Irish music collecting

Irish music collecting is an area concerned with preserving the large body of

Very little Irish music composed before 1700 survives. Some airs from this period are preserved in manuscript, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book being one of the more notable examples. A reference to Callen O Costure Me/Cailin O Chois tSuire Me in William Ballet's book of lute music in the late 16th century is the first known record of an Irish traditional song written in musical notation.

Irish traditional tunes were recorded in

The next collection was Wright's Aria di Camera (1730). It contained Scottish and Welsh airs borrowed from Neale without acknowledgment. The Burke Thumoth Collection (two volumes, 1750) contains many airs. The two Lee collections, the first from 1774, contain a collection of tunes by Rev. Jackson (d. 1798), a rector from

In Scotland, Bryson published in 1790 A Curious Selection of Favourite Tunes with Variations, and it contains Fifty Favourite Irish Airs. In 1793, Cooke published a Selection of Twenty-one Favourite Original Irish Airs arranged for Pianoforte, Violin or Flute containing many tunes.

Nineteenth century