Power & Co.

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1803–1810

Business Type: 
Music publisher
Music seller
Musical instrument maker: unspecified
Address(es): 

4 Westmoreland Street

Details: 

From 1803 to 1807, 'Power & Co.' was the business of brothers James and William Power.

In 1807 James moved to London where he was a military instrument maker, music seller and publisher.

William Power continued the business, initially (until 1810) under the name Power & Co and then under his own name until 1831.

William Power invited Thomas Moore to cooperate in a projected edition of Irish airs. The first volume Selection of Irish melodies, with symphonies and accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson, Mus. Doc., and characteristic words by Thomas Moore Esq. was published c. 1807/1808. There followed nine additional issues and a supplement, containing a total of 124 airs. As a result of disagreement between William and James, the later numbers were issued by the latter’s firm in London with arrangements by Henry Bishop (Boydell, 'Music, 1700–1850'). An insert into the third edition of Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh in 1817 stated: 'The Publishers [Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (Paternoster-Row, London)] beg to inform the Composers of Music and Music Sellers, that Mr. James Power, of the Strand, Music Seller, is the only person authorised by them to publish the Songs or Verses in this Work connected with Music'.

Select Product/Work List: 

Produced (as listed in Waterhouse)

  • Bass-horn [Glen collection]
  • Bass-horn (supplied to the Royal Artillery), 1803

    • Published

  • Selection of Irish melodies, with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson, Mus. Doc., and Characteristic Words by Thomas Moore Esq., c. 1807/08 – ? [several volumes] (Boydell, 'Music, 1700 - 1850')
  • Bunting, Edward, The Ancient Music of Ireland, c. 1809 [pirated edn] (McHale)
    • See Also: 

    Power, James & William
    Power, William

    Source(s): 

    Dublin Directories

    Teahan, John, 'A List of Irish Instrument Makers', The Galpin Society Journal, 16 (May 1963), 28–32 (p. 31)

    Warner, Thomas E., An Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruction Books, 1600–1830 (Detroit: Information Co-ordinators Inc., 1967), p. 68

    Humphries, Charles and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles, from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century; a Dictionary of Engravers, Printers, Publishers, and Music Sellers (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 263

    Boydell, Brian, 'Music, 1700–1850', in Eighteenth-Century Ireland 1691–1800, ed. by T.W. Moody and W.E. Vaughan, A New History of Ireland, IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 568–627 (p. 605)

    Boydell, Barra, 'The Flageolet in Ireland: Aspects of the Repertoire, the Instrument and its Makers', in Musicology in Ireland, ed. by Gerard Gillen and Harry White, Irish Musical Studies, I (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990), pp. 151–168 (pp. 158–61)

    Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index: a Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors (London: Tony Bingham, 1993), p. 310

    McHale, Maria, 'Music', in The Irish Book in English 1800–1891, ed. by James H. Murphy, The Oxford History of the Irish Book, IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 595–601 (p. 598)

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Power, James & William’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 16-03-2017