Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 2223 (Mountain Lark)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABE Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Mountain Lark
 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 SSm (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):
Mountain Lark, The / The Lark in the Mountain / Brendan McMahon's / Tulla Moondance (also doubled) (compare Steampacket #1833, Cabin Hunter #258, and the jig Blurty's #4436)
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
~199110#2[MV] various. Maiden Voyage. Live Traditional Irish Music Session from Pepper's Bar, Feakle, Co. Clare. Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Siobhán Peoples (fiddle), Andrew McNamara (accordion), Kevin Crawford (flute), P.J. King (accordion), Páraic Mac Donnchadha (banjo), Pat Marsh (bouzouki), Joe Bane (whistle), John Maloney (bodhrán), Séan Mac Donnchadha (vocals).View album details
~199310#1[SSm] Seán Smyth. The Blue Fiddle. Seán Smyth (fiddle, whistle, vocals).View album details
199614#2[TCB 3] The Tulla Ceili Band. A Celebration of 50 Years. P. J. Hayes (fiddle), Martin Hayes (fiddle), Francis Donnellan (fiddle), Mark Donnellan (fiddle), J. J. Conway (flute), Jennifer Lenihan (flute), Sean Donnelly (accordion), Michael McKee (accordion), Jim Corry (piano), Michael Flanigan (drums).View album details
~20042#3[Boh 4] Bohola. 4. Jimmy Keane (piano accordion, vocals, foot), Sean Cleland (fiddle), Pat Broaders (dordan, vocals), Kat Eggleston (vocals).View album details

Bibliography

According to my research, there are zero transcriptions that sound very similar to this tune anywhere in the indexed books, regardless of tune title. Try my recommended links to other indexes if you need a transcription. To learn to play this tune, simply learn it from another musician or study the recording(s) listed above. See also: Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music.

Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1991