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    Home > Notated Collections

    William Forde Manuscripts

    Cork born William Forde (c.1795–1850) devoted his life to music as a musician, collector and scholar. A flute and piano player, he spent time in both London and Cork, his wide ranging musical interests focusing during the 1840s on Ireland. He joined the circle of other Irish antiquarian scholars such as George Petrie (1789–1866) and John Windele. In 1844 he launched an unsuccessful subscription campaign to publish a printed music collection, and his Irish legacy remains a substantial and as yet unpublished collection of up to 1,900 melodies, part of the 16 volume Forde-Pigot Collection of Irish Music held in the Royal Irish Academy Dublin. For more information on the collection see William Forde (c.1795–1850), Cork Musician & Antiquarian, his 100 Irish Airs.

    Mary Bergin, Tony Linnane and John Blake recorded these two tunes for ITMA’s Drawing from the Well series, December 2020.

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