Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#187 (Boil the Breakfast Early)
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 16 | AB | G Major |
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).
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Boil the Breakfast Early / Boil the Beefsteak Early / Court Her along the Road / Wild Irishman / Peadar's Reel / Lynch's Reel (also doubled, also with 3 parts)
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). |
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | 1#1 | [LR 1] Leo Rowsome. Classics of Irish Piping. Leo Rowsome (pipes). |
| ~1949 | 10#2 | [CmA 1] various. The Coleman Archive Vol. 1: The Living Tradition. |
| ~1974 | 10#3 | [KCB 3] [The Kilfenora Ceili Band]. [The Kilfenora Céilí Band]. |
| ~1979 | 1#1 | [Ch B] The Chieftains. 9. Boil the Breakfast Early. Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Martin Fay (fiddle, bones), Derek Bell (harp, tiompán), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán, vocals), Matt Molloy (flute, whistle). |
| 1990 | 17#1 | [MR 5] Micho Russell. Ireland's Whistling Ambassador. Micho Russell (whistle, vocals). |
| ~1995 | 11#2 | [Whr] Paddy Glackin and Robbie Hannan. The Whirlwind. Paddy Glackin (fiddle), Robbie Hannan (pipes). |
| ~2002 | 1.3#3 | [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). |
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 #789 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. |
| As tune #22 in [P50] Brian and Eithne Vallely. Play 50 Reels. |
| As reel #118 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music. |
| In [M] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. 3rd Edition. |
| On page 5 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition. |
| As reel #17 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As tune #229 in [FT] Randy Miller. The Fiddler's Throne. |
| As tune #55 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. |
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): 1907