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