Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#2274 (Blackbird)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording KClns 1 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hornpipe | 32 | AABB | D Major |
Blackbird, The / An Londubh / The Old Blackbird / 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.
Click 
to hear the first 12 seconds.
to hear the first 12 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (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). |
| ~1999 | 3#1 | [JOH 1] John O'Halloran. "But Why, Johnny?". John O'Halloran (accordion). For this tune: (D melodeon), with Dermot Byrne (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). |
| ~2007 | 13#1 | [CAdz 1] Charlene Adzima. The Initiation. Charlene Adzima (fiddle, viola, vocals). |
| 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). For this tune: Shannon (flute), Dan (accordion). |
| 2008 | 13#1 | [RBys 3] Randal Bays. Dig with It. Randal Bays (fiddle, guitar, harp). |
| ~2010 | 5#2 | [GMrphy] Gráinne Murphy. Short Stories. Gráinne Murphy (fiddle). |
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 #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