Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 2659 (Belles of St. Louis)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel32AABBC Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Belles of St. Louis
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording TP 4 (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Belles of St. Louis / Billy in the Lowground (compare Cronin's in B&S, included here)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

Here is the sole recording of this tune considering only the indexed recordings.

Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune		 [Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
~19826#2[TP 4] Tommy Peoples. The Iron Man. Tommy Peoples (fiddle).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 recording listed above.

As tune #15 in volume 4 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
As reel #229 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. [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): 1974
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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