Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 135 (Beauty Spot)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABD Mixolydian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Beauty Spot
 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 SE 6 (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):
Beauty Spot, The / An Ball Seirce / An Ball Scéimhe / The Back of the Change (2nd in set Micho Russells Set on 4MD 2) (also doubled) (compare Gorman's #962 and compare 2nd part with 2nd part of Solus Lillis's Reel #2912)
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
~191932#1[PT] Patsy Touhey. The Piping of Patsy Touhey. Patsy Touhey (pipes).View album details
194812#4[SE 6] Séamus Ennis. The Return from Fingal. Séamus Ennis (pipes, vocals).View album details
~199310#2[4MD 2] Four Men and a Dog. Shifting Gravel. Cathal Hayden (fiddle, banjo), Gino Lupari (percussion, vocals), Kevin Doherty (guitar, vocals), Arty McGlynn (guitar), Conor Keane (accordion), Gerry O'Connor (banjo, fiddle).View album details
~19959#1[JW 1] John Williams. John Williams. John Williams (accordion, concertina).View album details
19963#2[TF] Martin Dowling, Christine Dowling, Daithi Sproule. A Thousand Farewells. Martin Dowling (fiddle), Christine Dowling (flute, vocals), Daithi Sproule (guitar).View album details
~19973#1[PCny] Paddy Canny. Traditional Music from the Legendary East Clare Fiddler. Paddy Canny (fiddle).View album details
~199811#2[Sol 3] Solas. The Words That Remain. Karan Casey (vocals), John Doyle (guitar, etc.), Seamus Egan (flute, banjo, etc.), Winifred Horan (fiddle, etc.), Mick McAuley (accordion, concertina, etc.).View album details
200113#1[Dnu 3] Danú. All Things Considered. Tom Doorley (flute, whistle), Eamon Doorley (bouzouki, mandola), Brendan McCarthy (accordion, harmonica), Oisin MacAuley (fiddle, vocals, guitar), Jesse Smith (fiddle, viola), Noel Ryan (guitar), Donnchadh Gough (bodhrán, pipes), Ciarán Ó Gealbháin (vocals, piano accordion).View album details
20061#3[NNW] Eliot Grasso and Dave Cory. North-by-NorthWest. Eliot Grasso (pipes, flute), Dave Cory (banjo, guitar, octave mandolin).View album details
~20076#3[RdOnly] Brian McNamara and Tim Collins. Reed Only. Brian McNamara (pipes), Tim Collins (concertina).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 #185 in volume 1 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #135 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1.
As reel #152 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.

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): 1919