Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 236 (Brown Thorn)

Rhythm
Air
Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Brown Thorn, The / An Droighneán Donn / An Droighnean Donn / Droighnean Donn / An Draighneán Donn / Draoighnean Donn / An Droigheán Donn / Broighnean Donn / The Brown Thorntree / St. Senanus and the Lady / Why Do Lovely Virgins Mourn? / The Bark Is on the Swelling Shore / The Sloe Tree (also as song, included here)
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
19403#1[SE 6] Séamus Ennis. The Return from Fingal. Séamus Ennis (pipes, vocals).View album details
~19474#1[AL] various. World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland. View album details
19608#1[ECr] Elizabeth Crotty. Concertina Music from West Clare. Elizabeth Crotty (concertina).View album details
19602.5#1[SltSdt] various. Seoltaí Séidte. Setting Sail. View album details
~197316#1[SE 2] Seamus Ennis. The Pure Drop. Seamus Ennis (pipes).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 #31 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #32 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #33 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #10 in volume 1 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [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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