Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 317 (Moloney's Wife)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Double jig48AABBCCD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Moloney's Wife
 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 KKgn (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):
Moloney's Wife / Malowney's Wife / Maloney's Wife / Biddy Maloney / Biddy Maloney's / The Chorus Jig / The Green Blanket (also with more parts; compare Chorus Reel #319 and Glen Road to Carrick #732 and quite distantly Queen of the Fair #1623)
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
197813#1[KKgn] Kevin Keegan. The Music of Kevin Keegan. Kevin Keegan (accordion).View album details
~198811#2[SWW] Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin. The South West Wind. Traditional Music from County Clare. Ronan Browne (pipes), Peter O'Loughlin (fiddle).View album details
200314#1[Tda 2] Téada. Give Us a Penny and Let Us Be Gone. Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle, vocals), John Blake (flute, guitar), Paul Finn (accordion, concertina), Seán McElwain (banjo, bouzouki), Tristan Rosenstock (bodhrán, 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 #1010 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #709 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #11 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #224 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
On page 71 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
As tune #240 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [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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