Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1290 (Pinch of Snuff)

RhythmMode
ReelD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Pinch of Snuff
 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 TP 2 (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):
Pinch of Snuff, The / An Pinsín Snaoisín / The Old Pinch of Snuff / Pinch of Snuff / Mil na Maidí / Mill na Máidí / The Crushing of Twigs / The Humours of Swanlinbar (various number and order of parts) (compare Pinch of Snuff #1583, Glen Road to Carrick #732, and 1st part with 1st part of Four Courts No. 2 #2469)
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
~19761#2[TP 2] Tommy Peoples and Paul Brady. The High Part of the Road. Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Paul Brady (guitar).View album details
19919#1[FS] various. Fiddle Sticks. Irish Traditional Music from Donegal. View album details
19919#2[A HS] Altan. Harvest Storm. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Frankie Kennedy (flute, whistle, vocals), Paul O'Shaughnessy (fiddle), Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, whistle, vocals), Mark Kelly (guitar, vocals), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki, bouzouki-guitar).View album details
~199119#2[MV] various. Maiden Voyage. Live Traditional Irish Music Session from Pepper's Bar, Feakle, Co. Clare. Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Siobhán Peoples (fiddle), Andrew McNamara (accordion), Kevin Crawford (flute), P.J. King (accordion), Páraic Mac Donnchadha (banjo), Pat Marsh (bouzouki), Joe Bane (whistle), John Maloney (bodhrán), Séan Mac Donnchadha (vocals).View album details
19956#3[EI 2] Eileen Ivers. Wild Blue. Eileen Ivers (fiddle), John Doyle (guitar), Tom 'T-Bone' Wolk (organ, accordion, guitar, bass), Ben Wittman (drums), Kimati Dinizulu (percussion).View album details
~199514#4[Arc 2] Arcady. Many Happy Returns. Johnny McDonagh (bones, bodhrán, triangle), Nicholas Quemener (guitar, flute, whistle, vocals), Patsy Broderick (piano, keyboards), Conor Keane (accordion), Brendan Larrissey (fiddle), Niamh Parsons (vocals).View album details
19971#2[CTL 6] Cherish the Ladies. Threads of Time. Joanie Madden (flute, whistle, vocals), Mary Coogan (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Mary Rafferty (accordion, whistle), Donna Long (piano, vocals, fiddle, keyboards), Siobhan Egan (fiddle, whistle, bodhrán), Aoife Clancy (vocals, bodhrán, guitar).View album details
20068#2[NNW] Eliot Grasso and Dave Cory. North-by-NorthWest. Eliot Grasso (pipes, flute), Dave Cory (banjo, guitar, octave mandolin).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 #122 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. [available]
As tune #182 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #183 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #8 in volume 2 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
As reel #273 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]

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): 1960