Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#257 (Byrne's Hornpipe)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording MC (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hornpipe | 32 | AABB | D Major |
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Byrne's Hornpipe / Cornphíopa Uí Bhroin / Byrnes / Byrnes' / Bryant's Favourite / O'Briens / Tommy Hill's Favorite / Kimmel's (1st in set Tommy Hills' Favourite on MC) (also in G or A)
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 10 seconds.
to hear the first 10 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| 1923 | 11#1 | [JKm] John J. Kimmel. John J. Kimmel. Early Recordings of Irish Traditional Dance Music. John J. Kimmel (accordion). |
| 1927 | 2.21#1 | [MC] Michael Coleman. Michael Coleman 1891-1945. Michael Coleman (fiddle). |
| 1931 | 4#2 | [IFM] Past Masters of Irish Fiddle Music. Ballinakill Traditional Dance Players: Jerry Whyte (fiddle), Tommy Whyte (fiddle), Stephen Moloney (flute), Tommy Whelan (flute). |
| 1969 | 8#2 | [Ch 2] The Chieftains. 2. Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, whistle), Seán Potts (whistle), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Peadar Mercier (bodhrán, bones), Seán Keane (fiddle). |
| ~1977 | 9#1 | [JDSC] Jackie Daly, Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly. Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly (accordion), Séamus Creagh (fiddle). For this tune: Jackie Daly (concertina), Séamus Creagh (fiddle). |
| ~1988 | 12#1 | [SWW] Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin. The South West Wind. Traditional Music from County Clare. Ronan Browne (pipes), Peter O'Loughlin (fiddle). |
| ~1995 | 6#2 | [MMR 1] Mike and Mary Rafferty. The Dangerous Reel. Mike Rafferty (flute, whistle, pipes), Mary Rafferty (accordion, flute, whistle). |
| ~1998 | 2#1 | [MvC 2] Moving Cloud. Foxglove. Paul Brock (accordion), Maeve Donnelly (fiddle), Manus McGuire (fiddle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán), Carl Hession (piano). For this tune: Paul Brock (accordion). |
| ~2000 | 18#1 | [MMR 3] Mike and Mary Rafferty. The Road from Ballinakill. Mike Rafferty (flute, whistle, lilting), Mary Rafferty (accordion, flute, whistle, concertina). For this tune: Mike (lilting), Mary (whistle). |
| 2001 | 22#1 | [PHCB] Public House Ceili Band. Go Figure. Dan Cobb (banjo), Dave Delgado (whistle), Alan Ng (fiddle), Bob Newton (octave mandolin). |
| ~2001 | 11#1 | [FG 6] Frankie Gavin. Fierce Traditional. Frankie Gavin (fiddle, flute). For this tune: (fiddle), with Sean Gavin (accordion). |
| ~2001 | 14#1 | [HOP] Claire Byrne, Darragh Murphy, Barry Kerr, Patrick Davey. The Humours of Piping. Claire Byrne (pipes), Darragh Murphy (pipes), Barry Kerr (pipes), Patrick Davey (pipes). For this tune: Darragh Murphy. |
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 #1638 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. |
| As tune #865 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. |
| On page 113 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. |
| As tune #208 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. |
| On page 183 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. |
| In [FMH] Tom Hastings. The Feis Musicians Handbook [sic]. |
| As hp #8 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As hp #45 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. |
| As tune #256 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. |
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