Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1695 (Rolling down the Hill)

RhythmBarsMode
Reel32A Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Rolling down the Hill
 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 MG (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):
Rolling down the Hill / The Mountain Lark
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
192912#1[MG] various. Milestone at the Garden. Irish Fiddle Masters from the 78 RPM Era. View album details
~197721#2[ItS] various. In the Smoke. View album details
~20019#2[JW 2] John Williams. Steam. John Williams (accordion, concertina, whistle, 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 #1508 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #727 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #53 in [A] Hugh McDermott. Allan's "Irish Fiddler." [available]
On page 152 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [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): 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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