George Petrie (1790–1866) as a collector of Irish song

Abstract

This chapter considers the contribution of George Petrie as a collector and publisher of Irish song. His upbringing, his professional career first as an artist and subsequently as an archaeologist, and his role as a leading figure in the Royal Irish Academy, all provided important contexts for his collection of traditional song. As the head of the orthographical and etymological section for the Memoir of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland he worked closely with two of the most important Irish scholars of the time, Eugene O’Curry and John O’Donovan, and their influence proved invaluable when he was made president of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Music of Ireland in 1851. The various sources of the songs he collected and his approach to their notation are considered, as are the characteristics of the contents of the only completed publication of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Music of Ireland, The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland in 1855.