Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#1290 (Pinch of Snuff)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording TP 2 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Mode ? |
|---|---|
| Reel | D Major |
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 (3rd in set Ships Are Sailing on EI 2) (various numbers and orders of parts) (compare Pinch of Snuff #1583, Glen Road to Carrick #732, and 1st part with 1st part of Four Courts No. 2 #2469)
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.
Click 
to hear the first 10 seconds.
to hear the first 10 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 12#1 | [FCssdy] Frank Cassidy. Níl Gar Ann! Frank Cassidy (fiddle). For this tune: with John Doherty (fiddle). |
| 1953 | 3#1 | [FCssdy] Frank Cassidy. Níl Gar Ann! Frank Cassidy (fiddle). |
| ~1976 | 1#2 | [TP 2] Tommy Peoples and Paul Brady. The High Part of the Road. Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Paul Brady (guitar). |
| ~1981 | 11#2 | [CtL] Peg McGrath, Mary Mulholland, Kathleen Smyth. Cherish the Ladies. Disc 9 of Celtic Souls. Irish Celtic Ballads & Traditional Music. Peg McGrath (flute), Kathleen Smyth (fiddle), Mary Mulholland (piano). |
| 1991 | 9#1 | [FS] Fiddle Sticks. Irish Traditional Music from Donegal. Ciaran Tourish, Dermot McLaughlin, Séamus Glackin, Kevin Glackin. |
| 1991 | 9#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). |
| ~1991 | 19#2 | [MV] 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). |
| ~1991 | 2#3 | [TKn] Tommy Keane. The Piper's Apron. Tommy Keane (pipes, whistle). For this tune: (Eb whistle). |
| 1995 | 6#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). For this tune: with Seamus Egan (flute). |
| ~1995 | 14#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). |
| 1997 | 1#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). |
| 2006 | 8#2 | [NNW] Eliot Grasso and Dave Cory. North-by-NorthWest. Eliot Grasso (pipes, flute), Dave Cory (banjo, guitar, octave mandolin). |
| 2007 | 5#5 | [AbsIr] Absolutely Irish. Eileen Ivers (fiddle), Seamus Egan (flute). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune 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. |
| 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. |
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): 1953