Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#395 (An Comhra Donn)
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hornpipe | 32 | AABB | D Major |
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 Ch 1 (details in the Discography below).
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
An Comhra Donn / Comhra Donn / An Comhra na dTonn / An Cora Donn / The Brown Chest / Sonny Brogan's / Ó Murchú's Hornpipe / Humours of Tullycreen / The Sound of the Waves / Durham Rangers (also appears a 2nd time on JnKlly, mislabeled as Unknown / Thady Casey's / Frieze Britches; 1st in set Thunderhead on SS 2; for 5th figure of Borlin Valley Polka Set on MISD 6) (compare 1st part with 1st part of Durham Rangers #2097)
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). |
|---|---|---|
| ~1963 | 2#1 | [Ch 1] The Chieftains. The Chieftains. Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina), Seán Potts (whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), David Fallon (bodhrán). |
| 1975 | 26#1 | [JnKlly] John Kelly. Irish Traditional Concertina and Fiddle Music. John Kelly (concertina, fiddle). |
| 1975 | 28#1 | [JnKlly] John Kelly. Irish Traditional Concertina and Fiddle Music. John Kelly (concertina, fiddle). |
| 1978 | 12#1 | [KKgn] Kevin Keegan. The Music of Kevin Keegan. Kevin Keegan (accordion). |
| 1991 | 11#1 | [Ch AIE] The Chieftains. An Irish Evening. Live at the Grand Opera House, Belfast. Martin Fay (fiddle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán, vocals), Matt Molloy (flute), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Derek Bell (harp, tiompán, keyboards). |
| 1992 | 6#1 | [SS 2] Sharon Shannon. Out the Gap. Sharon Shannon (accordion, fiddle). |
| ~1996 | B.4#1 | [MISD 6] Donncha Lynch Trio. The Magic of Irish Set Dancing. Vol. 6. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogán Lynch (concertina), Donncha Lynch Jr. (guitar). |
| 2002 | 20#1 | [DLB] Donncha Lynch Band. Timmy 'the Brit' McCarthy's Set Dances of Cork and Kerry. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogan Lynch (concertina), Ronan Lynch (fiddle), Donncha Lynch, Jr. (guitar). |
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 #210 in [CRE 1] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. |
| On page 114 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. |
| As tune #31 in [LPF] Eithne and Brian Vallely. Learn to Play the Fiddle with Armagh Pipers Club. |
| On page 18 of [SK] Sean Keane. Fifty Fiddle Solos. |
| On page 190 of [CITM] Fintan Vallely. The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. |
| On page 197 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition. |
| As hp #63 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
| As hp #57 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. |
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): 1963