireland.

Illustrated. Dublin: Hodges & Smith, 1840. Quarto. pp. vi, 100, 7 (plates), [ii], xi, 109 (plates). Added titlepage, illustrated in gold and colours. Title in red and black. Original gilt decorated olive-green cloth. Spine professionally rebacked. Usual mild waterstain to half-title and plates. A very good and attractive copy.
JISC locates 6 copies only.
The occasion which first confirmed Edward Bunting in his partiality for the airs of his native country, was the great meeting of the Harpers at Belfast, in the year 1792. Before this time there had been several similar meetings at Granard, in the county of Longford, which had excited a surprising degree of interest in Irish music through that part of the country. The meeting at Belfast was, however, better attended than any that had yet taken place, and its effects were more permanent, for it kindled an enthusiasm throughout the North which burns bright in some warm and honest hearts to this day. All the best of the old class of harpers - a race of men then nearly extinct, and now gone for ever - Denis

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