A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bunting, Edward
BUNTING, Edward, son of an English engineer and an Irish lady, born at Armagh in February 1773. He was educated as an organ and pianoforte player, and distinguished himself for his love of Irish music, of which he published three collections. The first, containing Irish airs 'never before published,' came out in 1796. A second, containing 75 additional airs (words by Campbell and others), and a dissertation on the Irish Harp, appeared in 1809. A third collection, containing upwards of 150 airs, of which more than 120 were then for the first time given to the public, was published in 1840. This last collection is remarkable for a dissertation of 100 pages upon the history and practice of music in Ireland. According to this dissertation 'the occasion which first confirmed him in his partiality for the airs of his native country, was the great meeting of the Harpers at Belfast in 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 throughout 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—Dennis Hempson, Arthur O'Neill, Charles Fanning, and seven others, the least able of whom has not left his like behind, were present.' Aided by O'Neill and the other harpers, Bunting immediately began to form his first collection. He travelled into Derry, Tyrone, and Connaught, where, especially in the last, he obtained a great number of excellent airs. His first and second collections contain the best Irish airs, although in his third there are several very good ones, and some very curious. Among these last are the 'carinans or dirges, and airs to which Ossianic and other old poems are sung,' and which the editor gives as 'very ancient'—many hundred years old. He afterwards endeavours to analyse the structure of Irish airs, and to point out their characteristics.
Bunting died at Belfast Dec. 21, 1843, and was interred at Mount Jerome. His death was absolutely unnoticed. 'He was of no party, and therefore honoured of none, and yet this unhonoured man was the preserver of his country's music.' (Dub. Univ. Mag., Jan. 1847; Private Sources.)[ E. F. R. ]