| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
186 |
National Music of the World. |
||
|
region of hot controversy over our rich treasures of national melody; treasures more vast and peculiar, considering the area within which they are found, than distinguish any of the districts glanced at in my former sketches.
The amount of research brought to bear on the matter during late years is remarkable. I am not aware that the same pains has been taken with the national music of any other country. I may men-lion the collections of Mr. Bunting for Ireland, of Mr. Jones for Wales, certain Edinburgh publications, that of the contested Skene manuscript among the number, and the elaborate and earnest work of Mr. William Chappell on English music—an instance of twenty years' labour employed to remodel and enrich a former treatise, most honourable to the industry and enthusiasm of its writer—as works offering stores of anecdote, of special pleading, of challenges for comparison, which tend to perplex the inquirer by their number and their contradictory evidence. But I go back to my starting point: in all these cases there is something besides and beyond testimony, whether it be the testimony of manuscript or the assertion of tradition. What I remarked on the 'Marseillaise' may be applicable in this case |
|||