Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 4976 (Johnny's So Long at the Fair)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Single jig32AABBA Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Johnny's So Long at the Fair
 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 Tda 3 (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):
Johnny's So Long at the Fair / Oh Dear What Can the Matter? / Oh Dear! What Can The Matter Be? (also in G)
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
~200610#2[Tda 3] Téada. Inné Amárach. Seán McElwain (guitar, bouzouki, banjo), Damien Stenson (flute), Tristan Rosenstock (bodhrán), Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle, piano), Paul Finn (accordion).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 #620 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [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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