Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1434 (Oak Tree)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel40AABBCD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Oak Tree
 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):
Oak Tree, The / An Crann Darach /[mislabeled in CRE 2 as:] Bean a' Tí ar Lár [instead of:] The Old Oak Tree / An Seanchrann Darach / Old Simon's Hornpipe (also as hornpipe)
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
~197415#2[JD 5] John Doherty. The Floating Bow. John Doherty (fiddle).View album details
~19761#1[TP 2] Tommy Peoples and Paul Brady. The High Part of the Road. Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Paul Brady (guitar).View album details
~197711#1[ECst] various. Traditional Irish Music in America. The East Coast. View album details
~19896#1[FG 3] Frankie Gavin. Frankie Goes to Town. Frankie Gavin (fiddle, flute).View album details
~199113#3[SS 1] Sharon Shannon. Sharon Shannon. Sharon Shannon (accordion, fiddle).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 #133 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #193 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #50 in volume 1 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
On page 204 of [FF] David Brody. The Fiddler's Fakebook. [available]
As tune #9 in [DM 3] Dave Mallinson. 100 Evergreen Irish Session Tunes. [available]
As reel #247 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): 1966
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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