Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#170 (Maid at the Well)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording MR 5 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double jig | 32 | AABB | G Major |
Maid at the Well, The / The Maids of Glenroe / The Blackthorn Stick / An Maide Draighin / The Black Stripper / The Castle Street Jig / The Milkmaid / I Saw a Hawk in Dundalk / The Hawk from Dundalk / Pat Curtins Jig / The Mullagh Jig / The Kilkenny Jig / Arthur McBride / Humours of Gurteen (4th in set Tenpenny Bit on Drv 5, where 2nd part is used as an intro) (also in A) (compare Bill Collins' #5395)
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.
Click 
to hear the first 12 seconds.
to hear the first 12 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| ~1992 | 7#2 | [MMM] Music at Matt Molloy's. |
| 1993 | 18#1 | [MR 5] Micho Russell. Ireland's Whistling Ambassador. Micho Russell (whistle, vocals). |
| ~1995 | 2#1 | [WatReeds] Tommy Keane, Jacqueline McCarthy, with Alec Finn. The Wind among the Reeds. Tommy Keane (pipes, whistle), Jacqueline McCarthy (concertina). For this tune: (B pipes), (concertina). |
| ~1995 | 2#2 | [Whr] Paddy Glackin and Robbie Hannan. The Whirlwind. Paddy Glackin (fiddle), Robbie Hannan (pipes). |
| ~1999 | 3#4 | [Drv 5] Dervish. Midsummer's Night. Cathy Jordan (vocals, bodhrán, bones), Tom Morrow (fiddle, viola, vocals), Shane Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute, whistle), Séamus O'Dowd (guitar, fiddle, harmonica, vocals), Michael Holmes (bouzouki), Brian McDonagh (mandola, mandolin, vocals). |
| ~2001 | 12#2 | [HOP] Claire Byrne, Darragh Murphy, Barry Kerr, Patrick Davey. The Humours of Piping. Claire Byrne (pipes), Darragh Murphy (pipes), Barry Kerr (pipes), Patrick Davey (pipes). For this tune: Barry Kerr. |
| ~2001 | 2#2 | [JW 2] John Williams. Steam. John Williams (accordion, concertina, whistle, flute, bodhrán). For this tune: (accordion), with Seamus Egan (banjo), Liz Carroll (fiddle). |
| ~2002 | 1.4#2 | [MSCB] Michael Sexton Ceili Band. Michael Sexton Ceili Band. Michael Sexton (accordion), Caroline Tubridy (fiddle), Pat Curtin (flute), Brian Morgan (flute), Ralph Morgan (banjo), George Byrt (piano), Martin Garrihy (drums). |
| ~2002 | 9#3 | [Tda 1] Téada. Téada. Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle, vocals, whistle, piano), John Blake (flute, whistle, guitar, piano), Seán McElwain (banjo, bouzouki, vocals), Tristan Rosenstock (bodhrán, vocals). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune 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 #724 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. |
| As tune #24 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. |
| As tune #83 in volume 1 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. |
| As tune #13 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. |
| As jig #3 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music. |
| On page 92 of [CITM] Fintan Vallely. The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. |
| As jig #8 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As jig #85 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. |
| In [LM] L[arry]. E. McCullough. ? |
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