Frequently Asked Questions: Your Involvement
How can I show my support for this site?
irishtune.info is a nonprofit, educational project that has bills to pay but has neither funding nor institutional support. Please help!• Go Shopping
Just start your purchase of any CDs or tunebooks by using any of the "Check availability" links throughout this site. Or simply start any sort of shopping trip right here, and these companies will donate around 5% of the price to irishtune.info, all at no extra cost to you:
By helping you find out where you can get traditional Irish music albums, I hope to also be rendering a service not only to the musicians who made the recordings but also to the tradition at large, which can only benefit when more people find out about great music.
• Give Directly
- Donate any of the CDs or tunebooks on my Amazon Wish List to the index, so that I can add them to the index. For non-Amazon items which I could really put to good use for irishtune.info, please see below.
- Donate other CDs or tune books of Irish traditional music to me which are not currently listed as already indexed in the Discography or Bibliography. Bands, agents, and labels are welcome to submit promo copies. Used CDs are also fine as long as all of the original printed matter is included.
If you would like to make a direct donation to irishtune.info, you may send items to me at the following address.
Alan Ng1214 Colby St.
Madison WI 53715
USA
Who has supported this site?
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for making donations to irishtune.info. Any unexplained codes are albums detailed in the Discography.
2008
- Áthas: Aths 1
- Compass Records: MH 5, Lu 6, Lu 7, LCJD
- Tony DeMarco of Pennsylvania: TDeM
- Terry Moylan of Dublin: WC (book)
- Niamh Ní Charra: NNC
- Baxter Rogers of Nashville, Tennessee: KCB 3, SEgn 1, PS 7
2007
- Kevin Burke: KB ABR
- Claddagh Records: TCB 4
- Cló Iar-Chonnachta: PotW, PHGH 2, TAM, CLnn 2
- James Kelly of Miami, Florida: JK 4
- Scott Morgan of Evanston, Illinois: DM 1 (book), DM 2 (book and CD), DM 3 (book), DM 4 (book and CD)
- Ossian USA
- Karen Ryan of The London Lasses and Pete Quinn: LLPQ 1, LLPQ 2, LLPQ 3
- Bob "RWW" Taylor: Paypal donation
- The various acoustic guitars of SameDayMusic.com: Paypal donation
- Rolf Wagels near Hannover, Germany: Paypal donation
- Bryan Whiting of Madison, Wisconsin: EON
2006
- James Carty: JasCt
- John Carty: JCt 5
- Cló Iar-Chonnachta: JOSe, MMrch 2
- Lauri Gannon: Paypal donation
- Eliot Grasso of Seattle, Washington (at that time): EGrs 1, NNW
- Matt and Shannon Heaton: MSHtn 1, MsHtn 2
- Eron Johnson: Paypal donation
- Debbie Kmetz of Madison, Wisconsin: JFtg
- Kevin Krell of the International Traditional Music Society: WFO 1, WFO 2, WFO 3
- Randy Miller of Alstead, New Hampshire: RM (book), FT (book)
- Bill Peden of Madison, Wisconsin: Skylrk 2, 4MD 2, DByrn
- Tara Music Company: MLnn
Earlier
- Pat Cloonan of Connemara, now in Chicago, Illinois: PCln
- Dan Cobb of Madison, Wisconsin: A (book), AW (book), P (book)
- Karen Cornelius of Madison, Wisconsin: TS (book)
- 2003: Eammon Doorley of Danú: Dnu 1, Dnu 3
- Karen Fox Fischer of Madison, Wisconsin: AW, Bx, SR (book)
- Mary Foreman of Madison, Wisconsin: CB
- 2004: Michael Gregory: Cash donation
- Stefan Israel of North Carolina: Sc (book) and audiocassettes of Ch BIH, Ch JG, Ch C
- 2004: George Keith of Boston: TP 2
- 2005: Dana Lyn of New York: DLyn
- 2003: David Moulton of Canada: a spreadsheet of tune titles in the books 1850 and 1001
- Bob Newton of Madison, Wisconsin: FFH, CFF 1, Drv
- John Ottinger of Madison, Wisconsin: GL1
- 2004: Valerie Plested of Mississippi: Lgcy
- 2004: Thomas Pritchett of Idyllwild, California: CTL 6, CTL 8
- 2005: Baxter Rogers of Nashville, Tennessee: AMPR, KCB 3, SEgn 1, PS 7
- 2000: Judy Rose of Madison, Wisconsin: CTL 7, Ch W, Dnú 2
- 2000: Phil Rubenzer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin: M2 (book)
- 2005: Chris Smith of Texas: CSmth
- 2004: Rolf Wagels of Steampacket: Stpkt
- Bryan Whiting of Madison, Wisconsin: FBros, SE 4
Would you be interested in help from other musicians?
