Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 130 (Return from Fingal)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
March32AABBE Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Return from Fingal
 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 Ch 4 (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):
Return from Fingal, The / Fingal March / The March to the Battle / The Battle of Aughrim
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
194813#1[SE 6] Séamus Ennis. The Return from Fingal. Séamus Ennis (pipes, vocals).View album details
~197311#1[SE 2] Seamus Ennis. The Pure Drop. Seamus Ennis (pipes).View album details
~19735(2:00)#2[Ch 4] The Chieftains. 4. Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, whistle), Seán Potts (whistle), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Peadar Mercier (bodhrán, bones).View album details
~199311#2[JKn 2] James Keane. That's the Spirit. James Keane (accordion).View album details
~200110#1[Lu 3] Lúnasa. The Merry Sisters of Fate. Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle), Seán Smyth (fiddle, whistle), Cillian Vallely (pipes, whistle), Donogh Hennessy (guitar, whistle), Trevor Hutchinson (double bass).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 #1816 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #216 in volume 3 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #80 in volume 2 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
On page 37 of [FF] David Brody. The Fiddler's Fakebook. [available]
As misc #8 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): 1903
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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