Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#2274 (Old Blackbird)
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hornpipe | 32 | AABB | D 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 KClns 1 (details in the Discography below).
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Old Blackbird, The / The Blackbird / An Londubh / New Century / Byrne's Hornpipe / Cornphíopa Uí Bheirn / O'Brien's Hornpipe (1st in set Poll Halfpenny on MSHtn 4) (compare as air #165, set dance #164, hornpipe #162, and song)
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). |
|---|---|---|
| ~1976 | 12#1 | [KClns 1] Kathleen Collins. Traditional Music of Ireland. Kathleen Collins (fiddle). |
| ~1993 | 10#2 | [JCnly] Johnny Connolly. An tOileán Aerach. Johnny Connolly (accordion). |
| 2000 | 16#2 | [NR] Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington. The New Road. Charlie Piggott (accordion), Gerry Harrington (fiddle). |
| 2000 | 7#1 | [MOR] Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh. The Nervous Man. Traditional Irish Music on Concertina. Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh (concertina). |
| 2008 | 11#2 | [RedW] The Red Wellies. The Red Wellies. Claudine "Beanie" Odell (fiddle), Duncan Wickel (fiddle, pipes), Vincent Fogarty (bouzouki). |
| 2008 | 14#1 | [MSHtn 4] Matt and Shannon Heaton. Lovers' Well. Shannon Heaton (vocals, flute, whistle), Matt Heaton (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán). |
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 #207 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. |
| As other #8 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. |
| As hp #4 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As hp #5 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. |
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): 1963