IRISH FOLK SONGS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1485, 6 July 1912, Page 11

IRISH FOLK SONGS.

Everybody that Ireland has a music of its own, and it is very 6weet nnd beautiful music, too. Many people, however, imagine that tho Tom Mooro ballads comprise tho great musical literature of that country. This is not tho case, as tho Countess do Cisnoros will show in the music sho is to sing at her concerts.

As soon as hor present tour of Australasia was decided upon, Madame de Cisnoros commenced her search for Irish music. Slio know that Ireland once possessed n race of troubadours—wandering birds who in Gaelic sang the legeuds of the country to tho music of tho harp, Ireland d national emblem.

"In America," said the great mezzocontrnlto, describing her search, "one can get'tho .most-up-to-date information about everything. I set to work to hunt New York for some of those old harpers' melodies. I approached several big music publishers. Nut they all gazed at me sadly, and told me they had neveT heard of anything of the kind. I was not discouraged. I kept on seeking, and in the end I found a publisher who said that ho had somewhere in his library a book of songs just tho sort I described. .It was Dr. G< Pctrie's, collected early. Irish music. I found that Dr. Fetrie had taken many of his songs from the work of Mr' Edwar- Bunting, another enthusiast in Irish folk music. After much disappointment I obtained a copy of Edward Bunting's work, and I found the two veritable storehouses of tho csquisito music of old Ireland. I liavo been f through' them all. All are beautiful, but I have selected .those which. I concider to be the cems of the collections for inclusion in my Australasian programmes." , ■ _ In each of hex concert programmes Madame do Cisnoros will include a series of theso delightful old melodies. the first of these- is "Farewell, My Gentlo Harp." This song was first put into written form .in IGSO. A .well-known harper-Eory' Dull M'Cahon-sang it in Dublin that year.. A.note was taken of it bv a musician present, who recognised its value, and this noto afterwards came into the possession of Hr. Edward Bunting in the course of his researches. Ihe date of tho second number, "The Foggy Dew," is unknown. Somo harper composed it in tho dim past. Ho taught it to others, and it was handed down, a traditional- folk song, from harper to harocr, until Harper M'Garvny sang it in Dublin, nnd it was taken down about tho year 1700; "My Thousand Times

Beloved" found its way into written form in similar fashion about the. yrar 1798. ■ The last of, the four Irish songs of the first programme'.is called "A Golden Cradlo Holds'. Thee." Who composed it, and when, nobody knows. Mr. Bunting heard an old Irishwoman sing it away, in tho wilds of Galway. Ho took down the music and tho Gaelic words. It relates it pretty, legend about the fairy fort of Farsoc. A young girl, whoso infant brother had died a week before, was raid to have wandered into tho fort, there to find hor brother in a rich cradle; placed; there by fair}' hands. Tho sour, with its exquisite music, is the lullaby she sings as she rocks tho golden cradle.