Irish Traditional Music Archive launches new book on 19th century collector John Edward Pigot

The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) will launch an important new publication on November 28, with more than 600 transcriptions of pre-Famine music. The launch will take place in ITMA’s library in 73 Merrion Square.

The Pigot Collection: Irish Traditional Music from the John Edward Pigot Manuscripts features staff-notated music collected in the 1840s and 1850s by the barrister-at-law and amateur musician John Edward Pigot, assisted by his musician wife Annie Prendergast.

The book features all the melodies Pigot noted from live performance and from manuscripts given to him by friends and colleagues and was edited by ITMA Director Emeritus Nicholas Carolan and Caitlín Uí Éigeartaigh. These are featured alongside essays on the collector, illustrations, appendices and indexes.

Carolan said: “The collection gives Irish traditional musicians of the present day an opportunity to connect with music of 200 and more years ago for revival and enlightenment, and opens up a tranche of pre-Famine Irish music for scholarly appraisal”.

Founded in 1987, ITMA is home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of Irish traditional music, song, and dance in the world. It digitises, preserves and offers free universal access to valuable recordings, photographs, manuscripts, and other archived materials. ITMA regularly publishes books, CDS and films.

John Edward Pigot (1822–71) was born in Co. Cork but spent most of his life in Dublin. A pianist, Pigot silently edited traditional music for publication and was the driving force behind the 1851 Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland. He collected from uilleann pipers, fiddle players and singers, but most of his music collection was given to him for copying by other collectors.

His collection was the largest made until his time. Most would have been lost had they not been transcribed. His manuscripts remained unpublished at the time of his early death. They are now held in the Royal Irish Academy and the National Library of Ireland.

On November 28, the book will be launched by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Professor Emeritus, University of Galway, MRIA, with music from uilleann piper Mick O'Brien. The launch will not be open to the public, but interested media can contact ITMA Digital Communications Officer Robert Mackenzie to be added to the guest list.