Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 3985 (Bridge of Portumna)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel32ABCCA Mixolydian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Bridge of Portumna
 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 WU (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):
Bridge of Portumna, The / The Bridge at Portumna (composed by Martin Mulhaire)
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
~19938#2[WU] Martin Mulhaire, Séamus Connolly, Jack Coen. Warming Up. Martin Mulhaire (accordion), Séamus Connolly (fiddle), Jack Coen (flute).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 reel #256 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): 1993