Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 464 (Dark Girl)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Polka32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Dark Girl
 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 BtB (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):
Dark Girl, The / Dark Girl Dressed in Blue / The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue / The Dark Haired Girl Dressed in Blue
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
192824#2[BtB] Paddy Killoran, James Morrison. From Ballymote to Brooklyn. Paddy Killoran (fiddle), James Morrison (fiddle).View album details
~19694#2[SatG] Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford. The Star above the Garter. Fiddle music from Kerry, played by Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford. Denis Murphy (fiddle), Julia Clifford (fiddle).View album details
19838#2[FG 2] Frankie Gavin. Croch Suas É. Up and Away. Frankie Gavin (flute, fiddle, whistle, accordion).View album details
~20022.4#1[WFO 1] various. Wooden Flute Obsession. 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 #82 in volume 3 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
On page 128 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. [available]
As tune #56 in [JOL] Terry Moylan. Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra. Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border. [available]
On page 116 of [Cr] Matt Cranitch. The Irish Fiddle Book. [available]
As tune #17 in [IBPS] Pat Conway. Ireland's Best Polkas and Slides. [available]
As other #15 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. [available]
As polka #12 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #286 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): 1928
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!
Start at