ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ideologies, processes and characteristics of collection of traditional music in Northern Ireland rather than the sites of their performance. The collection of Irish music, from whatever part of the island, can be seen to serve two very different ideological functions: to demarcate difference; or to demonstrate the underlying similarity and commonalities of the people. Descriptive and prescriptive transcriptions in staff and sol–fa notations coexist here, making the collection at once historical record and performing edition. Captain O'Neill's transcriptions, which were published initially as single line melodies without accompaniment in O'Neill's Music of Ireland and The Dance Music of Ireland are examples of a 'prescriptive' approach to notation, and they have been widely adopted as the de facto standards of tunes. Relatively few of the other items in Petrie's 1855 collection came from sources in Ulster and only ten from places that currently fall within the boundaries of Northern Ireland, all from County Londonderry.