Sure, that would be wonderful! Here's my wish list:
- Support irishtune.info financially or by donating Irish CDs and tunebooks that are missing in the index.
- A spreadsheet with abc versions of all tunes in any one of these books (see Bibliography): CRE 1, CRE 2, MM, and R. A smaller but still very useful project would be to type up only the incipits (first 2 bars) from these books. I don't need the tune titles typed, just the book's tune number that goes with each bit of abc. Here's an example incipit for a jig (this is the first double jig in O'Neill's 1850, his #701):
K:D A|~d3 AFD|E2F G2A|
A good example of how to organize a spreadsheet like this is here: O'Neill's. - New or used CD issues of the following (which are not available for listing on the Amazon wishlist above):
- Padraig O'Keeffe, RTE
- Humours of Lisheen
- Patrick Kelly
- Brian Rooney, The Godfather
- Matt Cranitch, Éistigh Seal, Gael Linn CEFCD 104
- DeDannan, Anthem
- A copy of the books Ceol Rince na hÉireann volumes 3, 4, and/or 5.
- A copy of the book The Northern Fiddler - a photocopy would be fine.
- Copyright-legal MP3 samples of every tune on every track on every CD in the Discography (preferably including the first 2 bars of the musician's first time through the tune). I'd be happy to build these samples into my database and provide them to the public on this Web server. I just don't have access to the equipment necessary to create all those samples in an efficient way.
- Get some company to issue a commercial remastering on CD of James Morrison's 78 rpm records.
- Get some company to issue a commercial remastering on CD of Bobby Casey's Casey in the Cowhouse.
- Do the legal work necessary to get irishtune.info registered as a IRS-recognized non-profit educational organization.
- Help me write a grant application so that I can spend more time working on the Tunography.
If you want to check out my employment situation (or lack thereof), see my personal homepage.
Who has helped find errors in my data?
Out of the hundreds of thousands of readers of irishtune.info over the years, and out of the hundreds who have written me for various reasons, there have been a handful of alert and careful musicians who have found the following real errors in my work. I was able to independently confirm their discoveries and then corrected my data accordingly. Here I would like to gratefully acknowledge their assistance:
- Kevin Fontaine, 26 April 2008: Noticed that the two Paddy Fahy hornpipes I had as #1502 and #1503 were actually the same tune. I had seen them as separate tunes because one is a flute-compatible variation on this fiddle tune, but on second thought I combined these sources under #1502.
- RWW Taylor, 15 April 2008: Another report in his series of notes to me (see below):
- Christoph Zeiler, 1 April 2008: Pointed out something which let me discover that back in 2005, when I divided the many, somewhat similar "Rakes of Kildare" sources as two distinct jigs (#1638 and #4273), I had forgotten to move the 1001 #108 source over to tune #4273 together with when I moved its identical twin, 1850 #847.
- Anonymous, 20 March 2008: Suggested that #1580, a Cape Breton reel, was actually the Irish hornpipe "The Flowing Tide" (which, by the way, is #653). Thanks to this anonymous prompt, I gave #1580 tune a back-to-back comparison against #653 and added a note that at least their 2nd parts are alike.
- RWW Taylor, 3 March 2008: Submitted another report in his series of notes (see below), drawing on his tunebook database:
- The 1001 source for #868.
- The 1850 #193 source for another song-air setting of #701, as well as the Krsn source for Hawk's Hornpipe, which I include here only as a partially-relevant transcription.
- The Roche source for #4467.
- The 1850 source (as a song-air) for jig #3045.
- All three O'Neill-edition sources for the "Best in the Bag" setting of #801, and for #2671.
- RWW Taylor, 26 January 2008: Submitted another report in his series (see below), pointing out the following tunebook-related discoveries:
- Christoph Zeiler, 10 January 2008: Pointed out that book 1001 actually does have a transcription of tune #863. Thanks!
- RWW Taylor, 31 December 2007: Submitted a third report (see 8 December and 11 November below) of issues and questions he had collected while working on his own tune database. He earned credit for the following discoveries:
- My mistake in including transcription #54 from the book Allan's Irish Fiddler in my bibliography for tune #172. Although it does bear some distant resemblances to #172 (and its cousins) in parts, in fact it did not musically correspond to any tune in the Index to date.
- All three O'Neill-edition sources for tune #1115.
- The CRE 2 source for #3355.
- The fact that IBPS transcription #29 is vaguely similar to tune #3976.
- A typographical error ('5' instead of '3') in my list of titles for #942.
- Christoph Zeiler, 12 December 2007: Pointed out that book 1001 actually does have a transcription of tune #2417. Thanks!
- RWW Taylor, 8 December 2007: Submitted another long report (after his 11 November one, see below) of tunebook sources he had found missing during his own database work, and some other types of problems:
- Asked me whether the unusual version of polka #3745 which I had found on LAC is in fact the same tune as the more conventional setting of the polka which I had previously identified as an unrelated tune, found on the Beg 1 album and in book HN. His suspicion turned out to be right, so I then combined all those sources under #3745. Thanks, RWW!
- Noted the similarity between the polka #2885 and the song #2327.
- Noted that I mistakenly typed the page number instead of the transcription number in my reference to the 1850 source for #1602.
- Found a typographical error of mine, where I typed page number 124 instead of 134 for Krassen's transcription of "Molly What Ails You?", at tune #1021.
- All three O'Neill-edition sources for tune #1049.
- The fact that the transcription "Old Horned Sheep" found in all three O'Neill-edition sources is partially similar to #1570.
- O'Neill's additional transcription (the setting titled "Boys of Galway") in all three O'Neill editions, for #2993.
- The 1850 and Krsn sources for tunes #55 and #2727.
- An additional source in 1850 (O'Neill's #1006) for #908.
- In 1850, yet another (a third transcription, at O'Neill's #897, to add to the two I had already found) for #2485, as well as the corresponding transcription in Krassen's edition.
- The FF sources for tunes #726, #778, #790, #2460, #2885, #3719 and the partially relevant one for #3157.
- The 1850 sources for #130, #790, #1639, #1738, #1848, #2327 and #3157.
- The 1001 source for #788, #5026, and an additional 1001 source for #2059 (O'Neill's #358).
- The fact that Allan's transcription #93 is partly like #139, as well as the the fact that Krassen, on his p. 207, mistakenly omitted his intended transcription of #139 and instead included a second, duplicate transcription of #1861.
- Bob Pfeffer, 4 December 2007: Recognized that the new jig I had identified on KitRec track 11 was in fact the same jig as #2600, even though on KitRec, the musicians chose to put the last part of the jig first, which had thrown me off the track. So I combined those records under #2600. Thanks, Bob.
- RWW Taylor, 11 November 2007: Submitted a lengthy report of issues he collected over a long period of time while working on his own tune database, one apparently more focused on tunebooks. Put concisely, he found for me:
- All three O'Neill-edition book sources for both tune #1671 and for tune #1910.
- The 1001 book source for tune #1890.
- An additional 1001 book source for tune #1845, a mostly-similar tune at O'Neill's #320.
- The 1850 book sources for tune #223, tune #2798, and tune #1758.
- An additional 1850 book source for tune #1762, at O'Neill's #1475.
- The 1850 and the JOL book sources for tune #2410.
- A typographical error in my bibliography for tune #1697, where I had typed the page number instead of the tune number for the 1850 book source.
