Sir, - Has Gabriel Rosenstock, like many others, been led to believe by the title Moore's Melodies that the music contained therein is the work of Moore himself?
Although an accomplished musician, Moore contributed only the words of the songs published under the title. The music was the work of Sir John Stevenson a leading musician and composer of the period, who rearranged traditional airs to match Moore's poetry. He certainly used Bunting's collection as a major source of this material, and of the 16 airs in the first volume of what became known later as the Melodies, 11 were taken from Bunting.
With regard to the original argument of Kevin Myers that these airs would not have survived if Moore/Stevenson had not adopted and adapted them, I would argue that they did not in any real sense survive even this process. I am happy to report, however, that very many of the airs which Bunting collected in the late 18th and early 19th centuries have survived in the tradition, without, or perhaps in spite of, such "classicisation". - Yours, etc.,
Music Dept, University College, Cork.