Abstract
The anonymous “Essay on Song Writing” in the 1820 Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine identifies Byron’s Hebrew Melodies as pseudo-songs: “Byron’s Hebrew Melodies… are neither Hebrew nor melodies.” They are, however, imitations of Moore’s Irish Melodies, with which the “Essay on Song Writing” compares them invidiously.1 Irish Melodies was an imitation of earlier books of national melodies, including the volumes published by George Thomson and entitled A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs.2 This imitative theme characterizes the early reviews: a more positive response in the British Critic indicates that “these songs …stand a fair chance of rivaling in popularity the compositions of his friend Moore, of which indeed they often remind us.”3 The Critical Review says that among contemporaries only Moore equals or excels Byron in the writing of lyrics.4
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