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STORIES OF
still. The Scotch give a version of it, but it was known in Ireland long before the appear-ance of Corn's " Book of Highland Airs," in which it was first printed in Scotland.
Hardiman, Bunting, and other qualified au-thorities state emphatically that " Summer is a coming in," was taken bodily by Dr. Burney from the ancient Irish melody called " Samhre teacht" or "Summer is coming." To which Moore wrote " Rich and rare were the gems she wore," which has been handed down for centuries by the various bards. It was Dr. Young, the then bishop of Clonfert who first detected the likeness. "This sweet hymn," according to Hardiman, " was a tribute of grate-ful melody, offered up by our ancestors to the opening year, and has been sung from time immemorial by them at the approach of spring. To those who have resided among the peasantry of the southern and western parts of Ireland, where the national manners are most un-adulterated, this melody is at this day perfectly familiar." Mr. Henry Davey, in his " History of English Music," while acknowledging that the sudden appearance for one moment of the art of composition in the thirteenth century— in the form of this piece, this Rota, "Sumer is icumen in"—is inexplicable, almost unhesi-iS4 |
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