Editing Thomas Moore (section)

===Reception===
{{Listen
| type         = music
| filename     = Stevenson-Moore-Adelina Patti-The last rose of summer-(1906).ogg
| title        = "The Last Rose of Summer"
| description  = sung by [[Adelina Patti]] in 1906
}}
In the early years of his career, Moore's work was largely generic, and had he died at this point he would likely not have been considered an Irish poet.<ref name=":6" />{{rp|151}} From 1806 to 1807, Moore dramatically changed his style of writing and focus. Following a request by the publishers James and William Power, he began to write lyrics to a series of Irish tunes in the manner of [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]]'s settings of British folksongs, with Sir [[John Andrew Stevenson]] and, following Stevenson's death in 1833, [[Henry Bishop (composer)|Henry Bishop]], as arranger of the music. The principal source for the tunes was [[Edward Bunting]]'s ''A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music'' (1797) to which Moore had been introduced at Trinity by Edward Hudson.<ref name=":6" />{{rp|50}} 

The ''Melodies'' were published in [https://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html ten volumes], together with a supplement, over 26 years between 1808 and 1834. There were an immediate success, [https://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/eire/taraharp.htm "The Harp that did once through Tara's Hall"], [[The Last Rose of Summer|"]][[The Minstrel Boy]]" and "[[The Last Rose of Summer]]" becoming immensely popular.  

Encouraged, Moore and his publisher employed the same formula with lyrics and melodies described as Indian, Spanish, Portuguese, Sicilian, Venetian, Scotch, Italian and Hungarian. Beginning in 1818, their ''[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/National_Airs/rztNAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover National Airs]'' appeared in six volumes with Stevenson and Bishop again responsible for the musical arrangement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kloss |first=Jürgen |date=2015-04-29 |title=...Humming A Diff'rent Tune: Thomas Moore's "Irish Melodies" & "Popular National Airs" - What is available online? |url=https://hummingadifferenttune.blogspot.com/2015/04/thomas-moores-irish-melodies-popular.html |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=...Humming A Diff'rent Tune}}</ref>

There were parodies in England, but translations into German, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, and French, and settings by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Beethoven National Airs · The dissemination of Thomas Moore's National Airs in nineteenth-century Europe · Digital Exhibitions at Special Collections & Archives, Queen's University Belfast |url=https://omeka.qub.ac.uk/exhibits/show/the-dissemination-of-thomas-mo/beethoven-national-airs |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=omeka.qub.ac.uk}}</ref> and [[Hector Berlioz]] guaranteed a large European audience. In the United States, "The Last Rose of Summer" alone sold more than a million copies.<ref>James W. Flannery: ''Dear Harp of My Country: The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore'' (Nashville, TN: J. S. Sanders & Co., 1995).</ref>

Byron said he knew the ''Melodies'' all "by rote and by heart"; setting them above epics and Moore above all other poets for his "peculiarity of talent, or rather talents, – poetry, music, voice, all his own". They were also praised by [[Sir Walter Scott]] who conceded that neither he nor Byron could attain Moore's power of adapting words to music.<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /> 

Moore was in no doubt that the ''Irish Melodies'' would be "the only work of my pen […]  whose fame (thanks to the sweet music in which it is embalmed) may boast a chance of prolonging its existence to a day much beyond our own".<ref name="Harry White" /> They distinguished him in his lifetime, as his country's national poet,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Love |first1=Timothy M. |year=2017 |title=Gender and the Nationalistic Ballad: Thomas Davis, Thomas Moore, and Their Songs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44807357 |publisher=University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies) |page=68-85 |journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua |volume=21 |location=Dublin |ISSN=10923977}}</ref> a popular honour he sought maintain by declining an offer from [[Dublin Castle administration|Dublin Castle]] to become Ireland's first poet laureate. He believed that to occupy the salaried position he would have to tone down his political views.<ref name=":6" />{{rp|89-90}}