The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) has published a significant new collection of traditional music melodies and song airs titled The Pigot Collection – Irish Traditional Music from the John Edward Pigot Manuscripts.
Edited by ITMA Director Emeritus Nicholas Carolan and Caitlín Uí Éigeartaigh, with music-setting by Jackie Small, the book contains 624 melodies collected in pre-Famine times as well as a 74-page introduction by Carolan on Pigot’s life and work.
John Edward Pigot (1822–71) from Fermoy, Co. Cork, was a barrister-in-law and amateur musician in Dublin who was also extremely active in the political and cultural movements of mid-nineteenth century Ireland. He worked on the Nation newspaper from its inception and acted as a music editor for the Spirit of the Nation song collection; and was a founder of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, which published the Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland in 1855.
At the same time, between the 1840s and 1860s, Pigot created the largest manuscript collection of Irish music made until his time. In this endeavour he was assisted by musician Annie Prendergast, whom he married in 1851.
In his introduction, Carolan describes Pigot’s collection as a ‘collection of collections’ with this new ITMA edition containing the 624 melodies that come from live performance and those that come from manuscripts now lost.
The Pigot Collection – Irish Traditional Music from the John Edward Pigot Manuscripts, edited by Nicholas Carolan & Caitlín Uí Éigeartaigh, is priced at €40 and is available to purchase from the Irish Traditional Music Archive website.
Feature Image: A detail from the cover of ‘The Pigot Collection’, featuring dancers, a whistle player, a harp flag and a view of Daniel O’Connell’s Derrynane estate in 1831. Painting by John Fogarty. Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland