Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1135 (Little Diamond)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Polka32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Little Diamond
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording ScE (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Little Diamond, The / Magic Slipper / The Magic Slipper (for 6th figure of Mealagh Valley Jig Set on MISD 6)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune		 [Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
19922#2[ScE] Gerry Harrington and Eoghan O'Sullivan. Scéal Eile. Gerry Harrington (fiddle), Eoghan O'Sullivan (accordion).View album details
~19935#3[JCnly] Johnny Connolly. An tOileán Aerach. Johnny Connolly (accordion).View album details
~19961#1[BC] Séamus Begley and Stephen Cooney. Meitheal. Séamus Begley (accordion, vocals), Stephen Cooney (guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, ditjeridú).View album details
~1996B.10#1[MISD 6] Donncha Lynch Trio. The Magic of Irish Set Dancing. Vol. 6. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogán Lynch (concertina), Donncha Lynch Jr. (guitar).View album details
200711#1[Aths 1] Áthas. Áthas. Heather Lewin-Tiarks (fiddle, viola, cello), Amy Richter (bodhrán, djembe, whistle), Jeff Ksiazek (guitar, whistle, flute).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – considering only the indexed books – listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.

As tune #10 in [IBPS] Pat Conway. Ireland's Best Polkas and Slides. [available]
On page 233 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.

If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?

Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1992
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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