William Hamilton Bird: The Oriental Miscellany | Album Review

Dubliner William Hamilton Bird was known to the Bengal Calendar and Register of 1790 as a "conductor of public amusements".

He seems to have been an indefatigable concert promoter. He published his Oriental Miscellany for harpsichord in Calcutta in 1789.

It’s a collection of “Airs of Hindoostan”, classified as Rekhtahs, Teranas, Tuppahs, and Raagnies, the various styles being adapted and regularised for European taste.

It’s a fascinating collection, and Jane Chapman uses the nasality available from her Kirckman harpsichord to suggest the drones of some of the original to great effect.

She also includes a sonata for flute (Yu-Wei Hu) in which the enterprising Bird fused East and West.