Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 2634 (Old Man Rocking the Cradle)

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):
Old Man Rocking the Cradle, The / Rocking the Cradle / Rocking the the Baby to Sleep / Baby Lie Easy / Weeping and Wailing / I Sat in the Vale (2 quite different settings included here; 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
195211#1[KF] Padraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford. Kerry Fiddles. Padraig O'Keefe (fiddle), Denis Murphy (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle).View album details
~19593#1[LR 2] Leo Rowsome. The King of the Pipers. Leo Rowsome (pipes).View album details
197422#1[JD 3] John Doherty. The Celebrated Recordings. John Doherty (fiddle, vocals).View album details
19759#1[JnKlly] John Kelly. Irish Traditional Concertina and Fiddle Music. John Kelly (concertina, fiddle).View album details
~20069#1[LLPQ 3] The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. Enchanted Lady. Elaine Conwell (fiddle), Karen Ryan (fiddle, whistle, mandola, banjo), Maureen Linane (accordion), Dee Havlin (flute, whistle), Kathleen O'Sullivan (vocals).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 #547 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #130 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. [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