Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1444 (Off She Goes)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Single jig32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Off She Goes
 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 TDMI (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):
Off She Goes / Off She Goes! / The Launch / Lancer's Quadrille (also as slide)
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
~195832#2[TDMI] various. Traditional Dance Music of Ireland. View album details
197717#2[JOL 1] Johnny O'Leary. Music for the Set. Traditional Irish Music from Sliabh Luachra. Johnny O'Leary (accordion).View album details
~199914#1[OMT] Billy McComiskey, Brendan Mulvihill, and Zan McLeod. One More Time. Billy McComiskey (accordion), Brendan Mulvihill (fiddle), and Zan McLeod (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, 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 #914 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #385 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
On page 41 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
As tune #98 in [JOL] Terry Moylan. Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra. Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border. [available]
On page 204 of [FF] David Brody. The Fiddler's Fakebook. [available]
In [FMH] Tom Hastings. The Feis Musicians Handbook [sic].

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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