Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 2497 (Little Bench of Rushes)

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):
Little Bench of Rushes, The / An Binnsín Luachra / Beinsín Luachra / Bunch of Green Rushes / The Bonny Bunch of Roses / O! Pleasant Was the Moon / Life Is All Checkered with Pleasures and Woes / The Bark Is on the Swelling Shore (notated settings are actually unrelated) (compare as song #62 and #192)
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
197314#1[WC 2] Willie Clancy. The Pipering of Willie Clancy. Volume 1. Willie Clancy (pipes, whistle).View album details
~19797#1[FR] Joe Burke, Andy McGann, and Felix Dolan. The Funny Reel. Traditional Music of Ireland. Joe Burke (accordion), Andy McGann (fiddle), Felix Dolan (piano).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 #136 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #16 in [D&M] Arthur Warren Darley and Patrick Joseph McCall. The Darley and McCall Collection of Traditional Irish Music. [available]
As tune #55 in [D&M] Arthur Warren Darley and Patrick Joseph McCall. The Darley and McCall Collection of Traditional Irish Music. [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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