Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1821 (St. Patrick's Day)

RhythmMode
Set danceG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of St. Patrick's Day
 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 LR 1 (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):
St. Patrick's Day / Saint Patrick's Day / St Patrick's Day / Patrick's Day / St. Patrick's Day in the Morning / The Knight of Saint Patrick Lancers / Oh! Erin, My Country / Sheelah's Wedding / Though Dark Be Our Sorrows / Barbary Bell (compare The Kerry Dance included here and the jig Boys of the Town #211)
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
19374#1[LR 1] Leo Rowsome. Classics of Irish Piping. Leo Rowsome (pipes).View album details
~19898#1[FG 3] Frankie Gavin. Frankie Goes to Town. Frankie Gavin (fiddle, flute).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 #298 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #975 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #293 in volume 2 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #191 in volume 3 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #117 in [A] Hugh McDermott. Allan's "Irish Fiddler." [available]
On page 18 of [Ba] Betty M. Barlow. Fiddle Tunes for the Violinist. [available]
As tune #95 in [Cr] Matt Cranitch. The Irish Fiddle Book. [available]
In [FMH] Tom Hastings. The Feis Musicians Handbook [sic].
As setd #29 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #293 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [available]
As tune #83 in [DM 4] Dave Mallinson. 100 Vital Irish Session 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): 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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