Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1347 (Mother and Child Reel)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABA Mixolydian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Mother and Child Reel
 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 JW 1 (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):
Mother and Child Reel, The / Mother and Child / Peata Beag is a Mháthair / Peata Geal do Mháthair / Is Trua gan Peata 'n Mhaoir agam / Peata Beag mo Mháthar / Your Mother's Fair Pet / The Yellow Cow / I'm Ready Now! / Our House at Home (also reversed parts, also as song) (compare Our House at Home #4405)
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
~199511#1[JW 1] John Williams. John Williams. John Williams (accordion, concertina).View album details
19973#4[MH 3] Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. The Lonesome Touch. Martin Hayes (fiddle), Dennis Cahill (guitar).View album details
~19982#2[MvC 2] Moving Cloud. Foxglove. Paul Brock (accordion), Maeve Donnelly (fiddle), Manus McGuire (fiddle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán), Carl Hession (piano).View album details
~20041.19#2[WFO 3] various. Wooden Flute Obsession 3. View album details
~20057#1[MMhn] Martin Meehan. Three's Company. Martin Meehan (flute, bodhrán).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 #259 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As reel #129 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As reel #795 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [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): 1966