- A typographical error in my musical transcription of tune #4292.
- Bill Harker, 21 September 2007: Noticed that the "Gan Ainm" tune on track 8 of Jerry O'Sullivan's Invasion is in fact the same tune as #2021. Now fixed!
- Joe Bowbeer, 11 September 2007: Noticed that I accidentally used a wrong tune ID number in my comment about the similarity between Scatter the Mud #1728 and Maid of Tramore #1028. Thanks!
- Anonymous, 13 February 2007: Noticed that I missed that Queen of the Fair #1623 actually does have a transcription in O'Neill's 1001 tunebook. Thanks!
- Jerome Colburn, 30 January 2007: Pointed out on IRTRAD-L that my bar count for Arthur Darley's unusual-meter jig #2907 was wrong. Upon reexamination I decided that it was in fact not objectively countable at all (at least as played in the Irish tradition), so I removed my bar count.
- Thomas Young, 25 and 28 January 2007: Noticed two more errors of mine regarding two tunes on Frankie Gavin's FG 3 album, even though Laurent had found a different error back in March 2005 (see below). Thomas first noticed that I had not accounted for the unlabeled 3rd tune on track 9 of , which of course is The Steeplechase #1834. A few days later, he also noticed that I had failed to recognize that the untitled tune that starts track 15 is, of course, Mullingar Races #1367. As I explained to Thomas, my records show that I originally worked on this Frankie Gavin album during the final throes of writing my PhD thesis in early 2002, and that was clearly a bad time for me to try do any careful tune identifying!
- Michael Gregory, 30 November 2006: Noticed that polka #3635, recorded by Johnny O'Leary and Donncha Lynch, is actually the same tune (but in a different key, and with a somewhat different opening) as the polka #877. So I combined those sources under #877 and abandoned #3635.
- Anonymous, 10 October 2006: Noticed that I listed the track number of tune #3335 as recorded on Ch AIE as 2 instead of 3.
- Kevin Krell, 23 August 2006: Noticed that I didn't include the alternate spelling "McGlinchey" from the WFO 2 source for Brendan McGlinchey's last name in the composer credit for tune #419. (Until WFO 2, all of my sources for that tune had spelled his last name only as "McGlinchy.")
- Kevin Krell, 26 July 2006: Noticed that I entered 1993 (the reissue year) instead of 1981 (the original publication date) as the date for track 18 (disc 2) on the album WFO 1.
- Philip Smith, 14 March 2006: Noticed that the polka #3490 is actually just the polka tune #1450, but in a different key. So I then rewrote the #1450 info in light of the additional tune sources which I moved there from #3490. Then I abandoned #3490.
- Laurent (from Brittany, France), 7 March 2005: Noticed that the untitled 3rd tune which I had not yet identified on track 3 of the album FG 3 was actually Maudabawn Chapel, tune #1236. So I abandoned tune #2900.
- Lia Zito, 11 June 2004: Noticed that I had two different tunes set up to describe one jig, #961, since some sources were in D Major and some were in G Major, and other very minor differences. So I made some minor adjustments in light of this insight, and at some later date I decided to abandon tune #2932 since more data was making it clear that these were all one tune in the Irish tradition. Lia was right in the end.
- Lia Zito, 8 June 2004: Noticed that the reel recorded as "Sonny's Return" on the KH album is actually the same tune as Paddy Lynn's Delight, tune #1513. So I abandoned tune #1796.
- Anonymous, 23 April 2004: Noticed that a tune unhelpfully titled as "Jim Coleman's" on the Drv album is actually the Controversial Reel, tune #386, although in D Major instead of the usual G Major. So I abandoned tune #2682.
- Paul de Grae, 14 December 2003: Noticed that a couple of my sources for the similar-sounding hornpipes Bee's Wing, tune #3437, and The Wonder, tune #3439, were assigned to the wrong one of those tunes. All fixed, thanks to Paul. Later I started playing Bee's Wing myself, which means that error definitely won't happen again!
- John McGann, 18 November 2002: Noticed that I mistakenly categorized his composition The Nightlight, tune #3502, as a reel instead of as a hornpipe.