Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1587 (Piper on Horseback)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABA Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Piper on Horseback
 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 MLIIA (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):
Piper on Horseback, The / Jig away the Donkey / Mick Hoy's / The Fair Haired Lass / The Dark Haired Lass (compare reversed parts to Merry Harriers #1273)
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
199015#2[MLIIA] various. The Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival - My Love Is in America. View album details
19951#1[EI 2] Eileen Ivers. Wild Blue. Eileen Ivers (fiddle), John Doyle (guitar), Tom 'T-Bone' Wolk (organ, accordion, guitar, bass), Ben Wittman (drums), Kimati Dinizulu (percussion).View album details
19951.9#1[GL20] various. Green Linnet Records. The Twentieth Anniversary Collection. View album details
~20011.18#1[WFO 1] various. Wooden Flute Obsession. View album details
20031#4[LLPQ 2] The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. Track Across the Deep. Karen Ryan (fiddle, whistle), Elaine Conwell (fiddle), Dee Havlin (flute, whistle), Maureen Linane (accordion), Kathleen O'Sullivan (vocals).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 reel #558 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As reel #669 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): 1990