Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Spirit of the nation

VI PREFACE.
Yet that little book was coarsely printed, was full of typographical errors,
contained some unmistakeable rubbish, and had no music. The work which is
here offered to Ireland contains thrice as many poems, is almost free from
errors of the press, is beautifully printed, not unfavoured by art, and compa-
nioned with more music than many a costly collection.
There are in this volume no less than seventeen original airs composed for
it, and twenty-two old Irish airs, arranged for the voice with piano accompa-
niments.
Among the old airs are many of the finest and scarcest. Most of the
original airs are of a proud and fierce character, and peculiarly fitted for bands
and chorus singing.
The greatest achievement of the Irish people is their music. It tells
then - history, climate, and character ; but it too much loves to weep. Let us,
when so many of our chains have broken, when our strength is great and our
hopes high, cultivate its bolder strains — its raging and rejoicing; or, if we weep,
let it be like men whose eyes are lifted, though their tears fall.
Music is the first faculty of the Irish, and scarcely any thing has such
power for good over them. The use of this faculty and this power, publicly and
constantly, to keep up their spirits, refine their tastes, warm their courage,
increase then- union, and renew their zeal, is the duty of every patriot. We
are now putting in their reach a number of new and noble airs, and others so
scarce as to be little known, and so beautiful, as to deserve to be known by
every one. Will not the temperance bands learn to play these airs, and the
young men, ay, and the young women, of the temperance societies learn to sing
our songs, and chorus them till village and valley ring ? If they do, we care
not into how many or how few of the drawing-rooms of England or America
this book of ours will reach. It will have done its work, and entered into the
heart of Ireland, for good and for ever.
Nation Office, 1st January, 1845.